Enterprise Search Vendors: One Way to Move Past Failure
April 21, 2015
I just finished reading articles about IBM’s quarterly report. The headline is that the company has reported slumping revenues for three years in a row. Pretty impressive. I assumed that Watson, fueled with Lucene, home brew scripts, acquisitions, and liberal splashes of public relations, would be the revenue headliner.
How does IBM Watson’s unit, newly enhanced with a health component, respond to what I would call “missing a target.” Others, who are more word worthy than I, might use the word “failure.”
I read a blog post which lured me because at age 70 I am not sure where I left my dog, wife, and automobile this morning. Short term memory is indeed thrilling. Now what was I thinking?
Oh, right, “Embrace Selective Short-Term Memory to Move Past Failure Quickly.” The point of the write up is that those who have failed can more forward using this trick:
Rather than get caught up trying to emotionally soothe yourself, just forget it happened.
I have a theory that after an enterprise search vendor finds itself in a bit of a sticky wicket, the marketers can move on to the next client, repeat the assertions about semantic search or natural language processing or Big Data or whatever chant of buzzwords lands a sale.
Ask the marketer about an issue—for example, Convera and the NBA, Fast Search and the Norwegian authorities, or Autonomy and the Department of Energy—and you confront a team with a unifying characteristic: The memory of the “issues” with a search system is a tabula rasa. Ask someone about the US Army’s search system or the UK National Health Service about its meta indexing.
There is nothing quite like the convenient delete key which operates the selective memory functions.
Stephen E Arnold, April 21, 2015
Short Honk: Big Blue Gets Smaller. Cook Book Sales Not Reported
April 21, 2015
I read “IBM Sales Fall for 12th Quarter, Currency Weighs.” Nary a word about Watson. I then read “IBM Operating Profits Rise, but Strong Dollar Takes Toll.” Again a subject about which I sought information was not included. (The New York Times, April 21, 2015, business section, dead tree edition).
I learned that mainframes are still selling. I learned that not much else is selling. But the fact I wanted was missing.
I must conclude that sales of Watson’s cook book are not sufficient to bolster IBM’s financial results. Maybe next quarter along with Watson Health’s revenues.
One fact did stick with me. IBM has reported revenue declines for three years in a row. What advice does Watson offer? Also not reported. I hear a voice whispering, “Patience, grasshopper.”
Got it. Patience.
Stephen E Arnold, April 21, 2015
Yahoo News Off the Rails
April 21, 2015
The article titled Purple Reign on The Baffler tells the story of the derailment of Yahoo News. The author, Chris Lehmann, exerts all of his rhetorical powers to convey his own autobiography of having served as a Yahoo News editor after being downsized from a more reputable publication, along with any number of journalists and editors. The main draw was that Yahoo News was one of the few news organizations that were not bankrupt. In spite of being able to produce some high-caliber news, writers and editors at Yahoo were up against a massive bureaucracy that at its best didn’t understand the news and at its worst didn’t trust the news. For example, the author relays the story of one piece he posted on militia tactics of ambushing police by breaking the law,
“Before the post went live, I fielded an anxious phone call from a senior manager in Santa Monica. He was alarmed… for a simple reason: “I haven’t heard of this before.” I struggled to find a diplomatic way to explain that publishing things that readers hadn’t heard before was something that a news organization should be doing a whole lot more of: it was, in fact, the definition of “news.”
One of the saddest aspects of the corporate-controlled news outreach was the attempt to harness the power of the traffic on Yahoo’s site by making all internet users reporters. Obvious to anyone who has ever read a comment section online, web users range from the rational to the bizarrely enraged to the racist/sexist/horrifying. Not long after this Ask America initiative tanked, Lehmann’s job description was “overhauled” and he resigned.
Chelsea Kerwin, April 21, 2014
Stephen E Arnold, Publisher of CyberOSINT at www.xenky.com
What is the Depth of Deep Linking?
April 21, 2015
One the Back Channel blog of Medium.com, an article called “Will Deep Links Ever Truly Be Deep?” discusses the hot topic of how apps are trying to forge “deep” connections with each other, by directing linking to each other rather than the fragmented jumping between apps users have to suffer through. The article points out that this is not a current trend, in fact it has been going on since the 1990s (did they even know what an app was back then?). In the 1990s, deep links dealt with hopping from one Web site to another. It makes the astute observation that, as users, we leave behind data mined by service providers for a profit and our digital floundering could be improved.
“ Chris Maddern is cofounder of Button, one of several companies that have set out to make deep links work in the land of apps, and he talks with rapid precision about the sorry state of mobile interoperability today.”
‘Right now it’s no secret that the Internet’s paid for basically by big companies buying tiny time-slices of your eyeballs against your will,’ Maddern says. Button wants to change that by “capturing users’ intent.” For instance, you’re reading a New York Times travel story about Barcelona. You want to book an Airbnb there pronto. On your phone, you’d have to exit your New York Times app, then start up your Airbnb app and search for Barcelona in it. In a Web browser, you could have clicked straight through from one site to the other?—?and landed directly on a page of Barcelona listings.”
It goes on to discuss the history of deep links, the value of our information, and how mobile apps are trying to create the seamless experience we have in a regular browser. The problem, however, appears to be that app developers like major companies do not want to play nicely together, so we have the fragmented the experience. The bigger issue at hands is the competition! Developers claim they are building the deep links described in the article, but they are not. App use is more about profit than improving content value.
Whitney Grace, April 21, 2015
Stephen E Arnold, Publisher of CyberOSINT at www.xenky.com
SharePoint Server Release Delayed by a Year
April 21, 2015
For users anxious to start working with SharePoint Server 2016, the wait just got a little longer. Microsoft just announced that the next version would not be available until the second quarter of 2016, a delay of full year from initial projections. ZD Net covers the latest news in their article, “Microsoft Pushes Back Next SharePoint Server Release to Q2 2016.”
The article breaks the news:
“When Microsoft announced the name of the next version of SharePoint Server — SharePoint Server 2016 — company officials said the product would debut in the second half of calendar 2015. But on April 16, Microsoft execs said that there’s a new delivery plan, and SharePoint Server 2016 won’t be generally available until the second calendar quarter of 2016.”
The delay doesn’t seem to be related to Windows Server, although it has also been pushed back to calendar year 2016. The new version is still very much anticipated as it promises updates to content management, team connectivity, and hybrid functionality. For users who are closely following all the news, stay tuned to ArnoldIT.com, specifically the SharePoint feed. Stephen E. Arnold maintains his site with a focus on search and all the expertise of a lifelong career.
Emily Rae Aldridge, April 21, 2015
Stephen E Arnold, Publisher of CyberOSINT at www.xenky.com
Expert System Webinar: Sharepoint and Semantics Add Value for Users
April 20, 2015
Expert System offers a system capable of turbo-charging information access in SharePoint installations. The company has developed a fact-based webinar to demonstrate the power of Expert System’s semantic technology.
The company’s Cogito Connected for SharePoint features a document library, complete with metadata enrichment for files to increase their visibility as well as their content. The library will also be retained in SharePoint and be available for use by other files and accurate time and date of most recent tagging will be captured for each file. Users will also be able to process multiple attachments in the Document List and the search function is enhanced with fully integrated Web components.
With Cogito, users can locate content via a custom taxonomy, entities, or faceted search options. SharePoint users can locate needed information via point-and-click, eDiscovery, and traditional keyword search enriched with organization-specific metadata. Expert System’s Cogito allows users to browse content organized by topics, people, and concepts, which makes SharePoint more useful to a busy professional.
SharePoint is one of the most popular collaborative content platforms for enterprise systems, but like many proprietary software programs it has its limits. The good news is that companies like Expert System discover SharePoint’s weaknesses and create solutions to fix them.
Using its patented technology Cogito, Expert System addresses one of the main user concerns when looking for information housed in SharePoint. Cogito sharply reduces the difficulty of navigating and locating content in SharePoint. This problem stems from creators improperly tagging content or not tagging it at all.
In an exclusive interview, Maurizio Mencarini, Expert System had this to say about Expert System’s Cogito Connected for SharePoint:
“Cogito Connected for SharePoint addresses these two areas by providing the power of Cogito semantics to the application of consistent, automated tagging of SharePoint content. With the addition of fully integrated web parts that expose the granularity of content generated metadata, Cogito enhanced SharePoint optimizes the management of content for the SharePoint administrator. For the user, Cogito Connected for SharePoint significantly improves the SharePoint search experience by enhancing the search capabilities beyond the list to include faceted search including category, entity and topic.”
Expert System’s solution delivers a better SharePoint experience for the user and improves work productivity for employees, since they will be able to locate information quicker. Expert System knows what many users don’t realize: the value of being able to locate and recognize content quickly. In this case, Expert System applied this knowledge to SharePoint, but it can be used for other programs in any field. On April 28, 2015 from 12:00 PM-1:00 PM EST, Expert System will host a free webinar called “Implementing a Better Search Experience” where attendees will “learn how to make SharePoint more than a place where you put documents and start transforming your collected knowledge in your collective knowledge.”
Expert System was founded in 1989 and its flagship product is Cogito. Solutions based on the Cogito software include semantic search, natural language search, text analytics, development and management of taxonomies and ontologies, automatic categorization, extraction of data and metadata, and natural language processing. Expert System is working on exciting new developments on everything from enterprise systems to security and intelligence.
Expert System wants to share its knowledge with users so they can have a better user experience, apply the knowledge to other areas, and, of course, make daily tasks simpler.
The new “Implementing a Better Search Experience” will be offered on April 28, 2015, from 12 to 1 pm Eastern Time. You will learn how you can transform your organization’s collected knowledge in actionable collective knowledge.
Sign up for the April webinar at http://bit.ly/1FalGjH.
Stephen E Arnold, April 20, 2015
Marketing the Modern Way: Experts Share Secrets! Secrets!
April 20, 2015
I find the advice of experts interesting. When I worked at Halliburton Nuclear, there was an engineer who knew about “everything.” The person was supposed to be an expert in biology, water, nuclear physics, and, of course, math. I recall the person was bright, but his confidence exceeded his mental baggage compartment.
When I encounter experts without the background this pontificator of yore had, I wonder if the big luggage and tiny cart idiosyncrasy is operating. You be the judge. Navigate to “8 Awesome SEO Secrets from the Experts.” A word about whether the advice is good or not: If these experts had secrets which worked, wouldn’t these folks be household names?
Just a question. When it comes to getting a Web page to light up the Google search results, the folks in the European Commission have a suspicion that Google puts its hand on the rudder of results ranking. The notion that eight experts can fiddle the results which Google may steer to some degree if the allegations are correct raises the question, “Okay, who controls results?” I will leave the answer to you as you read the write up.
Herewith are the secrets from the experts, or, I should say, “so called experts.”
Numero uno is semantic search. Okay, there’s a secret for you. I am not able to define to my satisfaction semantic search, but you have the truth, gentle reader. Go forth.
Here are several other secrets:
- Write factual, logical, coherent articles
- Use Google Plus
- Connect with influencers
- Write for mobile devices
- Visualize
- Markup
Here’s the paragraph I marked as one which puzzled me:
The rise of the Chief Statistical Officer or Chief Conversion Officer is not far away as businesses realize that dominating a niche is going to take more than a few hastily thrown together Adwords campaigns being added to their marketing mix.
I assume only search experts qualify for the job of statistical officer. Differentiate this from other baloney, and perhaps you can be a butcher. Experts, like the fellow at Halliburton, can do just about anything or so they think.
Stephen E Arnold, April 20, 2015
Google Has a Problem: A Monopoly on Data, Not Traffic, Data
April 20, 2015
Leave it to the complainers in the UK to accuse Google of having a monopoly on data. Navigate to “Google Dominates Search. But the Real Problem Is Its Monopoly on Data.” Note that there are some outfits in the UK which have quite a bit of data too. The difference is that Google appears to be free, and the UK outfit is sort out of the spotlight.
The write up jumps from the allegations under consideration by the European Commission about Google’s search results. The write up states:
Were Google a manufacturer, say, a monopoly such as it has over internet search would never be allowed. But three factors conspire to Google’s advantage. Firstly, digital services, however ubiquitous, seem less tangible and therefore do not appear so obvious a threat to commercial pluralism, innovation and to consumer interests.
Okay, no monopolies allowed. No kilt wool combines. No champagne controls in quirky France. No centralization of Mercedes Benz parts. I understand.
To its credit, the Guardian points out that an alternative to Google is just a click away. The reality is different. Ask a shrink about habits. I highlighted this paragraph:
The wider problem is that Google has become the ultimate monopolist of the information age. Information is a source of power, and nothing in the EU’s case does anything significant to touch that power.
Good point. So isn’t the war over? Research that question in Qwant.
Stephen E Arnold, April 20, 2015
Microsoft Improves Search, Again, with Delve
April 20, 2015
The article titled Microsoft Beefs Up Office 365’s Delve, Aims To Complete Its Rollout By May on Computerworld discusses the improvements to the enterprise search and discovery app Delve. Delve was built for Office 365’s Office Graph machine learning engine, and helps create and analyze detailed data on users by linking to content through card icons. The article states,
“Based on what it learns about the user’s work, it determines which files, colleagues, documents and data are most relevant and important at any given point, and displays links to them in a graphically rich, card-based dashboard. Delve provides this assistance in real time, so that users can prioritize their work and find the information they need as they participate in whatever work projects and tasks they’re involved in.”
This means that Delve can figure that a user’s upcoming meeting will be about a particular topic with particular colleagues, and then collect information that is relevant in a timely manner for display in the dashboard. Microsoft is currently working to make Delve capable of analyzing email content within Exchange Online attachments. Yammer actions will also be performable in the near future from the Delve interface. It can also, of course, be used more traditionally as a search engine, but Microsoft has big plans for more dynamic and innovative capabilities.
Chelsea Kerwin, April 20, 2014
Stephen E Arnold, Publisher of CyberOSINT at www.xenky.com
Google is Now My Maid
April 20, 2015
Google wants to make lives easier or so it claims. In many ways the search engine giant has. They have free email, Web storage, an office program suite, YouTube, open source code community, maps, TV, access to books, and did we mention they have a search engine? Taking a queue from mobile phone voice activation services like Siri, Google wants to help people find local services. BuzzFeed reports that “Google Wants To Send You A Plumber” and a contractor, maid, lawn services, roofer, and an HVAC technician.
“Sources close to the company told BuzzFeed News that Google plans to announce a new product aimed at connecting Google search users with local home-service providers — like plumbers and electricians — at an advertising conference later this spring. The product will be integrated into Google’s core search offering and is intended to capitalize on search intent, turning queries about home improvement tasks into engagement with home-service providers.”
Google has increased its accuracy with local search results, but they have decided to take it a step further with a new service. Most of the search results for local services are littered with directed Google AdWord advertisements. Google wants to act as an intermediary for people and home services providers. Google would directly connect people with the home services providers and act as an unseen partner in the transaction.
It is unsure of how Google would directly connect the two parties, but it comes on the tails of another home services deal between Amazon and TaskRabbit. The article points out how Google is the only company capable of rivaling Amazon in such an endeavor. The bigger question is what will they do and how will they do it? Maybe they will borrow ideas from Uber and Lyft.
Whitney Grace, April 20, 2015
Stephen E Arnold, Publisher of CyberOSINT at www.xenky.com
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
