Discovery Engines and Information Overload Management
February 7, 2012
Are discovery engines the cure for information overload? The Darwin Awareness Engine Blog lists “How to Manage Information Overload: 6 Ways Discovery Engines Help.” First, a distinction: a discovery engine goes further than a search engine, offering tools to refine a search, consolidate data, and apply context to the results.
Discovery engines, states writer Romain Goday, help users navigate overwhelming data because they: focus on topics, not people; go straight to the source of information; supply information through a single channel; let users discover what they didn’t know that they didn’t know; often go through a curation process; and reduce anxiety by combining and ranking sources. See the write up for details on each point.
The article asserts:
Managing information overload requires tools that deliver ‘awareness’ of topics and filter out irrelevant information will become indispensable. The challenge is to do so without losing the ability to make unexpected discoveries. Content discovery engines are addressing this need with a multitude of approaches. The market remains very fragmented but we can expect important players to emerge in the next few years.
I’m sure we can. Our concern is that information may be lost through the auto-selection process. Is it wise to rely on an AI for such an important task? Do we have a choice at this point, or has the big data monster grown too big for the human touch?
Cynthia Murrell, February 7, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
FirstRain Gets Some Azure Chip Love
December 18, 2011
According to the October 25 news release, FirstRain Recognized as “Innovative Business Analytics Company under $100M to Watch in 2011″ by Leading Market Research Firm, the analyst firm IDC has included FirstRain, an analytics software company, in its 2011 list of “Innovative Business Analytics Companies Under $100M to Watch.”
FirstRain is an analytics software company that uses its Business Monitoring Engine to provide professionals with access to the business Web. The company’s semantic-categorization technology instantly cuts through the clutter of consumer Web content, delivering only highly-relevant intelligence.
The company was highlighted in the “Cloud-based Analytics” category for their innovative use of semantic analysis to extract and deliver high-value information from the Web.
IDC observed:
The value in using FirstRain is the breadth of its coverage, combined with its depth of selection and filtering so that it delivers the information that users need to see without cluttering their desktops or their minds with too much that is extraneous. It was easy to integrate into existing information delivery channels and because of the high relevance of the information that it delivered.
The fact that IDC even has a list of top business analytics companies shows how important search optimization software is becoming in the business world. Who knew that business intelligence would be the new black?
Jasmine Ashton, December 18, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Digimind 9 Now Available
December 17, 2011
In the current economic climate, businesses are under more pressure than ever to consolidate their resources and invest in products that will maximize cost and efficiency. When choosing information management solutions, it is especially important that companies keep their specific needs in mind.
According to a recent PRWeb news release “Digimind launches Digimind 9 – Next generation Competitive Intelligence for Smarter Decision Making,” competitive intelligence software provider Digimind, has released Digimind 9, updated software which is designed to accompany organizations throughout their intelligence workflows.
The article states:
Digimind 9 comes in response to a growing demand from companies willing to complement their CI apparatus with such features included as “advanced semantic analysis”, “social media monitoring”, and “intelligence profile management”. Indeed, beyond the conventional intelligence workflows, more intelligence requirements surface nowadays to leverage on social networks, unstructured data, and related analysis.
As data is being created faster than ever, Digimind 9 meets the ever growing need for companies to improve their capacity and to react and anticipate rapid changes.
Jasmine Ashton, December 17, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Trade Tips and Prices at the SharePoint StackExchange
December 16, 2011
“We accept questions about the SharePoint platform. This is defined as the functionality within:· the SharePoint server range of products (i.e. SharePoint Foundation and Server, Windows SharePoint Services, SharePoint Portal Server)· SharePoint Designer· InfoPath where it integrates with SharePointWe also accept questions about community-owned, open source products based on the platform. We don’t accept questions about commercial products that integrate with, run on top of, or extend the platform. Questions can come from a variety of different roles… developers, admins and end-users are all welcome to ask questions here!”
Grasp Your SharePoint Workflows and Evaluate Productivity
December 14, 2011
“Typically, the third party ISVs don’t replicate what SharePoint does, they extend it. So you can identify the “boundaries” of out-of-box functionality by seeing what the ISVs do!”
The Contested Fact: Sharepoint Has Social Media Potential
December 13, 2011
“They’ve [Microsoft] built a decent platform for lightweight file-oriented collaboration …but SharePoint only provides two of the 10 or 11 key applications enterprises are looking for in a social platform.”
DataExplorers and Why Financial Information Vendors Fear a Storm
December 4, 2011
I am still amused that my team predicted the management shift at Thomson Reuters weeks before the news broke. Alas, that 250 page analysis of the Thomson Reuters’ $13 billion a year operation is not public. Shame. However, one can get a sense of the weakening timbers in the publishing and information frigate in the Telegraph’s story “DataExplorers Looks for £300m Buyer.”
DataExplorers is a specialist research company. The firm gathers information about the alleged lending of thousands of institutional funds. I am not familiar with the names of these exotic financial beasties. The aggregated data are subjected to the normal razzle dazzle of the aggregation for big money crowd. The data are collected, normalized, and analyzed. The idea is that an MBA looking to snag an island can use the information to make a better deal. Not surprisingly, the market for these types of information is small, only a fraction of those in the financial services industry focus on this sector.
DataExplorer’s revenues reflect this concentration. According to the write up, the company generated less than £15 million in annual revenues in 2010 with a profit of about £3 million. The margin illustrates what can be accomplished with a niche market, tight cost controls, and managers from outfits like Thomson Reuters. That troubled outfit contributed the management team at DataExplorers.
Now here’s the hook?
The company is for sale, according to the Telegraph which is a “real” journalistic outfit, for £300 million. That works out to a number that makes sense in the wild and crazy world of financial information; that is, 100 times earnings or 20 times revenue. The flaw, which I probably should not peg to just Thomson Reuters, has these facets:
- The global financial “challenge” means that there may be some pruning of information services in the financial world. Stated another way, MBAs will be fired and their employers may buy less of expensive services such as DataExplorers
- If the financial crisis widens, the appeal of “short” information may lose a bit of its shine. Once a market tanks, what’s the incentive for those brutalized by the sectors’ collapse to stick around
- Thomson Reuters is pretty good at cost cutting. Innovating is not part of the usual package. This means that DataExplorers may be at the peak of its form and sea worthy for a one day cruise in good weather, and once a deal goes down, the new owners may have a tough time growing the business because marketing and research will require infusions of capital to keep the vessel from listing.
Net net: DataExplorers is an example of an information property which may be tough to get back into growth mode. The buyer will be confident that it knows how to squeeze more performance from a niche information product. And that assumption is what contributes to the woes of Thomson Reuters, Reed Elsevier, and many other high end professional content producers. Optimism is a great quality. Realism is too.
Stephen E Arnold, December 4, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
X1 and Newsgator Venture Into RSS
October 11, 2011
In a new angle for search vendors, X1, a productivity enhancement and information management software tools company, partners with Newsgator, developer of content aggregator solutions, to bring search to aggregated RSS (really simple syndication) news and information. “X1 and NewsGator
Partner to Provide Instant Search Capabilities of Aggregated RSS News and
Information,” tells more.
The fast-as-you-can-type search capabilities of X1™ Search, which lets users find the content of email, files, attachments, and contacts, has been coupled with NewsGator’s ability to deliver news and information directly into Microsoft Outlook to give customers a simple, integrated solution for obtaining and finding information.
Our experience is that news archives are not particularly deep, so regardless of search engine, much time sensitive content disappears or gets a “buy this story” link banner. The concept is interesting and might be useful for very short-term access. However, other solutions must be used to ensure long-term archiving.
Emily Rae Aldridge, October 11, 2011
Google Abandons Another No Brainer Database
June 9, 2011
In “Google Kills Google News Archive,” Techspot’s reporting the end of the Internet giant’s newspaper archiving project. We learned:
“Newspapers that have their own digital archives can still add material to Google’s news archive via sitemaps, but the search giant will no longer spend its own money toward the cause.” Users can continue to search digitized newspapers in the archive, but, the company isn’t going “to introduce any further features or functionality to the Google News Archive.”
Seems like Google now understands what commercial database publishers have known for some time–searchable newspaper databases are commodity products with thin profit margins.
It’s no surprise that the company has retreated from the market. Google’s threat to commercial online services, seemingly so real several years ago, has yet to materialize.
What does Google’s pull out mean for ProQuest and similar outfits? First, Google is going after bigger fish. Second, consolidation may be the path to stabilizing revenues from what is a shrinking library market.
There are other options, but the goose is not honking.
Stephen E Arnold, June 9, 2011
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, the resource for enterprise search information and current news about data fusion
Apps or New Browser for Access
November 9, 2010
The Google will have to make some changes to Chrome. When the GOOG adapts, I think those pushing the apps method of content access and the fuel providers behind RockMelt will have their hands full. I think a reinvention of the browser is an interesting idea. “
“New Browser Incorporates Latest Trends in Web Technology” reported:
RockMelt, a Mountain View startup that Andreessen has invested in and advises, is releasing today a beta version of a new, eponymous Web browser built around some of the latest trends in Web technologies. It integrates social networking to a degree not found in mainstream browsers and saves user data to the “cloud,” allowing users to get the same browsing experience on their work and home computers.
Both the Apps crowd and the new browser crowd are responding to needs from the exploding market for consumerized information access. Consumers like appliances. Some can be downright weird. Think about the Dyson fan and ball vacuum. Others can be helpful when one wants a way to read Web pages in unlikely places. Think iPad. The notion of mashing up information is not a new idea, but it is gaining momentum. Think apartment listings placed on a Google Map south of Houston. The mash up and a $1,000 in cash can score an apartment more effectively than a person from Harrod’s Creek and a printed listing of available spaces.
The challenge in the consumerized world of information is that whoever has eyeballs wins. Sure, some outfits can come out of left field and take over a market segment. One only needs to think about Google to realize that in the span of 12 years, Google is on the path to an AT&T-type operation. On some days, I think Google is AT&T, where some of Google’s wizards labored in a previous life. I can also point to the Apple iPad and the 200,000 plus apps available to someone with a lot of time on their hands like blog pundits.
My view is that browsers that seek to displace the incumbents have to leapfrog the competition. That’s going to be difficult because Google and other browser developers can incorporate functionality and make that functionality available to an installed base. My hunch is that the me-too tactic will make 2011 browser competition quite unlike 1993 browser competition.
Which will win? Browsers or Apps? The companies best at playing Monopoly will decide, not the market in my opinion. Fewer and fewer users want laundry lists. Complex results lists are an issue. Funky app interfaces are a barrier as well. Inertia, not innovation, is likely to be a formidable hurdle even with the ability to melt barriers made of stone.
Stephen E Arnold, November 9, 2010
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