Crazy Enterprise Search Report: Content Marketing Spam Gets Religious
June 23, 2020
DarkCyber noted this content marketing spam dutifully recycled by Jewish Market Reports:
And the author. Maybe a nice Jewish fellow named Sameer Joshi or maybe just a pseudonym?
The story recycles a bit of fluff from the Goodwill of off base data. Goodwill accepts almost any product; the data off shoot is okay with crazed generalizations of mostly off base numbers. That Excel projection function is a darned useful thing too.
The write up covers the 360 view of the market. What’s interesting about these recycled and spam centric reports is not their cost. Think thousands. The fascinating bit is the list of companies fueling the rocket ship of enterprise search in the Rona Era; specifically:
- Algolia
- com, Inc. [sic]
- Coveo Solutions Inc.
- Elasticsearch B.V.
- IBM Corporation
- iManage LLC
- Lucidworks, Inc.
- Microsoft Corporation
- SearchUnify (Grazitti Interactive Inc.)
- Swiftype, Inc.
A couple of observations. The list is alphabetized, a useful operation. But the nifty part are com, Inc. [sic] and Grazitti. To be blunt, neither outfit is in the DarkCyber/Beyond Search files.
For a nice Jewish boy or maybe not, the list of leaders makes sense. Where was his grandmother when the author demonstrated an inability to determine what was wheat and what was chaff?
Definitely not paying attention because she was working on an earlier version of the document offered by her company, The Insight Partners. More time with Sameer Joshi, her grandson, would have been well spent I surmise. But the publication? Hmmm.
Stephen E Arnold, June 23, 2020
Social Media and Clueless Youth
June 23, 2020
This is a reminder about youth and a general lack of understanding that people don’t know what they don’t know. That’s the reason Google type search systems try to deliver answers, even if the user is a clueless youth.
Navigate to “Masked Arsonist Might’ve Gotten Away with It If She Hadn’t Left Etsy Review.” The write up is semi amusing. A clueless youth burned down a fast food joint. The wizardette wore a mask, no surprise in the Rona Era, 2020 CM (CM means common mask, not common moron).
Unaware that some online services index comments, process images, generate useful metatags, and deliver a user friendly specialized software system to law enforcement, the clueless youth was:
- Processed by graph analytics
- Matched via pattern identification methods
- Identified
- Geo located
- Snagged (that’s what old people like me think about when law enforcement arrests an alleged arsonist. Burning a fast food joint? Amazing. The food may be questionable, but why not write do a TikTok to the manager. Fire is a tactic of an annoyed loyal follower of Attila.)
Net net: Certain law enforcement specialized software systems perform useful functions. Plus, clueless youth have an opportunity about criminal justice without the slick image of a Judge Judy presiding.
Stephen E Arnold, June 23, 2020
Physicists May Be Inventors
June 23, 2020
Physics is a fascinating subject. There’s the high school variety involving steel balls, magnets, and fire. Then there is the world of wonky “things” like quarks, flavors, and wimps. (No, wimp does not mean a polo player afraid of falling off his or her equine dynamical system.)
“CERN Wants to Build a new $23 Billion Super-Collider That’s 100 Kilometers Long” explains that the hadron folks need to up the ante. The idea is that wackos who embrace string theory and the neo-Einsteinians will be outflanked; misguided miscreants who cannot dis-CERN that progress in physics is more than wonk-babble emitted by pundits who are not bounded by the time and space of mere mortals.
The write up reports:
CERN wants to build a successor to the Large Hadron Collider to further study the Higgs boson particle.
I learned:
The Large Hadron Collider took a decade to build and cost around $4.75 billion. Most of that money came from European countries like Germany, the UK, France and Spain. Some believe that countries like the US and Japan might need to pony up for this second collider if it’s actually going to get built.
The money will be found! Physicists have to have a gizmo big enough to permit physicists to make the leap between observing fundamental phenomena to creating objects.
Mother Nature is obviously not performing up to the Ernest Rutherford. Are physicists becoming inorganic chemists with a better understanding of fancy math? Yep. The need to find has may be veering into create via a big, expensive machine hopefully with better reliability than the existing collider.
Stephen E Arnold, June 23, 2020
Cloud Pricing: Humor and Insight
June 22, 2020
We are putting the finishing touches on my Amazon Policeware lecture for the upcoming cyber crime conference. This particular talk has to be pre recorded. Why? Not sure, but creating a program is more difficult than lecturing from a stack of note cards.
I do include a brief reference to cloud pricing. I think there are some important truths in Amazon AWS pricing with regard to the company’s reinvention and reapplication of IBM’s old-school lock in strategy.
The write up “The Three Fs of Cloud Pricing” presents one facet of the Bezos bulldozer’s approach to policeware vendors and ultimate customers. Based on my DarkCyber team’s research, drgriffin is putting horseshoes on the iron stake.
If you have a “stake” in AWS cloud technology as a partner, ultimate customer, start up AWS user, or any of the other category of players in the Amazon forest, you will find the drgriffin write up information.
Here’s a snippet, but read the original, please:
Allowing people to play with the product for free was good for customers. But it was even better for cloud adoption. The free tier was part of their strategy of selling IT infrastructure directly, without having to go through finance and executives.
Remember that Google sought to circumvent information technology professionals. The attitude was, “You are a problme, and if you were any good, you would work at Google. Since you are NOT at Google, therefore, you are useless.”
Amazon, to cite one example, has taken a different approach; that is, the free tier. Don’t contraband vendors use a similar tactic?
Stephen E Arnold, June 22, 2020
Microsoft Search 365: Just Wonderful Wonderful
June 22, 2020
Analyses of Microsoft’s long romance with enterprise search forget some bad dates. There was the era of dozens of search systems; each unit at Softie HQ knew how to make information findable. Remember Outlook Express? Then there were acquisitions. What about that search system in NCompass? How about that earth shaker Powerset? Yeah, I thought you would remember the spilled chocolate shakes, the slapped hands, and the angry parents.
What about Fast Search & Transfer? Quite a buy in 2008! So what if the Fast senior management had to dodge legal eagles for a few years? Does anyone recall the refusal of some customers of the Fast ESP refusing to pay their bills? The financial fancy dancing. No, why bother.
I could go on, but I won’t. The write up “Microsoft Search in Microsoft 365: A Valuable Enterprise Search Engine” does not bring up the past. Nobody cares. Enterprise search is a joke. No one in his or her right mind wants a company search engine to wander hither and yon to find semi relevant information. Those using enterprise search — remember, it’s a myth, gentle reader — want to locate the PowerPoint the crazy sales manager changed for yesterday’s presentation in Reno. Where is it? Well, it sure isn’t in an enterprise search system. What’s in the enterprise search system is the angry email from the customer in the presentation audience who heard the sales wizard reveal the actual pricing of the deal. That customer wants the sales manager’s head, not a list of search results. And you, gentle reader, are trying to find the presentation in the Enterprise 365 whatever. Well, good luck with that.
The write up asserts:
Before a user can use Microsoft Search, they must be logged into Microsoft 365. Once logged in, the user needs only to open their browser, go to Bing.com, and enter the search query. Upon doing so, Bing will return both public and private search results.
There you go, JEDI fans. There’s nothing like snagging a laptop and having access to a search system that displays the user’s view of an organization’s data. That access control works like a champ just like Microsoft’s Windows 10 updates.
Plus you get links to lots of stuff. Particularly useful is “All” which presents any oddball hit that the system knows is that PowerPoint which has not been indexed and is therefore unfindable unless you meet the sales wizard at the airport.
Are there flaws in the 365 search? Sure there are. The author identifies one the size of a pre extinction brontosaurus:
In my opinion, the most significant limitation associated with using Microsoft Search is that the search engine does not index your file servers. It assumes that most of your file data reside in SharePoint Online. The only way that Microsoft Search can index files stored on-premises is if you have a hybrid SharePoint deployment and the files that you want to index are stored within SharePoint.
Yeah, but what about that “all”? Seems like a logical fallacy, doesn’t it. All with notable omissions. Oh, well, home economics courses don’t spend much time of stuff like logic. Chopped onions, yes? Logical Grand Canyons? Nah.
Net net: Microsoft has been lost in search space for decades. Will the company deliver a system that mostly works? Hey, the purpose of enterprise search at Microsoft is the generation of work for Microsoft Certified Professionals. Those experts don’t need something to work to subscribe to a Porsche. That means Microsoft’s enterprise search mirrors the enterprise search industry quite well, thank you.
Stephen E Arnold, June 22, 2020
NSO Group: More Publicity than Lady Gaga?
June 22, 2020
I want to note briefly the story “Days After New Human Rights Policy, NSO Client Hacked an Activist.” It is clear that the “real news” outfit Motherboard Vice is paying close attention to intelware vendor NSO Group. What’s interesting is that the “real news” hounds have not sniffed around the shoes of other vendors of specialized services. There are hundreds of them, and many of these companies mark their territory with fascinating information. There are videos on YouTube of drones identifying cows about the cross the border into the US. Facial recognition systems with accuracy rates below 50 percent. There are information services which index more contraband sources than a dedicated 15 year old can locate in a month from his parents’ basement.
The NSO beat is predictable. Specialized company licenses technology to a country or shady and mysterious organization. System is used to reveal information. “Real news” outfits report on this terrible transgression. Repeat.
The current story states:
Just three days after controversial surveillance vendor NSO Group announced its new human rights policy, saying that clients can only use the company’s products to combat serious crime and to ensure that they’re not used to violate human rights, a likely Moroccan government agency hacked the phone of a human rights defender using NSO malware, according to a new technical report from Amnesty International.
DarkCyber’s view is that when specialized software vendors hire sales professionals, those sales professionals are like beavers. Beavers do what beavers do; that is, gnaw through trees and build a dam to create a cash pile.
Net net: There are other vendors to monitor. DarkCyber is suffering from NSO Group fatigue. News flash: Other vendors are larger, have more interesting products, and service larger customers. Maybe expand your view to cover intelware without the fixation and repetition of the NSO Group story? Hint: Most specialized software vendors remain true to their corporate vision and, like leopards, rarely change their spots. How about a cross between a beaver and a leopard? What’s that animal do? Bite journalists? Possibly.
Stephen E Arnold, June 22, 2020
Work from Home and Be Insecure. Sure, It Is Standard Operating Procedure
June 22, 2020
Remote working is the new normal with COVID-19 and companies have prepped for that in the past decade…sort of. Companies were prepared for telecommuting in short term bursts and a limited number of employees, but not for a consistent length of time. Why? Working remotely requires more than a reliable Internet connection and laptop. It needs a secure network says Tech Radar in, “Most Companies ‘Unprepared’ For Secure Remote Working.”
According to the 2020 Remote Work Report, 41% of companies do not have proper networks to secure their data. They cite lack of the right equipment as the biggest problem. Despite the lack of security, companies will continue to allow their workers to remotely work.
Also according to the report, 72% states malware was their biggest worry. Compliance with their security regulations is another issue says 63%, including the EU’s General Protection Regulation. Companies are also worried about securing Web applications, video conferencing, and file sharing.
It is not surprising that this happened, because tradition lingers on in the business world. Even the most technologically advanced companies have security issues, for example Google says Channel News Asia: “Google Sees Resurgence In State-Backed Hacking, Phishing Related To COVID-19.”
Google sent out warnings:
“Security experts at Alphabet Inc’s Google sent 1,755 warnings in April to users whose accounts were targets of government-backed attackers, following a resurgence in hacking and phishing attempts related to the coronavirus outbreak.
Google said on Wednesday its Threat Analysis Group saw new activity from “hack-for-hire” firms, many based in India, that have been creating Gmail accounts spoofing the World Health Organization (WHO).”
Even the experts are vulnerable! Nobody is safe.
Whitney Grace, June 22, 2020
TikTok Actually Manages but Who Decides?
June 22, 2020
TikTok’s older sibling TopBuzz has not been nearly as successful as the wildly popular (though problematic) short-video app, but it held its own for a while. The product, launched in 2015, recommended AI-personalized news articles to subscribers around the world. However, reports Reuters, “TikTok Owner ByteDance Shuts Down Overseas News Aggregator TopBuzz.” Writers Yingzhi Yang and Brenda Goh tells us:
“The closure of TopBuzz underlines how ByteDance’s moves into international markets have not been entirely smooth in spite of TikTok’s success. … TopBuzz’s downloads declined to 1.2 million in the first half of 2019 from 7 million in all of 2018 on the App Store and Google Play combined, according to researcher Sensor Tower. TikTok had 345.2 million downloads in the first half of 2019. TopBuzz began shrinking its operations last year, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The app used to have operations in multiple languages including Spanish and Portuguese, one of the sources said. But now its website only shows English and Japanese versions.”
But why the decline? Perhaps this has something to do with it—the write-up continues:
“ByteDance is currently under a U.S national security inquiry into TikTok’s handling of user data, and also facing tightened scrutiny from regulators around the world.”
There is a global news app, however, that is still going strong in China. Last month News Break, founded by former Yahooer Zheng Zhaohui and funded by Chinese investors, outperformed both Twitter and Reddit on Google Play according to SimilarWeb.
ByteDance was founded in 2012 and is based in Shanghai, China.
Cynthia Murrell, June 22, 2020
Knowledge Management: Still Floundering? Absolutely
June 21, 2020
I spotted this knowledge management write up: “How to Hold on to Critical Knowledge When Employees Leave.” The recommendations on the surface seem like common sense. However, there are a couple of typical knowledge management oddities.
First, the main recommendation is to create a more management oriented workplace. Management, in the KM world, means recycling MBA think from the 1970s.
Helpful, right? These tips include:
- Do the mentor thing and cross train workers. (How does cross training work when a person is hired to perform one type of work; for example, perform stress testing for Inconel variants?)
- Plan for people quitting. (In today’s business climate, how are those plans working out for organizations other than Facebook, Amazon, Google, and the other FAANGs?)
- Create a New Age organization chart. (Remember the hierarchical charts? Useful? Sure, but the charts did not match the territory. Great fun creating these charts, however.)
Now the flaw. Here’s the recommendation from the write up:
Conduct longer, more thorough exit interviews.
The hitch is that the person doing the exist interview typically does not:
- Have domain expertise. Therefore, the interviewer cannot probe in a way that reveals the needed information. Remember: One does not know what one does not know. Gnostic indeed.
- Have a system in which to store the information. Sure, there are notes, but the person departing may be involved in a non verbal domain of expertise. How about converting a mathy expertise to some words on a paper or digital form?
- Understand the context of special “knowledge.” (The departing employee may speak one language and the interviewer another. The result? No useful “knowledge” is obtained.)
Net net: MBAs are likely to be blindsided when a person quits. Think about Disney’s top guy hitting the bricks. The captured “knowledge” is not knowledge. The more sophisticated the knowledge, the lower the probability that the interviewer will know what the heck the person knows if anything.
Ah, managing knowledge. Excellent.
Stephen E Arnold, June 21, 2020
Amazon: Bombay Gin? For Sure
June 21, 2020
The trustworthy outfit with trust principles published “Amazon Signals Entry into alcohol Delivery in India with Nod in Key State.” The title had the words “exclusive” and “document”, but the main point seemed diluted.
Amazon is allegedly going to deliver alcohol in West Bengal.
Why?
Money.
The write up points out that Amazon competitors are delivering liquor.
Interesting item of Amazonia.
Stephen E Arnold, June 21, 2020
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
