Smartlogic and SmartLogic: Brand Clash
February 26, 2015
I am a simple person, gliding slowly into the assisted living facility. I know I cannot keep up with the management wizards in the search and content processing sectors. (I do bristle when “experts” address parental instructions toward me in their LinkedIn posts.)
I ran a query for SmartLogic. The Smartlogic I know a bit about is an outfit that performs automated indexing. The company’s hook is “the content intelligence company.” The idea is that if a document is indexed, then the content becomes smarter. This is a claim I have heard repeated from prescient thinkers like Dr. Ron Sacks Davis, the person making possible the TeraText system. Dr. Sacks Davis floated this idea in 1975. Down the line, CALS and then SMGL advocates pitched the advantages of tagging structural elements, stuffing the components and the tags into a database, and discovering the joys of scripted content slicing and dicing. In the modern era, many companies, including Smartlogic, have dusted off the intelligent content moniker as a way to generate interest in automated index, the joys of taxonomies, and slipping a data management system into a company under the cover of metadata. LinkedIn experts are thrashing about this Trojan Horse maneuver as I write this blog item.
Run a query for Smartlogic, however, and one sees that there are two Smartlogics. One uses a lower case “l” in its spelling; the other, an upper case “L.” When I run the query for “smartlogic” on Google, this is what the GOOG displays:
Yep, two Smartlogics. One has a dot com domain and the other a dot io domain. The big “L” outfit is doing a much better job of getting its brand into the various electronic media. When i run the query “smartlogic Baltimore”, the heavens open and rain links to helping other companies, writing software, and making the Baltimore business scene vibrant.
Here’s the newer (upper case “L”) SmartLogic.io. Pretty snappy design I would suggest.
About one year ago, the content intelligence flavor of Smartlogic was the Big Dog in the Google index. Today, not so much. Here’s what the indexing Smartlogic’s Web site (lower case “l”) looks like on February 25, 2015:
Understated in comparison to the upper case “L” outfit I perceive.
Questions I formulated are:
- How has Smartlogic marketing squandered its grip on the name “smartlogic”?
- How is the SmartLogic.io company dominating social media?
- What happens to Web site traffic and over the transom questions from potential customers who want indexing and end up looking at a services firm in Baltimore?
When search vendors lose control of their brand, I often hear, as I did from Brainware before it was acquired by Lexmark, “You cannot provide links to videos via the keyword “brainware.” The videos are inappropriate.” Mismanaging a company name is my fault?
Get real, Brainware.
I see this erosion when I search for Connotate, Thunderstone, and now Smartlogic and others. I track this via my public Overflight pages.
Fascinating insight into what content processing executives perceive as important.
Stephen E Arnold, February 26, 2015
New Version of On Premises SharePoint Due Out This Year
February 26, 2015
Many users were nervous that Microsoft was phasing out on-site SharePoint installations. Fortunately for those concerned, that is not the case. Microsoft has announced a new on-premises version of SharePoint to be released this year. Read all the details in the Redmond article, “Microsoft Will Deliver On-Premises SharePoint 2016 This Year.”
The article begins:
“Allaying concerns that Microsoft wasn’t planning to develop any more on-premises versions of SharePoint, the company today said a new server release is scheduled for the second half of 2015. Microsoft’s emphasis on SharePoint Online had many wondering at times whether the company was planning a new server release, although the company had indicated back in March that a new version was coming.”
For those who are interested in following along with the developments, stay tuned to ArnoldIT.com. Stephen E. Arnold has made a career out of all things search, and he focuses special attention on SharePoint. His dedicated SharePoint news feed is very relevant for all levels of SharePoint users and is filled with the latest tips and tricks.
Emily Rae Aldridge, February 26, 2015
Google Search: Live Chat, But Relevance?
February 25, 2015
i read “Google Tests Live Chat With Businesses From Search Results.” According to the write up:
Google is testing out a service that incorporates live chat with businesses right into search results, via a new link that shows whether a business is currently available, and immediately launches a chat via Google Hangouts (on either desktop or mobile) if they are.
I have been doing the online research thing for years. Ellen Shedlarz, formerly Booz, Allen New York’s head information guru, exposed me to commercial online systems in 1973 or so. She was kind enough to let me fumble away with a dorky dumb terminal with bunny rabbit ears.
In the last 40 years, I have to make a confession about my stupidity. I never wanted to enter into a live chat with a person who wrote an article, offered a product, or pretended to be an expert like a mid tier search expert with a degree in English.
I wanted to perform what I naively thought was research. I would obtain information, either print out information or copy it on the 5×8 inch note cards my debate coach in high school mandated I use for research, thus forming a life long habit. I would then read the information I gathered, make notes, and prepare more note cards with identifiers that allowed silly old me to find the connections among the note cards.
After I knew what the heck I was learning, formulating my questions, and then thinking about whom I could approach for more information—then I wanted to talk to a human with alleged expertise.
No wonder I am a loser. When I enter a query for “terminal”, I want to enter a category code so I get the exact meaning of terminal I have in mind and information directly related to documents with that notion of terminal. When I want terminal for a train, I want train stuff.
I suppose now I can run a query for terminal and see these “relevant” results:
Perhaps I can ring the director of the motion picture and ask the fellow where the train station is. Seems very useful, just not to me. Google, how about a return to relevance?
Stephen E Arnold, February 25, 2015
Hewlett Packard: More Misfires
February 25, 2015
I am no financial whiz kid. I read “Hewlett Packard Shares Take a Beating on Poor Sales.” Even I was able to figure out that “HP’s corporate business struggled in the first quarter, dragging down overall revenue.”
What’s the fix? Splitting the company, getting a windfall, and retiring? Chasing Autonomy’s founder with more enthusiasm? Promising big revenue from a future German deal?
My hunch is that HP is struggling with three issues for which there is no silver bullet solution. First, the company just looks as if it is going through management motions without generating the payoffs MBAs are so darned confident that are a natural consequence of their thinking.
Second, HP is a big company with considerable friction. Good ideas are difficult to pursue with alacrity. Compared to other behemoths like GE, HP looks sluggish. A corporate couch potato perhaps?
Third, the notion that nifty new technologies are in HP’s bag of tricks is silly. When I run a query for Autonomy, for example, I see numerous appeals for consultants to tackle projects. You can track this yourself on my Overflight page for Autonomy.
For my CyberOSINT monograph, I asked one of the law librarians assisting me with research to send the draft to HP’s designated contact point for comments and suggestions. Guess what? No one responded. No easy fix when people designated as a contact point do not respond to an inquiry. Nuff said. (Notice that I don’t think the value of the dollar is a root issue.)
Stephen E Arnold, February 25, 2015
Smart Software: A Semi History
February 25, 2015
Wondering how smart software came to be, how it works, what it can do? Navigate to “The Believers.” There’s information about a number of smart software initiatives, but I enjoyed the Google references.
For example, Geoffrey Hinton A 67 year old Googler shares some ideas and is quoted as saying, “Well, I design the neural networks that recognize what you say.” Zen like.
I noted this statement: “If you want to understand how the mind works, ignoring the brain is probably a bad idea.”
The write up reveals: “Google uses deep learning in dozens of products.”
The end of the article is interesting. The author learns that a machine is better than the author at recognizing two numbers.
Stephen E Arnold, February 25, 2015
Tibco and Predictive Analytics
February 25, 2015
Business intelligence and infrastructure firm Tibco has been busy making deals lately. A press release at Digital Journal tells us that “Tibco and Lavastorm Analytics Announce Predictive Analytics Environment that Enhances IT and Business Collaboration.” Shortly thereafter, Virtual-Strategy Magazine reveals in its post, “Pilgrim Launches BI Solution for Quality Performance Insights,” that Tibco’s tech will underpin Pilgrim’s new platform.
The Digital Journal article discusses the embedding of Tibco’s TERR engine into Lavastorm’s Analytics Engine:
“The predictive analytics capability of TERR enhances the Lavastorm Analytics Engine’s drag-and-drop data assembly and analytical capabilities providing a high-performance, highly-scalable implementation of the popular R statistical computing language. Data scientists can now leverage R to apply predictive analytical techniques and package them into reusable analytic building blocks that enable rapid self-service data analysis by business users seeking insights and increased business efficiency.”
Meanwhile, the Virtual-Strategy post describes Pilgrim’s SmartSolve BI suite:
“SmartSolve BI is powered by TIBCO Spotfire technology. Its analytic and visualization engine is coupled with the proven capabilities of SmartSolve, Pilgrim’s quality management solution. Its numerous quality management metrics and dashboards enhance clients’ access to, and visibility of, their quality and compliance results and trends. Transforming this data with SmartSolve BI drives a multitude of analytical advantages including improved decision making with built-in quality KPIs and prebuilt dynamic dashboards that display a variety of sophisticated charts, graphs, plots and tables.”
Launched in 1997 and headquartered in Palo Alto, California, Tibco provides infrastructure and business intelligence solutions to businesses in several industries around the world. TERR, by the way, stands for the Tibco Enterprise Runtime for R; it is one of many Tibco products.
Lavastorm Analytics emphasizes data aggregation and user-friendly reports. Besides analytics and BI, the company offers tools for fraud management, data discovery, and revenue assurance. Lavastorm was founded in 1999, and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.
Operating out of Tampa, Florida, Pilgrim focuses on risk, compliance, and quality management software for highly regulated industries around the world. They also happen to be hiring for several positions as of this writing.
Cynthia Murrell, February 25, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Managing Unstructured Data in Just Nine Steps
February 25, 2015
I’m sure Datamation will help some companies with its post, “Big Data: 9 Steps to Extract Insight from Unstructured Data.” However, we think these steps may make other companies look for easier options. Writer Salil Godika explains why he feels these steps are worth the effort:
“Organizations have to study both structured and unstructured data to arrive at meaningful business decisions…. Not only do they have to analyze information provided by consumers and other organizations, information collected from devices must be scrutinized. This must be done not only to ensure that the organization is on top of any network security threats, but to also ensure the proper functioning of embedded devices.
“While sifting through vast amounts of information can look like a lot of work, there are rewards. By reading large, disparate sets of unstructured data, one can identify connections from unrelated data sources and find patterns. What makes this method of analysis extremely effective is that it enables the discovery of trends; traditional methods only work with what is already quantifiable, while looking through unstructured data can cause revelations.”
The nine steps presented in the article begin at the beginning (“make sense of the disparate data sources”) and ends at the logical destination (“obtain insight from the analysis and visualize it”.) See the article for the steps in between and their descriptions. A few highlights include designating the technology stack for data processing and storage, creating a “term frequency matrix” to understand word patterns and flow, and performing an ontology evaluation.
Writer Salil Godika concludes with a reminder that new types of information call for new approaches, including revised skillsets for data scientists. The ability to easily blend and analyze information from disparate sources in a variety of formats remains the ultimate data-analysis goal.
Cynthia Murrell, February 25, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
The Fraying of the GOOG: Blogger and Gmail Autocomplete
February 24, 2015
I love the GOOG. The only thing I love more is an expert who resells my content on Amazon without my permission. Yep, I remember the Dave Schubmehl adventure. I think of IDC and I think of fraying or bad intellectual tailoring.
To the business at hand. I noted two items in my Overflight round up this morning. Both of these suggest that some of the wonderfulness of Google may be fraying. You know. Fraying. Like the cuff of my too long exercise pants. The pants are perfectly okay for the gym. Just fraying.
The first item points out that the GOOG is trimming unsavory images from its blogging service. The details appear in “Adult Content Po9licy on Blogger.” Google bought Blogger a decade ago. Quick reaction time I suppose. I am okay with editorial policies for content. But 11 years?
The second item to a function that many love. I absolutely loathe it, however. Start typing and the system fills in what you mean. Well, what the algorithm calculates you mean. Navigate to “A Weird Gmail Bug Has Tons of People Sending Emails to the Wrong Contacts.” The rip in the tightly spun Google technical fabric is, according to the write up:
Google’s mail service seems to have a bug in its auto-suggest feature that’s causing a bunch of people to send messages to the wrong contacts. Instead of auto-completing to the most-used contact when people start typing a name into the “To” field, it seems to be prioritizing contacts that they communicate with less frequently.
What am I to make of decisions a decade in the making and upside down algorithms? Maybe fraying. You know. Good for the gym but I wouldn’t wear the pants to a funeral.
Stephen E Arnold, February 24, 2015
OpenText Acquires Actuate
February 24, 2015
The OpenText- Actuate deal has gone through, we learn from OpenText’s press release, “OpenText Buys Actuate Corporation.” It seems they were not much hindered by that legal snag the arrangement encountered at the end of last year. The press release reports:
“Complementing OpenText’s existing information management and B2B integration offerings, Actuate offers increased business process efficiencies, greater brand experience and personalized insight for better and faster decisions via analytics and visualization. OpenText customers will now benefit from added analytic capabilities to their existing deployments and a new breed of analytics that provide insight across entire business flows.”
“Actuate will continue to serve the embedded analytics market, the developer, and will be deeply integrated into OpenText Products and OpenText, enabling OpenText to deliver analytics for the entire EIM suite based on a common platform…. Designed to be embeddable, developers can use the platform to enrich nearly any application, whether it is deployed on premises or in the cloud.”
Founded in 1991 and based in Waterloo, Ontario, OpenText supplies its clients with enterprise content management, business process management, and customer experience management tools. Actuate is headquartered in San Mateo, California, and was launched in 1993. The company founded and co-lead the Eclipse BIRT (Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools) open source project.
Cynthia Murrell, February 24, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
SharePoint Pushing Updates Through Windows Update Service
February 24, 2015
Cumulative updates were announced for SharePoint Server 2010 and SharePoint Server 2013 this week. Along with them came the announcement that future CU updates will be more or less automatic. This sends up some red flags in the IT community. Read all the details in the Redmond article, “Microsoft Now Pushing SharePoint Server Updates via the Windows Update Service.”
The article begins:
“The policy change is that starting with these February CU releases, Microsoft intends to push its future SharePoint Server updates, including the nonsecurity ones, through its Windows Update service, according to a blog post by Stefan Gossner, a senior escalation engineer for SharePoint at Microsoft . . . Windows Update delivery implies automatic installations. That could be a scary prospect for IT pros lacking controls preventing automatic installations.”
Windows updates can be set to “download only” on each server for managers who are wary of the automatic changes. To keep up with the latest SharePoint server news, as well as all things SharePoint, stay tuned to ArnoldIT.com. Stephen E. Arnold is a longtime leader in search, and he maintains ArnoldIT.com as a Web service helpful to all levels of users. The dedicated SharePoint feed features the latest tips, tricks, and news.
Emily Rae Aldridge, February 24, 2015
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