Mobile Search Is Not Objective: Is This a Surprise?
October 14, 2015
Running a query in a walled garden returns the flowers and trees in the walled garden. Maybe the garden owner has installed Chinese style pots with flowers from other gardens. Make no mistake. The garden is owned by a person who has an idea, however muddled, about what grows and what goes.
I thought about gardening when I read “Mobile Is Not a Neutral Platform.” The word “neutral” is an interesting one. Math is neutral. A numerical recipe is not necessarily neutral. Weeds growing in the median of I 95 may be neutral or at least hardy. Decisions about what orchids to put in a Nero Wolfe novel is not neutral.
The write up, in my view, shows a bit of wonderment with regard to what happens when the iPhone uses various Apple services or what the intent is when the Alphabet Google thing snags a user in its ecosystem. Think about the pitcher plant. Same idea, prey trapping.
The write up included this passage which I highlighted in Venus flytrap green:
Apple and Google keep making decisions, enabling or disabling options and capabilities and creating or removing opportunities.
I noted this comment as well:
But the deeper issue is that we haven’t just unbundled search from the web into apps – we’re now unbundling apps, search and discovery into the OS itself. Google of course has always put a web search box on the Android home screen (and indeed one could ask why there needs to be an actual browser icon as well) but this is much more fundamental.
Forget neutral. Forget objectivity. The online world has rolled back into the walled garden model. The issue, gentle reader, is control and money. That neutrality and objectivity yammer is, in my opinion, irrelevant. You want information unbiased and unfettered? You will have to work hard for that type of information. How will this go over with the online consuming folks?
Answer: About as well as expecting every visitor to the garden to read the information about Utricularia on a small plastic tag tossed amongs the bladderworts tended by Apple, Facebook, Google, et al.
And search? You may not know what you are missing, gentle reader. If a company is not on an Apple or Google map, does that company exist?
Stephen E Arnold, October 14, 2015
Predictive Search Tries to Work with Videos
October 14, 2015
Predictive search is a common feature in search engines such as Google. It is more well-known as auto-complete, where based on spelling and keyword content the search engine predicts what a user is searching for. Predictive search speeds up the act of searching, but ever since YouTube became the second biggest search engine after Google one has to wonder if “Does Video Enhance Predictive Search?” asks Search Engine Watch.
Search engine and publisher of travel deals Travelzoo created a video series called “#zootips” that was designed to answer travel questions people might search for on Google. The idea behind the video series was that the videos would act as a type of predictive feature anticipating a traveler’s needs.
“‘There’s always push and pull with information,’ says Justin Soffer, vice president of marketing at Travelzoo. ‘A lot of what search is, is people pulling – meaning they’re looking for something specific. What videos are doing is more of a push, telling people what to look for and showing them things.’ ”
Along with Travelzoo, representatives from SEO-PR and Imagination Publishing also agree that video will enhance video search. Travelzoo says that video makes Web content more personal, because an actual person is delivering it. SEO-PR recommends researching keywords with Google Trends and creating videos centered on those words. Imagination Publishing believes that video content will increase a Web site’s Google ranking as it ranks media rich pages higher and there is an increase in voice search and demand for how-to videos.
It is predicted that YouTube’s demand as a search engine will increase more content will be created for video. If you understand how video and predictive analytics work, you will have an edge in future Google rankings.
Whitney Grace, October 14, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Meg Whitman, President of HP, Gets Flack for Partial Follow-Through on Ultimatum
October 14, 2015
The article titled HP Didn’t Actually Fire All the Employees It Threatened to Cut on Business Insider details the management teachings from Hewlett Packard. To summarize, HP recently delivered an ultimatum to several hundred employees that they had to shift off HP’s payroll and become contract workers for significantly lower pay with HP’s partner Ciber. If they refused, they would be let go. Except that the employees mutinied and complained, resulting in HP negotiating for higher salaries from Ciber as well as holding on to a few employees who refused the deal. The article states,
“On top of that, HP is also shipping most of the jobs in this business unit offshore. Whitman wants 60% of the Enterprise Services division jobs to be in low-cost areas of the world, compared to less than 40% today. Employees in this unit fully expect HP to line up more take-it-or-leave it contract jobs, they tell us, so we’ll see how HP handles the next one if it does materialize.”
This is all in the midst of HP’s massive layoffs of over 80,000 employees, 51,000 of whom have already been let go. Morale must be under the building. The non-negotiable ultimatum strategy did not seem to work, and at any rate is bad business, especially when coupled with it being overturned later in a handful of instances.
Chelsea Kerwin, October 14, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Microsoft: Yandex Looking Better than Bing
October 13, 2015
I read “Russia’s Yandex Teams Up with Microsoft for Windows 10.” Microsoft has its work cut out in the search and retrieval sector. The Fast Search & Transfer deal for $1.2 billion, the Powerset technology, the infusion of wizards from Australia, and the wild and crazy promotion for Bing—much activity, questionable payoff.
According to the write up:
Russia’s biggest search engine Yandex said on Tuesday Microsoft would offer it as the default homepage and search tool for Internet browsers across its Windows 10 platform in Russia and several other countries.
I understand the Yandex does a better, no, make that, a much better job indexing content than Bing. In my lectures for professionals engaged in law enforcement and intelligence activities, I show comparisons of output from Bing next to outputs from Yandex. Less Dancing with the Stars and more substance is one way I point up the difference between consumery Bing and Yandex.
According to the write up Microsoft and Yandex have a “strategic cooperation agreement.”
Several observations:
- Microsoft has talked about search for many years. Its products and services are okay. Outfits like Yandex offer results that are more useful for the types of queries I run. Yandex has been around since 2008. Microsoft leaps into action.
- Microsoft’s Bing search has evolved along a trajectory I did not foresee. The colors, the pop culture feel, the intrusiveness of Cortana, and the exclusion of content from Microsoft research baffle me.
- I use Google to locate information about Microsoft’s products and services. That, to me, points to some fundamental problems with Bing.
Net net: Microsoft and search remain and unhappy couple. One question: Will the Microsoft food service people add solyanka to the menu?
Stephen E Arnold, October 13, 2015
Predictive Analytics: Five Ideas for Business
October 13, 2015
A mid tier consulting firm is expressing its reservations about analytics used incorrectly. But the cheerleading for fancy math is tough to ignore. I read “5 Ways Just about Anyone Should Be Leveraging Predictive Analytics.” I quite like the parental “should” too.
What are the ways? Let me count them:
- Customer so you can figure out lifetime value
- Marketing so you can figure out purchasing intent
- Websites and applications so you can perform content optimization
- Risk so you can figure out fraud and pricing
- Operations so you can do network optimization.
Predictive analytics appears to be applicable to many different corporate tasks. The write up omits just one minor point: How.
Why should those with an interest in marketing get involved in the type of detail required to make a predictive system useful. Next up? An international conference on how to make predictive analytics really easy.
Stephen E Arnold, October 13, 2015
IBM Research: An Inside Look
October 13, 2015
The Los Angeles Times may be on the ropes, but it ran an interesting story with the alluring title “A Peek Inside IBM’s Research Lab Points to the Shortcomings of Corporate R&D.” The information seems to come from an interview with a former laborer in the Big Blue Vineyards.
I noted several points which I found interesting:
First, the congeniality of IBM researchers:
“Bell evolved into a very competitive internal culture. People were really knocking against each other. Internal seminars were quite an ordeal because you were subjected to really heavy scrutiny. Internal dealings among scientists at IBM were much more congenial.”
Perhaps that is why no one at IBM Watson points out the silliness of the Jeopardy promotion, the notion that newspaper readers grasp APIs, or Bob Dylan’s pitching cognitive computing. Congenial. Good.
Second, the role of physics and physicists. Now keep in mind that Google relies on physicists. Maybe not as much as the physicists would like, but the folks are there. Here’s the snippet about IBM and physics:
IBM still has a physics department, but at this point almost every physicist is somehow linked to a product plan or customer plan.
Yes, I knew it. The secret to a successful product and growing revenues is linking a physicist to a product used by a Jeopardy aficionado. Obvious.
Finally, the patent league table:
The corporation in 2014 notched its 22nd straight year leading the world in the number of patents granted, with 7,534 patents granted, absolutely smoking the competition. (Samsung was second, with 4,952; Microsoft and Google were well down the list with ranks of 5th and 8th, according to a reckoning by Fortune.)
I can hear the chant now, “We’re number one. We’re number one.” Perhaps IBM will adopt a Black Lace tune like Do the Conga to promote Watson. You know:
It’s conga It’s Watson night so join the party everyone. The night has just begun. Do do do. Come on and do the Watson. (Source: LyricsMania with inputs from the addled goose.)
Remember, we’re all having fun, Watson.
Stephen E Arnold, October 13, 2015
Quote to Note: HP Comments on Dell EMC Deal
October 13, 2015
“HP Enterprise’s Whitman Pans Dell’s EMC Purchase over Debt” reproduced a memorandum allegedly written by Hewlett Packard’s big dog. I highlighted one passage as a keeper. Here it is:
…this [Dell paying $67 billion for EMC] is a good thing for Hewlett Packard Enterprise and an opportunity for us to seize the moment. This is validation for the strategy that we have laid out and I am not surprised that others would try to emulate it.
Yes, HP’s strategy is something that Dell is emulating. The flaw in Dell’s “validation” is that it did not purchase a search and retrieval company. Now the Dell plan is one that may work out. On the other hand, it may work out only for those involved in the financial and legal activities.
How many other companies will be emulating HP’s strategies? Show of hands, please. Anyone?
Stephen E Arnold, October 13, 2015
The State Department Delves into Social Media
October 13, 2015
People and companies that want to increase a form of communication between people create social media platforms. Facebook was invented to take advantage of the digital real-time environment to keep people in contact and form a web of contacts. Twitter was founded for a more quick and instantaneous form of communication based on short one hundred forty character blurbs. Instagram shares pictures and Pinterest connects ideas via pictures and related topics. Using analytics, the social media companies and other organizations collect data on users and use that information to sell products and services as well as understanding the types of users on each platform.
Social media contains a variety of data that can benefit not only private companies, but the government agencies as well. According to GCN, the “State Starts Development On Social Media And Analytics Platform” to collaborate and contribute in real-time to schedule and publish across many social media platforms and it will also be mobile-enabled. The platform will also be used to track analytics on social media:
“For analytics, the system will analyze sentiment, track trending social media topics, aggregate location and demographic information, rank of top multimedia content, identify influencers on social media and produce automated and customizable reports.”
The platform will support twenty users and track thirty million mentions each year. The purpose behind the social media and analytics platform is still vague, but the federal government has proven to be behind in understanding and development of modern technology. This appears to be a step forward to upgrade itself, so it does not get left behind. But a social media platform that analyzes data should have been implemented years ago at the start of this big data phenomenon.
Whitney Grace, October 13, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Sell Your Soul for a next to Nothing on the Dark Web
October 13, 2015
The article on ZDNet titled The Price of Your Identity in the Dark Web? No More Than a Dollar provides the startlingly cheap value of stolen data on the Dark Web. We have gotten used to hearing about data breaches at companies that we know and use (ahem, Ashley Madison), but what happens next? The article explains,
“Burrowing into the Dark Web — a small area of the Deep Web which is not accessible unless via the Tor Onion network — stolen data for sale is easy to find. Accounts belonging to US mobile operators can be purchased for as little as $14 each, while compromised eBay, PayPal, Facebook, Netflix, Amazon and Uber accounts are also for sale. PayPal and eBay accounts which have a few months or years of transaction history can be sold for up to $300 each.”
According to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse the most common industries affected by data breaches are healthcare, government, retail, and education sectors. But it also stresses that a high number of data breaches are not caused by hackers or malicious persons at all. Instead, unintended disclosure is often the culprit. Dishearteningly, there is really no way to escape being a target besides living out some Ron Swanson off the grid fantasy scenario. Every organization that collects personal information is a potential breach target. It is up to the organizations to protect the information, and while many are making that a top priority, most have a long way to go.
Chelsea Kerwin, October 13, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Kroger IT Management and the Pain of Reality
October 12, 2015
In Harrod’s Creek, we have access to a giant store doing business here as Kroger. There is an all organic outfit down the hollow. I like that outfit. The prices are higher for some things, but the store is human scale. The Kroger warehouse requires me to walk almost 500 meters to get my dogs treats, my wife some ersatz milk product, and for me to stock up on Mountain Dew and M&Ms.
The salad bar is history, replaced with plastic boxes of pre-jigged stuff. The Fancy Dan foods cost the same and Organic City, so many folks in this area avoid the Kroger offerings. The center of our store houses Wal-Mart and Home Depot type products. I don’t think about buying red and blue non stick pans when I do a trip to the grocery for my wife.
I read with considerable interest “Kroger CIO: Four lessons for strategic IT.”
Each time I visit the Kroger in Harrod’s Creek or more accurately, Prospect, Kentucky, I fear the Hitachi based automatic check out systems. Kroger is trimming humans at check outs, presumably the Hitachi units are better, faster, and cheaper.
A trip to the local chain grocery can be an enjoyable experience. Don’t forget your customer loyalty card. Don’t complain about the difficulty of finding a product. Don’t hassle the Kroger humans about one price on the product and a different price in the Kroger database. Have a nice day.
I learned from Chris Hjelm, the CIO, of Kroger, one of the world’s largest companies, that information technology must be relevant. I wonder, “To whom, Mr. Hjelm.” Your boss, to suppliers, or to the individual customer? Mr. Hjelm is responsible for managing the company’s nationwide network of Information and Technology Systems, including systems used in retail stores, manufacturing plants, distribution centers and offices, as well as Research & Development. He also oversees 84.51°, Aviation, Corporate Travel, Indirect Sourcing, and the Check Recovery Center.” He has an honorary PhD degree and before joining Kroger in 2005, he was CIO of Cendant’s Travel Distribution Services, eBay, and Excite@Home, and a CIO at Federal Express. He “has a particular passion for food and is an aspiring amateur chef.” Cendant broke up into four companies. eBay is an online flea market. Excite@Home was a darned exciting outfit when it purchased Kendara’s personalization technology before Excite lost its excitement. FedEx, well, FedEx ships stuff.
Now what are the lessons for strategic IT. I assume this is different from making information technology actually work.
First, the lesson numero uno is to earn credibility as a reliable service provider. I think this means deal with vendors who will implement systems which meet the needs of the Kroger person or unit with an IT need. Yep, making stuff work is good.
Second, one must learn the business. This is no small task when one considers that work experience in shipping, Internet flame outs, online flea marketing, and travel may not seem to be directly related to selling groceries. No, I understand. The IT part is the fiber of these businesses. Ergo, food is just like eBay.
Third, form relationships with one superiors. Okay, that seems to be a safe statement. Due to the ultra conservative, siege mentality of most senior executives in many traditional businesses facing heat from online vendors, that’s good. Keeping one’s job is strategic.
Fourth, use experts. Nay, rely on experts. The good manager, it seems, can terminate experts or ignore them if down the hall. The strategy may reinforce self preservation like the relationships with those higher on the food chain (pun intended).
Now reality. Annoying reality.
At the local Kroger, senior management have deployed self check out units. Most of the time, about one third of the available units are operating. The reason is management’s desire to funnel customers to few self check outs and thus reduce the need for expensive humans who have to intervene frequently when customer transactions go off the rails.
Example: I bought an Ambrosia apple, number 3438. The Hitachi scanning system registered one pound of cheddar cheese. A moonlighting law enforcement officer was at the self check out and managed to clear the transaction. I got the apple for free. Ah, an annoying anomaly.
The new Kroger stores are large. They are organized according to the type of anti social thinking pioneered by Paco Underhill; to wit, make customers who want bread and fruit and milk walk from the entrance along a path of an equilateral triangle. Why put frequently purchased products in one convenient location? The strategy is to force a person to walk so the person will buy stuff not on the person’s list.
The scale of the products in our local Kroger is astounding. One employee told me that were more than 90,000 things in the story. Wow, how many red skillets sit for months without a human touching them? How much food is dumped at expiration time because no one buys the product?
Our local Kroger offers printed on paper maps, not mobile content, to help a customer find a product. Do you know where mustard is? Do you know where a mixture of mustard and relish is? Answer: in separate aisles, not together.
Kroger cannot alphabetize. Look at the signs hanging from the ceiling list products in an aisle. Are these alphabetized. Nope. Waste of time.
Everything in the Kroger—from the database which is out of sync with the product codes to the location of the products—is presented in a way that says, “Hey, go to Paul’s or Fresh Market.”
What is the information strategy at Kroger stores?
- Create a perception of credibility among your co workers and colleagues.
- Implement the routine business and learn the camp fire stories about how wonderful Kroger was and is.
- Get to be pals with those with more Kroger juice
- Use those consultants because it is easier to deflect criticism than take responsibility for tasks.
Kroger is a grocery store. Information technology should make it easier for customers. IT should make it possible for management to know when databases are not in sync. Partners can use Kroger IT to reduce waste and inefficiency.
Kroger, like any retail chain based on the build it they will come principle, will have to deal with two types of technical debt. Like credit card debt, the interest adds friction to keeping the flawed systems u9p and running. Like Walgreen’s, the interest on the real estate is not chimera.
Excitement is ahead for those living the retail dream in a world in which Amazon wants to use technology to eliminate the need to experience the pain and waste the time dribbled away at the grocery store.
Has Kroger IT entertained this statement, “When will that automated delivery arrive? I just ordered 10 minutes ago.” Amazon, are you listening?
Stephen E Arnold, October 12, 2015
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