Hakia Changes Results Display
February 15, 2010
Short honk: I learned that Hakia has revamped its results display in a write up called “Hakia Servers Up Comprehensive Universal Search in a New Design.” My recollection is that Google also uses the phrase Universal Search, but I may be muddling which search vendor uses which buzzword.
Interface is getting quite a bit of attention. I think part of the push is a response to Microsoft Bing’s user experience push. The other motivating factor is that search results are not that much different to most searchers. With Google getting about 70 percent of the search traffic, the other Web search folks have to find an angle. Hakia, the semantic search company, displays text search results, images and videos. The company includes categories to allow filtering with a click. I find the new interface interesting. i ran a number of test queries and found the results useful. Now the task is marketing and building traffic. Give Hakia a spin.
Stephen E Arnold, February 15, 2010
No one paid me to write this. A couple of years ago I got a bottle of water when I visited Hakia in Manhattan. I will report this to
Google Stands Up to Australia
February 12, 2010
I am no legal eagle, but I found it interesting that Google, according to The Age’s “Google Baulks at Controy’s Call to Censor YouTube”, has another Google versus a country situation brewing. According the write up,
Google says it will not “voluntarily” comply with the government’s request that it censor YouTube videos in accordance with broad “refused classification” (RC) content rules. Communications Minister Stephen Conroy referred to Google’s censorship on behalf of the Chinese and Thai governments in making his case for the company to impose censorship locally.
Google has a big presence in Australia. Based on my experience in that part of the world, Australia does not fool around in some policy areas. My hunch is that Google will be faced with some clear instructions, backed by Australian authorities, and the Google will do what it is doing to keep its shareholders happy. The Google rich media opportunity is significant and making a misstep early in the tactical deployment of this business push is probably not a good idea in my opinion.
The gentle push back from Google makes headlines, but the actions of the company are what I find interesting after the PR dust has settled.
Stephen E Arnold, February 12, 2010
No one paid me to write this article. Next time I am in Australia I will report this to the authorities in Canberra, and I will take my pith helmet with the fly netting.
Futurist Predicts the End of Writing
February 1, 2010
You have to read “Could Written Language Be Rendered Obsolete?” and the source article “Could Written Language Be Rendered Obsolete, and What Should We Demand In Return?” Kids in Kentucky no longer learn to write cursive. That means that kids may not be able to read notes handwritten. The death of written language is a bold thought. I think it is baloney. Make you own decision, but it may be tough to search content generating text from SMS, videos, and email systems that nuked themselves. Is Google worried? Probably not too much. Am I worried? No, I don’t care.
Stephen E Arnold, February 1, 2010
A freebie. I will report this to the Railway Retirement Board.
Embedding Lucene
January 31, 2010
The goslings and I participated in a search conference call last week. One of the topics du jour is Lucene. The open source search system continues to fascinate certain government procurement teams and those looking for a low-cost way to provide users with a search-and-retrieval system. The enthusiasm for Lucene and Solr goes up as the age of the information technology professionals decreases. Whatever universities are putting in the Red Bull sold in computer science departments seems to trigger a Lucene / Solr craving.
In the course of the conversation, I mentioned embedding Lucene in commercial software. The advantages ranged from low cost to sidestepping the blow-back from customers. The blow back occurs when the users of software want a feature not in the OEM “stub” embedded in a system or gizmo. The fix is to buy the full version of the software. The “stub” is a good enough chunk of functionality, but it won’t do the fancy back flips some users want when looking for information.
© Scribovox 2009
Lucene can be extended as long as the outfit doing the embedding has some Lucene experts on staff or access to a consultant able to keep appointments, complete work on time and in budget, and writes code that works. The example I gave was the Lucene within Scribovox.com.
Scribovox is a software that performs such tricks as converting a podcast to text. You can get more information about the product at http://www.scribvox.com. The information I referenced came from a June 17, 2009 Scribovox design document called “Integration with Social Networks.” I found the information in this write up quite useful, and you can download a copy of the paper from this link.
The author of the paper is Patrick Nicholas. He discusses some interesting ideas; for example:
- Flow diagrams for processing real time content
- A useful architecture diagram
- A discussion of indexing and summarization
- Some information about Amazon EC2, MapReduce and Hadoop.
If you are serious about open source, I would tuck this document in your bag of tricks. The time estimation puts search and semantics into perspective. Useful for the azure chip crowd since most don’t have too much, if any, oil under their fingers from removing the fuel injection unit from a search system.
Stephen E Arnold, January 31, 2010
A freebie. No one paid me to write this. I will report this charitable act to the boss at the National Cathedral on Wisconsin Avenue, in Washington, DC.
Black and White Photo Search
January 30, 2010
Short honk: I wanted to let you know that “Top 5 Black & White Image Search Engines” provides a description of five photo search systems. What makes this list useful is that the angle is black and white pix.
Stephen E Arnold, January 29, 2010
A freebie. I will report this to the photo manager at the Department of Energy where there is considerable expertise in managing images.
Can Search Save YouTube?
January 26, 2010
YouTube.com has been a topic of conversation here at the goose pond today. Several of the goslings commented about the redesign. Another pointed out that the search function was a hit-and-miss affair. I described a couple of patent documents such as US2006/0080238 that I thought were designed to give Google’s grassroots media video service some lift (as in pants on the ground). I don’t think search can save YouTube.com. Money can.
Finding pants on the ground was easy. It’s not so easy finding some other videos.
When I read “You Tube Is Doomed Guy Refuses to Admit He Was Wrong (But YouTube No Longer Doomed”, I learned that YouTube.com is going to become a pay-per-view operation. The story in Silicon Alley Insider suggests that Google will emulate the Hulu.com model.
The write up presents a summary of some conflicting or maybe just fluid information about the profitability of the YouTube.com service. Google bought YouTube.com in 2006 at about the same time it was working out a deal with dMarc and lifting some other rich media barbells in the Google gymnasium.
The key passage for me was:
Google never figured out how to get advertisers excited about millions of people’s home videos. Benjamin [critic of YouTube.com and CEO of Fliqz.com] thinks Google will continue to chase after premium content, making the site more like Hulu. He also thinks eventually, Google could charge a small fee to upload video to the site. In other words, YouTube isn’t doomed.
The guts of the article is an interview with Benjamin Wayne, Fliqz and it is worth reading.
The goslings and I were uncertain about YouTube.com. On one hand, it seems to have some challenges in the search department. Finding a video is often most easily accomplished looking for a link in a write up, not by searching for a video. The ads are indeed annoying, and these may have disappointed both Google and the folks buying ads on YouTube.com videos. On the other hand, does the world need another for-fee video site. These seem to be predicated on the same assumptions one finds in the eBook reader sector. More may not yield a bigger revenue pie.
What is Google’s play in rich media? Perhaps Google has matured sufficiently to realize that there are other business models, but these may not lend themselves to the Googley style of management. Management, not emulating Hulu.com or some other for fee rich media service, may be the deciding factor for YouTube.com.
Stephen E Arnold, January 26, 2010
A freebie. Someone promised to pay me a pittance in the future, but that faint assertion had nothing to do with the plight of YouTube.com.
YouTube Terms of Service Updated
January 19, 2010
I have been thinking about Google and rich media. Rich media means multimedia. Multimedia means YouTube. These terms are important because Google uses a wide range of words and phrases to describe its rich media services and capabilities.
On January 14, 2010, Google posted “YouTube’s APIs and Refresher on our Terms of Service”. The write up does a good job of highlighting the major changes. My view of the changes is that they nudge the YouTube service forward to commercial payoff land.
For example, the point “Videos belong to their owners” is a gentle reminder that Google’s innovations in giving content owners a control panel on which to input settings is an important function. The more content owners input the rules for a particular content object, the more useful the Google control panel or content owner dashboard becomes in the upload process.
The focus on the YouTube video player is a reminder that consistency for Google is a positive. Google is pointing out that certain actions are not making the Google happy; for example, enable videos for download.
The third point is that the Google wants ads left alone. Period. Stripping ads is a no no. The person who wants to monetize a video can read the API monetization guide. If you have not looked at this API, it is worth a quick look. You can find the API monetization guide with some helpful links on the Google Code page in the write up “Using the YouTube APIs to Bu9ild Monetizable Applications.” We geese at Beyond Search think this is a pretty important chunk of info, by the way.
Finally, Google wants those who do charge for a video to make clear that Google is not charging. My hunch is that Google gets email complaining about fees for some YouTube videos and Google doesn’t have time to handle that type of email. Heck, Google has a tough time handling email for the Nexus One phone. It doesn’t need more email about an issue a content provider causes. Just my opinion, gentle reader.
You may want to add the YouTube API blog to your newsreader if you are into rich media, multimedia, video, or related content types.
Stephen E Arnold, January 19, 2010
A short article I wrote without anyone, including a TV or motion picture company, paying me for the effort. Is the Oscar committee in charge of this type of write up and disclosure. I will report to them to be sure.
Google and Face Recognition
January 18, 2010
You can read a good summary of a mainstream publication’s analysis of Google and its face recognition technology. Just navigate to Google Blogoscoped and check out “German Spiegel on Google Goggles’ Face Recognition and More”. The only problem is that the author of the write up did not consider the application of this system and method to video. To get the full picture of the Google facial recognition capability, you may want to skip the traditional publication and read US20100008547 “Method and System for Automated Annotation of Persons in Video Content”. You can find this document at the USPTO’s free patent document Web site, www.uspto.com. I find it interesting that open source information about a specific and significant Google system and method is ignored. Much easier to write without too much information I suppose. That’s what keeps the Larry and Sergey eat pizza book writers in high clover.
Stephen E Arnold, January 18, 2010
A freebie. Due to the direct reference to the USPTO, I herewith report that I was not paid to point out this omission about Google’s facial recognition technology.
Personalized Playlists
January 15, 2010
I read “PerfectStream: The Future for Personalized Video Playlists, Advertising?” and thought that it was a good idea. I think that the sentence that snagged me was:
Munich-based PerfectStream is taking the business-to-business route and hopes to license its technology out to media and tech companies that already have professionally-produced or user-generated content. It came out of stealth this week and has raised funding solely from Brandenburg.
I recall reading about personalized playlists somewhere else. Maybe a Google patent application. Interesting.
Stephen E Arnold, January 15, 2010
Sad to say a freebie. Possible patent research ahead. I will report my non-compensation to the ever vigilant USPTO.
Interactive Computing from Apple
January 6, 2010
Short honk: Take a peek at how Apple presented the tablet concept about 25 years ago. Voice interaction, touch screen, and sort of rich media. You can find the video on TUAW.com here. Search does not work exactly the way depicted in the video. Slow progress. Mom still calls in the video. Son ignores mom. That’s accurate for some I suppose.
Stephen E. Arnold, January 6, 2010
A freebie. To whom do I report? I know for apple related information it must be the USDA.
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