Infographics Take on New Analytic Importance
August 21, 2013
We are increasingly living in a big data and analytic society. But when discussing all this information, it’s hard to put a visual with it. Humans are, after all, very sight-oriented. However, that problem is quickly looking like a thing of the past after discovering a recent Make Use Of article, “Create Your Own Infographic about Your Facebook, Twitter and Youtube Use.”
According to the story:
What About Me is a free to use web service that lets you easily analyze how you have been using your Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube accounts. You start by granting the site access to your accounts. Your usage is analyzed and the infographic is generated while you play with some distractingly interactive circles that are displayed.
The infographic that is finally generated shows your interests in terms of percentages, how you react with friends, plus a number of other interesting things about your social networking usage.
This really is the next logical step in infographics. We’ve been lured, as Wired astutely pointed out, by infographics as “link bait” for a long time. It’s time we turned that gaze inward to see what our social habits say about us. This will take off, we predict.
Patrick Roland, August 21, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Semantic Search for Academic Social Networks
August 9, 2013
Arnetminer is an interesting service from China that we came across recently and feel compelled to share it. It is a tool that offers search and mining capabilities for academic and researcher social networks. Semantic technology is the name of its game.
There are several groups and organizations that have funded this service: Chinese Young Faculty Research Funding, IBM China Research Lab and Minnesota/China Collaborative Research Program among others. It was originally developed by Jie Tang in 2006.
We learned about the focal points of the system:
In this system, we focus on: (1) creating a semantic-based profile for each researcher by extracting information from the distributed Web; (2) integrating academic data (e.g., the bibliographic data and the researcher profiles) from multiple sources; (3) accurately searching the heterogeneous network; (4) analyzing and discovering interesting patterns from the built researcher social network.
It looks like the Introduction page was last updated in 2010, but the search engine itself seems to be going strong into 2013. In the past, the folks at Arnetminer have given talks at Google, the World Wide Web Conference and more. It would be interesting to know where they are currently making their rounds at.
Megan Feil, August 09, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Social Media Decay Signals
July 22, 2013
In the Overflight system were two news items which struck the same chord for me.
The first story is “LinkedIn’s Most Glaring Deficiencies and How to Get around Them.” On the surface, the write up provides some tricks and trips for the job hunter or competitive intelligence professional who uses the LinkedIn service. Some are obvious such as replying to a message in an invitation. Others require a bit of tinkering. The underlying message for me was that LinkedIn is making some users do extra work to perform routine tasks. The most interesting point in the article for me was:
I got this head’s up from my friend Erik Bernskiold on Twitter. I HATE when companies require a credit card for a free trial. Nothing says desperado spammer quite like that requirement. And then apparently, if you do it, good luck canceling your trial, according to these woebegone victims. In all fairness, I didn’t test this, although I did try to find a free month upgrade option to try. But it does align with their other desperate tactics.
I noticed the word “desperate.” Interesting.
The second article concerns the would-be giant in social media, Google Plus. The service as you may recall was positioned as “Google.” In the wake of the recent earnings report and Glass, I am not sure Google Plus is as important as shoring up online advertising performance. This story is “Google+ Spamming People Every 2 Weeks to Put Up a Profile Photo.” Interesting angle: The author associates Google with spam. Probably sour grapes?
My take away is that, like other online services, the social media arena is starting to show what I call “online decay.” After a run up, a level of usage is reached and then getting more buy in takes a lot of work.
In these two instances, the “work” may be alienating some users. The decay can be a difficult problem to remediate.
Stephen E Arnold, July 22, 2013
Sponsored by Xenky
Clarabridge and Brandwatch Partner Up and Promise More Sophisticated Customer Analytics
July 21, 2013
The article on Contact Centre Live titled Clarabridge Partners with Brandwatch to Extend its Clarabridge Social Solutions addresses the partnership between the Customer Experience Management provider Clarabridge and the global analytics provider Brandwatch. The two companies believe their integration will deliver the resources to gain a holistic understanding of any given business’s customer base. CEO of Clarabridge Sid Banerjee commented,
“Clarabridge has been and continues to be the pioneer in multi-source customer experience management for the Global 1000. Our partnership with Brandwatch provides our customers with an integrated end-to-end solution for social media, further expanding our Clarabridge Social offering. The level of rich social media data provided by Brandwatch, coupled with the intelligent analytics and operational capabilities of Clarabridge, adds up to the most sophisticated CEM hub available on the market and that is incredibly beneficial to our customers.”
The two companies bring different technological advances to the table. Brandwatch is able to capture data from millions of sites in over 25 languages and is able to filter out the irrelevant data, refining searches. Clarabridge, which seems to have moved beyond its original market, offers a method of skipping past social posts without merit and discover the insightful posts buried beneath the spam.
Chelsea Kerwin, July 21, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
IMs from 19 Year Old Mark Zuckerberg Reveal Cavalier Attitude Toward Privacy
July 4, 2013
The article on Business Insider titled Well, These New Zuckerberg IMs Won’t Help Facebook’s Privacy Problems addresses an exchange Zuckerberg had in college recently after launching Facebook. In sum, he offers his friend information on anyone at Harvard, and when asked how he got access to all of that information, he stated that people just posted it, because they trust him, followed by an expletive aimed at all the people dumb enough to trust him, which now includes over a billion people. The article explains,
“Since Facebook launched, the company has faced one privacy flap after another, usually following changes to the privacy policy or new product releases. To its credit, the company has often modified its products based on such feedback. As the pioneer in a huge new market, Facebook will take heat for everything it does. It has also now grown into a $22 billion company run by adults who know that their future depends on Facebook users trusting the site’s privacy policy.”
Anyone who watched The Social Network might not be surprised to learn that young Mark Zuckerberg comes across as a bit of a jerk who happens to wield a tremendous amount of power. Facebook’s privacy policy has changed many times, and Zuckerberg’s attitude still seems to be that the dummies willing to trust him deserve what happens to them.
Chelsea Kerwin, July 04, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.
Excluding Business Services: LinkedIn Deletes a Content Space
June 20, 2013
Is this censorship? It is difficult to search for something when the content is not in the index. NBC News reports, “Frisky Business? LinkedIn Evicts Little-Known ‘Red Light District’.” The media hubbub began with what a representative calls a small clarification in the site’s policy statement: “Even if it is legal where you are located, [don’t] create profiles or provide content that promotes escort services or prostitution.”
We sympathize. Understandably, LinkedIn does not want to be confused with Craigslist. Still, if a profession is legal where practiced, should the site really bar its practitioners from its hallowed pages? Writer Helen A.S. Popkin consulted brothel-owner Dennis Hof of Nevada, where the vocation is aboveboard:
“‘What’s the problem? We have a license to do this,’ said Hof, whose employees also have LinkedIn accounts. ‘Our business is as legal as theirs. . . .'”
Hof hopes LinkedIn doesn’t try to remove his account, or the accounts of his employees. ‘If it’s OK to do that, is it OK to drop Dairy Queen too because it serves too much fat and calories? Is LinkedIn going to be the moral arbiter, and drop Coca-Cola or anybody who works for a cigarette company? Where do you stop with that?'”
I think LinkedIn is actually pretty clear on where it, specifically, stops with that. I’m sure the site is simply protecting its reputation and working to maintain what it considers a professional tone. Still, barring a law-abiding businessperson just because the company doesn’t like the occupation. . . . Hmm.
Cynthia Murrell, June 20, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Businesses Lukewarm on Google Plus
June 18, 2013
Companies have not flocked to Google+, and many businesses which have joined the service let their accounts lie fallow. Reuters reports on this unsurprising trend in, “Analysis—Google+ Struggles to Attract Brands, Some Neglect to Update.”
Yes, Facebook and Twitter are the hotbeds of enterprise social-media initiatives, while latecomer Google+ has struggled for relevance. The service has had a few business success stories. Fiat, for example, launched a new car through the site’s Hangout video-conferencing feature, while Cadbury hosts a thriving baking-community page. And there is no doubt that even companies who maintain the humblest of Google+ presences receive a boost in Google Search results. Still, overall corporate activity on the Googley social site is sparse.
Why the disparity? The biggest issue is, of course, that Google+ has attracted very few users compared to its main rivals. That is not all, though. The article tells us:
“Some also complain that Google+ is too restrictive a canvas. Its profile pages are more limited than on Facebook or Twitter because they don’t support iFrame, a Web standard that allows multiple Web pages to be embedded within a main page.
“‘I don’t think that Google+ has enough creative options for brands to be able to marshal a lot of resources and activity around it,’ said Vince Broady, the Chief Executive of Thismoment, which develops social marketing campaigns and Web pages for brands such as Coca Cola and Intel.
“Gretchen Howard, Google’s director of global social solutions, said the company was working its way down a ‘wish list’ of features that businesses have been asking for.”
So, it looks like the company is addressing the issue. Will it be too little too late?
Cynthia Murrell, June 18, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Relevance of Google Plus After Two Years
June 14, 2013
It has been two years since Google introduced its social network and it remains without much fanfare. As a clear example of how major companies see Google Plus fitting into their social media strategy, a Technology Spectator article explains that Domino’s is currently garnering thousands of “likes” on Facebook but the last post on Google Plus was in October 2012. “Is Google + Struggling to Stay Relevant?” remains the question.
The article shares where there might be room for Google Plus and where they might have missed the boat:
“Many businesses do build outposts on Google+, eager to benefit from its integration with Google’s popular Internet search service. Some corporations have even used its online video feature for splashy product launches. But the flurry of commercial activity common on other social networks – from restaurant promotions to movie trailers – is harder to spot on Google+, raising questions about its ability to rival Facebook or Twitter as a thriving online community.”
Here we have an article that is simply putting more dents in Google Plus’ fender. However, if you wear Google Glass you may not have processed this write up.
Megan Feil, June 14, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Google Plus Versus Facebook: The Battle That Never Took Off
June 14, 2013
The article titled The Tragic Beauty of Google Plus on Time’s Techland explores the new Google Plus features launched during the Keynote. These include the ability to see activity streams as tile columns and the ability to simplify to just one column if you prefer. Google Plus also can auto-hash tag, and in some cases even identify relevant hash tags by analyzing the photo. But even these new features and layout may not be enough to draw away Facebook users. The article explains why,
“Once a me-too service that seemed to exist solely because Facebook posed a potentially existential threat to Google’s dominance of the web, it now has its own style and signature features. Where Facebook is rather stolid – it has its own beautification initiative going on, but feels hamstrung by its need to retain some visual consistency with its past self — Google+ is exuberant. It’s fun to use.
And yet I’m pretty positive I won’t spend remotely as much time in it as I will in Facebook.”
The argument goes that Facebook is better simply because more people are on Facebook. A social network is only as good as the community it holds, sure, but we wonder if this is damning by faint praise. Google Plus is innovative whereas Facebook still clings to its original layout, but it is still no contest as to which is more popular.
Chelsea Kerwin, June 14, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Bebo Files Voluntary Bankruptcy Petition
June 11, 2013
Looks like the social networking company Bebo is caught in a tangled web. The TechCrunch article “Social Network Bebo Has Filed A Voluntary Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Petition” talks about the messy battle between the majority shareholder Criterion Capital Partners and the minority shareholders which include co-founder Michael Birch, Hecker Consultancy and SV Angel. In lieu of this Bebo.com Inc filed a voluntary petition for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. An initial judgment was filed in February of this year by some of the smaller shareholders for the court to appoint a receiver to control the company because they felt it was being mismanaged by Criterion. Bebo was once a flourishing and profitable company but lately has been headed in a downward spiral.
“Once a fast-growing social network that was particularly popular in the UK and Ireland — in the UK in 2008 (when Facebook was much smaller) it claimed to have 40 million users who spent an average of 40 minutes each on the site. Bebo was bought by (TechCrunch owner) AOL for $850 million in 2008 but then sold to Criterion for $10 million only two years later.”
Adam Levin was the CEO in February but his future as the chief executive office at Bebo hangs in the balance as accusations of mismanagement swirl around. As stronger players such as Facebook entered the scene Bebo seems to not have been able to keep up with the competition and its popularity and overall business name faltered. With such initial success one must wonder if popular sites such as Facebook and MySpace could follow down the same path and one day be replaced by the next big thing.
April Holmes, June 11, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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