Podcast Interview with Paul Doscher, Part 2: The Exalead Technology
June 21, 2010
Exalead’s Paul Doscher talks about Exalead’s technology on the June 21, 2010, ArnoldIT Beyond Search podcast. Exalead has been growing rapidly, landing blue-chip accounts with the largest technology company in North America, the French postal service, and Canada’s Urbanizer.com. In this podcast, Mr. Doscher talks about Exalead’s technical approach to content processing and the framework that makes search-based applications crack tough problems in information access. You can listen to the podcast on the ArnoldIT.com Web site. More information about Exalead is available from www.exalead.com. The ArnoldIT podcast series extends the Search Wizards Speak series of interview beyond text into rich media. Watch this blog for announcements about other rich media programs from the professionals who move information retrieval beyond search.
Stephen E Arnold, June 21, 2010
Sponsored by Stephen E. Arnold
Free Stock Photo Search
June 11, 2010
Short honk: If you need free stock photos, check out Veezzle.com. We ran some test queries and found usable images. Getting permission or licensing an image is essential for commercial work. We bookmarked the site. Some categories have few images; for example, boxer dog. We found a keeper, however.
Stephen E Arnold, June 11, 2010
Freebie
Stunning News: Unfindable Content Does Not Get Used
June 8, 2010
Thump. That was the sound of this plump goose body hitting the ground. I toppled over after reading “Full Text Search for Rich Media Content Improves Productivity.” The main idea of the Network World write up is:
…Much of the [online] training doesn’t get used. Why? Because the people it’s intended for can’t find precisely what they want, when they want it. With thousands of courses, students don’t want to wade through paragraph-long course descriptions and hope to find the training right materials. As a result, important knowledge stays locked up in videos and presentations, rarely to be shared.
Translation: If you can’t find information in electronic form, you can’t use it. If you know it is “there,” you can hunt for the missing video or article. But that takes time. Time is money as law firm partners eager to buy a third house in Belize often say.
Not surprisingly, the “cost” of not finding unfindable content is calculated with one of those quite popular “estimates”. Here’s the passage:
Ted Cocheu, CEO of Altus Learning Systems, says that people spend 20% of their time looking for information and they find what they are looking for less than half of the time. That’s equivalent to spending 10 weeks a year searching for information and remaining ignorant half of that time. Altus Learning increases productivity by helping companies to catalog and share verbal information. The materials are referenceable when someone is ready to consumer it.
My view is that the cost of unfindable content is not known. Guesses are interesting, even fun and certainly easy. The reality is that bone head mistakes can have significant financial implications. My hunch is that if I were to root around in email related to the oil spill, I would be able to pinpoint information that would cast light on the problem before the explosion. Other examples of the cost of unfindable information are easy to locate.
Let’s face it. Creating and information object is valueless unless another person can locate that information object. How many of these situations have you encountered:
- Your pet consultant scrambles to locate an email with an attachment you sent the little eager beaver with the azure pelt. The frantic search takes place in front of you, not in a place where your vision won’t reach.
- Your boss asks you for a document needed for that afternoon’s meeting. You have zero clue where the original is, so you make phone calls to people whom you hope have the information. Unlike the azure chip maven, you make the call from outside the boss’s office.
- You have your credit card in hand and the person at the automobile repair check out says, “When did you drop off that car? I can’t seem to locate your vehicle?”
You get the idea. Search is broken for much textual content. Search is downright crappy for rich media. Try to locate a specific video on Google with only a date and the name of the person in the video. Try Nicole Scherzinger the finals of Dancing with the Stars. Doesn’t work too well does it?
We know the unfindable is costly. Data, please. Not anecdotes.
Stephen E Arnold, June 8, 2010
Barcodes Go Content Crazy
June 3, 2010
With pundits predicting that search is now apps and that metadata will index apps which are really content, I turn to more mundane topics. A case in point is “StickyBits: Attach Unlimited Content to Barcodes On Any Product (iPhone + Android).” I found the write up fascinating. I don’t think too much about barcodes unless I am at the self check out trying to get the barcode reader to recognize blue codes on a blue background.
For me the core of the article was:
StickyBits allows people to attach digital content to barcodes. When those barcodes are scanned (via our iPhone or Android apps), you’ll see all the content that has been attached. What makes us unique is that all this is done in a social and fully open read/write way. Imagine putting a barcode on your business card that when scanned showed your resume. Or put a StickyBits sticker into a birthday card and record a personal video. Then when your friend scans it, they’ll see the video. Take that one step further and have all your friends attach videos to the same card. You’ll also get notified when it gets scanned. It doesn’t just stop there. Something unique and strange is happening with the barcodes all around you. People are scanning soda cans, cereal boxes, beer bottles, etc. and adding digital content to them. Since each unique product shares a barcode, little communities are popping up around each of these products.
The notion of information becoming objects has a barcode bedfellow. And about search? Another challenge it seems. More information about StickyBits is available at http://www.stickybits.com.
Stephen E Arnold, June 3, 2010
Freebie
Video World Cup Final: Google versus Viacom
June 1, 2010
Short honk: “Viacom, YouTube Suit Attracts More Heavyweights” does a good job of explaining the teams for the Google versus Viacom match. Google’s line up includes Yahoo, Facebook and eBay. Impressive in terms of Internet traffic. The Viacom team includes Warner Bros., NBC Universal, Disney, the Screen Actors Guild and the Directors Guild of America. The referees may determine the outcome of the match. Coming to a pay per view outlet near you.
Stephen E Arnold, June 1, 2010
Freebie
WebM Fancy Dancing
May 30, 2010
Short honk: If you are tracking Google’s video encoder WebM, you will want to read “Google Asks for Delay in WebM License Consideration.” One tip. Perch your open source legal eagle on your shoulder to get some color for the Google request. You will want to tuck the WebM FAQ link in your bookmarks folder. Interesting stuff. Fire, Ready, Aim?
Stephen E Arnold, May 30, 2010
Freebie almost like WebM maybe?
Free and Quality: Google and Its Open Video Codec
May 21, 2010
I am not too interested in video. Too old. Eyes bad. Brain does not process short ADD-shaded outputs. Nevertheless, I know a couple of my two or three readers are into digital video. A couple of the goslings watch Netflix stuff on the iPads. Seems like a waste of time to me, but to each goose his own paddling area. If you are a video lover, you probably think about the visual experience. Fuzzy video is annoying to many people, but I think fuzzy video improves many of the programs I have seen.
The author of “Diary of an x264 Developer” is a person deeply interested in video in general and its deeper gears and wheels. In fact, the write up provides considerable detail about the differences between Google’s free video codec and the not free H.264. The issues boil down to “quality”, which is a difficult concept in information. There are, after all, azure chip consultants, who know about “real” and “quality”, two notions I avoid like the Ohio River. The write up said in Addendum C: Summary for the Lazy”, which is definitely this goose:
VP8, as a spec, should be a bit better than H.264 Baseline Profile and VC-1. It’s not even close to competitive with H.264 Main or High Profile. If Google is willing to revise the spec, this can probably be improved. VP8, as an encoder, is somewhere between Xvid and Microsoft’s VC-1 in terms of visual quality. This can definitely be improved a lot, but not via conventional means. VP8, as a decoder, decodes even slower than ffmpeg’s H.264. This probably can’t be improved that much. With regard to patents, VP8 copies way too much from H.264 for anyone sane to be comfortable with it, no matter whose word is behind the claim of being patent-free. VP8 is definitely better compression-wise than Theora and Dirac, so if its claim to being patent-free does stand up, it’s an upgrade with regard to patent-free video formats. VP8 is not ready for prime-time; the spec is a pile of copy-pasted C code and the encoder’s interface is lacking in features and buggy. They aren’t even ready to finalize the bitstream format, let alone switch the world over to VP8. With the lack of a real spec, the VP8 software basically is the spec–and with the spec being “final”, any bugs are now set in stone. Such bugs have already been found and Google has rejected fixes. Google made the right decision to pick Matroska and Vorbis for its HTML5 video proposal.
Fascinating but not germane to the goose. However, for those who want a piece of the big Internet video file, the Diary’s author suggests that Google’s marketing is a little ahead of the code analyzed by the author of the write up.
With Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and probably your mom getting into digital video, Google may have to take even more bold steps to create a viable revenue stream from its investments in its digital video push. Casting a shadow over the YouTube.com footprint is Google’s nemesis, Viacom. Fascinating business situation with legalities, technology, and other issues mashed up.
Stephen E Arnold, May 21, 2010
Freebie.
ArnoldIT Podcasts
May 20, 2010
The ArnoldIT and Beyond Search goslings have dipped their beaks in podcasts. These are short audio programs on topics related to information management. We are trying to be somewhat broader than search because – quite frankly – search is being absorbed into other types of software. You can find the podcasts on the ArnoldIT.com Web site at http://arnoldit.com/podcasts/. We have posted two podcasts. After we did some research, we have settled on the 15 minute program. Long enough to get the point across. Short enough to fit into a session on an exercise machine.
The first is with Erik S. Arnold, president of Adhere Solutions, and the son of Stephen E Arnold. I always find it interesting when people wonder if I am objective. Of course not. Erik is a talented individual but I am his dad, and I want to showcase his company and his expertise. Think he pays me for this? Think again!
The other podcast is with Sam Mefford, who runs the search practice at Avalon Consulting. In theory, I am going to send Avalon Consulting a huge bill, but the founder is from my home town, and I like what these folks are doing with their middleware and search implementation methods.
The podcasts are fun to do, and the goslings have more planned with Access Innovations, Exalead, and several other companies. If you want to know more about what we do to get these podcasts in circulation or want to talk about a podcast or videocast, write me at seaky2000@yahoo.com.
These are not “webinars”. We have a different angle of attack that produces traffic and gives those who participate a marketing “hook”.
Stephen E Arnold, May 20, 2010
Right, I am going to pay myself, bill my son, and charge a guy who is from my hometown for this post. Regulators and journalists, I am not of your ilk. Free write up.
Google, GIPS, and a Possible Squeeze Play
May 19, 2010
Now the Global IP Solutions deal is important.
The GIPS was founded in July 1999 in Sweden to develop and market technology designed to mitigate make VoIP more stable. In December 1999 GIPS raised cash from private investors and the shares became quoted on the Norwegian Securities Dealers Association’s OTC-List.
In the short term, I don’t think GIPS will do much to help the Google in the consumer video play that Amazon, Apple, and dozens of other companies are pursuing. But The deal to buy Global IP Solutions will give the Google a thumb screw that is already attached to Microsoft’s paw and, come to think about it, to IBM’s, WebEx Cisco’s, and Samsung’s paws as well. Yahoo could be hurting, but its pain will be ameliorated by whatever Microsoft does to cope with the specter of Googzilla in the media processing for Internet protocol business.
GIPS has deals with some interesting companies.
That GIPS VideoEngine is going to be tough to rip and replace quickly. The deal could be a BP oil spill event for the companies dependent on the Global IP Solutions. Yep, it’s that big. Android video calling and conferencing are on the way. If Google fails to pull off its other video centric acquisitions, GIPS can be repurposed for other types of video programming. Not fun or easy, but doable. And, Google is Google with those many talented engineers.
Some items I found in my Overflight file:
Company Description from 2007
Global IP Solutions offers multimedia technologies for real-time communications over packet networks and enable companies to deliver IP applications that offer the highest quality user experience, as well as revenue-enhancing opportunities across a multitude of devices and services. Global IP Solutions provides best-in-class voice and video quality and fidelity in end-to-end IP communications with robustness against packet loss. Global IP Solutions’ world-renowned media processing and IP telephony experts deliver these solutions to service providers, enterprises, applications developers, network equipment, and gateway and chip manufacturers. Companies using Global IP Solutions products include Nortel, Skype, WebEx, Yahoo!, AOL, EarthLink, BlueCross/BlueShield and other key players in the VoIP market. Global IP Solutions is a member of the Intel(R) PCA Developer Network, the Motorola Design Alliance and Symbian Platinum Partners. Global IP Solutions has headquarters in San Francisco and offices in Santa Barbara, Stockholm, Hong Kong and Boston. Source.
You can get more color about this company’s technology and its core vision from its 2007 FAQ document, which was still available at this link as of 10 am, May 18, 2010.
Beyond Search Comment: The hardware angle is important in light of the integration announcements rumored to be on tap at the Google I/O conference.
Google Sees Big Money
A white paper (commissioned report) for GIPS presented the size of the video conferencing market in 2008. With the present volcanic excitement and the financial pressure front, these numbers are likely to be even more azure tinted. Source.
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- The global market for videoconferencing endpoints was $1.1 billion in 2007, and will grow to $3.9 billion in 2014, according to Frost & Sullivan.
- The Unified Communications markets’ global revenues are estimated to grow from $22.6 billion in 2007 to $48.7 billion in 2012, according to Data from In-Stat and Wainhouse Research.
- The North American web conferencing market revenues are estimated to increase from $632 million in 2007 to $1.5 billion in 2012, according to Frost & Sullivan.
Beyond Search Comment: If ad sales plateau, the Google wants to have a lever in the enterprise sector. Whoops. Google wants a SWAT door buster in any sector dependent on IP communications.
HD Voice = Android Advantage
When I learned about HD Voice, I thought marketing. However, the GIPS lads and lasses have crated an app development environment. More information appears in “GIPS Simplifies VoIP App Development for Android Mobiles”.
Not Even Apple Is Immune
Apple? Yep, Apple. Navigate to “GIPS Voice Technology Boosts iPhone’s Business Potential”. One question I asked myself, “Where did Google learn about the GIPS outfit?” Here’s the passage I found interesting:
GIPS uses ingenious technology, in the form of what it calls a “voice engine,” to improve the quality of IP phone calls. GIPS’ customers incorporate the voice engine in soft phones or other software to make the VoIP calls that they provide sound better. The customers’ software typically handles chores like call setup and the user interface, while the voice engine takes care of delivering high-quality audio. GIPS’ technology deals with problems like jitter and packet loss — that is, voice packets that arrive inconsistently or not at all…the announcement that GIPS has developed an iPhone version of its voice engine (the company already had desktop, Symbian and Windows Mobile versions) is an especially good indication of the device’s business-use potential.
Some IP (Remember, please, this blog is free)
At the end of 1999, GIPS filed its first patent. GIPS has more than a dozen patents and has others in pending status.
Stephen E Arnold, May 19, 2010
Freebie
Quote to Note: Pre I/O YouTube Prognostication
May 17, 2010
Rumors abound. Free Android pads, country specific TV services, deals for Google TVs with Intel and Sony. Wow. What is true and what is not? Got me. I will be working on my humble monograph about Google Beyond Text. Fortunately or unfortunately, my research chugs along outside the heat of the PR supernova. In “YouTube Hits 2 Billion Views per Day” there is an interesting comment, an alleged quotation. Here it is:
“This is only the beginning of the video revolution. We’re just getting started,” YouTube stated.
Maybe, maybe not. There is Viacom, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and lots of legal eagles who may try to pull the ignition wires.
Stephen E Arnold, May 19, 2010
Freebie.
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