Google: Similarity Function Drifts from Relevance

March 12, 2015

I ran a test query for “Concept Searching,” an indexing outfit. I noticed that Google generated a list of companies with the label “People Also Search For.”

What I find interesting is that the list of companies is a bit of a grab bag. Here is the list presented to me:

X1 Technologies, now in the eDiscovery business
GenieKnows, an SEO outfit
Funnelback, Squizz’s search solution which has gone quiet since David Hawking shifted roles
dtSearch, a Microsoft centric desktop and CD-ROM search system for Windows
Northern Light Group, now a research firm
Coveo, the ageing startup once focused exclusively on Microsoft centric solutions
ZyLAB Technologies, a legal document management and search solution
Metalogix, a SharePoint migration specialist
Convera, one of the spectacular business implosions which I documented in the Xenky profile available at www.xenky.com/vendor-profiles
Dieselpoint, a search outfit that went quiet a couple of years ago
Axceler, now a unit of Metalogix
Fast Search & Transfer, the search company that has the distinction of a financial misstep and a founder with a painful brush with Norwegian law enforcement
Exalead, now a unit of Dassault Systèmes, a company which has largely faded from the North American market
Expert System, a quite good semantic vendor based in Modena, Italy
Vivisimo, a metasearch outfit acquired by IBM and now part of the IBM Big Data machine.

Quite an assortment. I assume that these suggestions are helpful to the LinkedIn experts, the failed webmasters now rebranded as search wizards, and wanna-be academics looking for consulting revenue.

For me, the list is an illustration of what Google wants to do, provide on point suggestions. However, the list makes vivid the limitations of the Google methods. Hey, the company is focusing attention on balloons.

Stephen E Arnold, March 12, 2015

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under Google, News, Search

Comments

2 Responses to “Google: Similarity Function Drifts from Relevance”

Code 5 Group on March 12th, 2015 6:12 pm

Code 5 Group

Google: Similarity Function Drifts from Relevance : Stephen E. Arnold @ Beyond Search
Grove OK Dentist on March 13th, 2015 7:15 pm

Grove OK Dentist

Google: Similarity Function Drifts from Relevance : Stephen E. Arnold @ Beyond Search

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.