Wolfram Alpha and Search
October 12, 2010
I read “Wolfram Alpha and the Future of Search.” When I first looked at Wolfram Alpha, I did not consider the system a search engine. Google has a similar function. The idea is that an appropriate query will generate an answer. In my first queries with Wolfram Alpha, the math questions worked well. The more generalized query elicited some head scratching from the Wolfram Alpha system.
The write up summarizes some remarks made by Stephen Wolfram, a well know wizard and software genius, whose Mathematica finds use in many PhD study areas, research labs in Silicon Valley, and puzzle solvers who find Mathematica just what the doctor ordered to avoid a silly addition error.
The write up contained two points which I found interesting.
First, Dr. Wolfram allegedly said something along the lines:
Traditional search engines help us find documents in that mountain of words. But they do very little to distill those words into knowledge, or to answer our questions. The challenge in the coming years, Wolfram said, was to make more of these files and documents computable. That would enable systems like Wolfram/Alpha to digest them, and to use them to produce answers and analysis.
Dr. Wolfram is right in the flow of the data fusion trend. The question I would raise is, “What happens when those generating the outputs fiddle the game?” I don’t think “trust”, “reputation,” or “honor” will satisfy my need for some substantive reassurance. The nifty interfaces and the point-and-click access to “the answer” may be a mixed blessing.
Second, Dr. Wolfram alleged said something along these lines:
But the way Wolfram sees it, more of us will produce information in a style (or on templates) that will make it computable, and machines like his will eventually be able to answer all sorts of questions. In a sense, an early stage of this pre-processing is already happening: An entire industry is formatting Web pages to make them more searchable.
Bingo. Data fusion. The question I would raise is, “What happens when one of the nifty acquisition and transformation systems cannot process certain content?” In my experience, the scale of operation at even Twitter content centric start ups is a significant amount of data. Presenting information as complete that may quite incomplete seems to be a sticky wicket to me.
Is this bulk content processing and machine answering the future? Google, Recorded Future, and DataSift are rushing toward that end zone. Trends are fascinating, and in this case, data fusion tells us more about the market’s need for an easy-as-pie way to get actionable information than about the validity of the methods and the appropriateness of the outputs.
Stephen E Arnold, October 12, 2010
Orkut: The Need for Speed
October 12, 2010
We think there may be a number of different points of friction for Orkut, Google’s social networking service. Orkut became available since 2004. Orkut “lived” in the US, but we have heard that it now resides on servers in Brazil, not that the location of a Google server makes much difference to a user. Other folks may have a different opinion about where a particular service should reside.
The TechCrunch article “Marissa Mayer: Orkut’s U.S. Failure Was Due To Slow Performance After Fast Growth”, shows a different side of Google. Many people have never heard of Google’s social network Orkut which was introduced before Facebook. The network attracted a lot of attention in just the first few days. However, Google was not prepared and Mayer admitted “This caused the network to slow down to a crawl.” US Internet users stopped using the program and it became obsolete. Google eventually worked out the network problems but they missed a golden opportunity and their US audience was gone. With the introduction of FaceBook, Google may have lost its chance at a social network audience. Orkut continues to be popular in Brazil but when it comes to the US it seems that ship has already sailed.
The question is, “Can Google catch up with Facebook?” If the answer is, “Yes,” then the question becomes, “Can Google leap frog Facebook?” Our view is that speed is more than the rendering time of a Web page and its images. Speed also shades into closing the gap with a competitor and quickly blasting away that competitor’s market position.
Google is good at certain types of quickness, but in terms of the Facebook problem, Google is less than fleet footed in the Facebook-type market. With Facebook now the subject of wildly popular movie, the film makes clear that any notoriety is good in Hollywood. The ClickZ article about video usage delivers another interesting fact. Please, keep in mind that these 20-something oriented surveys may have some wild and crazy aspects to them.
Here’s what ClickZ said:
Facebook is now the second largest online video property in the U.S. when ranked by unique viewers, according to data from comScore. The measurement firm’s Video Metrix service reports Facebook grew its audience substantially in August, with over 58.5 million users watching video content on the site over the course of the month, compared with around 46.6 million doing so in July. Meanwhile, viewers of video content on Yahoo sites dwindled, allowing Facebook to overtake it and claim the second spot behind Google.
If true, the need for speed in the social networking sector is increasing in our opinion.
Stephen E Arnold, October 12, 2010
Freebie
Keyword Query for Microsoft SharePoint
October 12, 2010
Short honk: Want to build a custom application with search using SharePoint as plumbing? If yes, navigate to “SharePoint Search Using KeywordQuery.” The write up provides a trick. You will want to use the new Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.Query object model. There are some twists and turns along the way. The good news is that the author of the article incluides some useful commentary and a chunk of code that could save a SharePoint search wonk a big chunk of time. Take a look.
Stephen E Arnold, October 12, 2010
Ask.com: Light Bulb Latency
October 12, 2010
Years ago I had dinner with a couple of lower tier consulting firm wizards. One of these folks extolled the virtues of Ask.com. Since I was not paying for dinner, I listened and wrote off that azure chip outfit and thought about walking my dog.
I read “IAC Boss Barry Diller Disses Ask, Says It Has “No Value” and recognized what I call light bulb latency. The term is useful when a person takes a long, long time to observe the obvious. Persistence is a virtue, but as flawed as Web usage data are, the basement is the basement. Millions after millions mean more money will be needed but the basement is a welcoming place, tough to leave.
According to the write up:
I did not say that Ask has no value inside of IAC, period. In response to a specific question, I said that many of our assets are not ‘valued’ in the stock, and Ask is one of them…I was asked specifically if Ask would be better off with us or another company or standing alone. In the context of that question, I said that since it wasn’t valued in IAC – like so many of our businesses, because we have so many – that it would only be ‘valued’ stand alone.
I accept this. I will say it and with no light bulb latency. Ask.com is going to have a tough time leaving the rec room, the flat screen TV, and chips. In for the duration.
Stephen E Arnold, October 12, 2010
Freebie
United Health Ingenix Acquires A-Life
October 12, 2010
Short honk: United Health acquired A-Life Medical, a privately-held company with natural language processing and medical coding methods. Terms of the deal were not announced. The few details available are summarized in “United Health to Buy A-Life Medical.” Figuring out how the moving pieces interact within the United Health Group are beyond the scope of this Web log. Not a peep has been heard in Harrod’s Creek about Google’s and Microsoft’s health play. Surprisingly, Dell Computer is in this sector as well. With billions flowing through the US healthcare system, I am not surprised by the robustness and dynamism in this complex, chaotic, and probably unmanageable business sector.
Stephen E Arnold, October 12, 2010
Freebie
The Google Car: The Goose View Mirror
October 11, 2010
Short honk: Geese don’t drive unless killed, processed, and converted to pillows. At that stage, the geese are transported, and that’s the idea behind the Google “look, ma, no hands” Math Club car. The received wisdom appears in “Google working on Self-Driving Cars.” Some bafflement swirls about this Google initiative. Here’s the goose’s view:
- When Google drives, Google has geospatial data. Yep, it’s still search.
- When Google drives, it has a captive audience who may be surfing or otherwise consuming digital goodies in a Google-equipped vehicle
- When Google drives, Google can serve ads just like the ones Sun execs wanted so a burger joint was readily accessible without unnecessary exits and delays.
In short, the Google car makes a lot of sense and cents.
Stephen E Arnold, October 11, 2010
AOL Makes Its Research Study Available
October 11, 2010
My doubt about the validity of sponsored research remains unchanged. If you are a data maven, eager to gobble, information about online, you will want to navigate to “AOL Commissions Two Research Studies to Help Determine Driving Forces Behind Online Content Consumption” and read the story. Skip the fruitless trip to the download link. Just propaganda about AOL. Reuters presented some highlights. I found one passage remarkable:
The most acceptable forms of online advertising to the consumer are those that are directly relevant, integrated and informative as well as have visually appealing imagery.
Quite a surprise. Too bad there is no detail about the development of the questions, sample selection, and other down-and-deep details. Google displayed a wild ad on one of my blogs today. There were components in the ad, but these were not independently active.
Maybe some day. Exciting. Ads.
Stephen E Arnold, October 11, 2010
Freebie unlike the ads
Linguamatics Joins Up with Accelrys
October 11, 2010
Linguamatics, a nifty content processing vendor in the UK, has formed a partnership for “streamlined, high performance text analytics” with Accelrys. Linguamatics will be giving a presentation at the Smart Content Conference in Manhattan later this month, so you can learn about the company first hand, or you can navigate to http://www.linguamatics.com/. The firm’s Web site has been refreshed and you can learn about the firm’s solutions directly.
Accelrys is a company that produces scientific informatics software. If you got a D in biology, you won’t be using Accelrys’ industrial strength analytics and visualization tools any time soon. Chemistry majors, engineers, and molecular biologists will be quite interested in the firm’s solutions.
What does the hook up mean?
According to “Linguamatics and Accelrys Announce Partnership for Streamlined, High-Performance Text Analytics,”
Mutual customers will benefit by embedding powerful natural language querying within more extensive informatics workflows including access via Accelrys web clients. Organizations continue to face the challenge of filtering ever-increasing volumes of text information to gain actionable knowledge. Linguamatics provides the ability to automate document indexing and querying within the I2E software platform in addition to its interactive information extraction capabilities. Embedding I2E within Pipeline Pilot workflows enables further streamlining of the process for high throughput text mining, and provides access to additional content processing, analytics and output display options.
I would not characterize the new capabilities as search or NLP. The companies are moving, like some others, into a data fusion space. Unlike search vendors who announce that they are now involved in Business Intelligence, Linguamatics and Accelrys have industrial strength technology in place to meet the needs of a specific market category. Just my opinion.
Stephen E Arnold, October 11, 2010
Freebie
Nstein in the News
October 11, 2010
I had a couple of comments about my not mentioning Nstein, now a unit of OpenText. Nstein has been an interesting company or unit of a bigger enterprise. Last year, one of Nstein’s executives set up a meeting with me and then did not show up. I pinged the fellow and learned that his plans had changed. Since then, my plans for covering Nstein changed as well. Seemed only fair.
To assuage the aggrieved reader, I took a quick look at the content sucked into my Overflight system about Nstein. One of the more interesting items appeared in a publication for which I write a for-fee column. I don’t cover search in that publication, but Archana Venkatraman wrote “Semantic Content Analytics Can Resolve Digital Information Problems.” I was surprised because a picture of me and links to my recent write ups about SAP appeared in the border for the Web version of Mr. Venkatraman’s article. I was flattered, but I was confused about the premise of the article; to wit, analytics resolving digital information problems. I think of analytics as causing problems, particularly with regard to the methods used to generate output. Data type and source, privacy, and latency – these topics cross the goose’s mind when he thinks about content analytics.
With regard to Nstein, the passage that caught my attention was information which is attributed, I assume, to an OpenText Nstein executive, Lubor Ptacek, vice president, product marketing:
Semantic Navigation first collects content through a crawling process. Then the content is automatically analyzed and tagged with relevant and insightful entities, topics, summaries and sentiments – the key to providing an engaging online experience. Next, content is served to users through intuitive navigation widgets that encourage audiences to discover the depth of available information or share it on social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter. From there, it supports placement of product and service offerings or advertising to convert page views into sales.Ptacek gives the example of a medical information professional is searching for the name of a disease, content analytics technology can provide him additional information such as the side effects of the illness the drugs used in the past and so on. “And this logic can be applied to other industries as well.” The solution comes after Open Text acquired Nstein Technologies, a content analytics company, six months ago. It acquired Nstein at a time when analysts were suggesting that such e-discovery solutions could provide sophisticated search and content navigation options that info pros are seeking.
I am hearing similar explanations of functionality from a number of companies. These include “sentiment specialists” like Attensity and Lexalytics and from certain mashup vendors such as Digital Reasoning and Kapow Technologies. I have heard the leaders in enterprise search like Autonomy and Exalead reference similar functions. I could toss in IBM, Google, and Microsoft, but I think you get the idea. Quite a few search vendors are morphing into solutions.
If you want more information about OpenText / Nstein, navigate to www.opentext.com. I would also suggest a look at the other vendors making similar assertions. I may have to start covering this new segment of search. Perhaps it warrants a separate Web log?
Stephen E Arnold, October 11, 2010
Freebie
InQuira Inks Deal with Zebra
October 11, 2010
I learned that Zebra Technologies has selected InQuira’s natural language processing technology to enhance Zebra’s “knowledge solutions.” InQuira bills itself as a leading provider of self service and contact center support systems. Zebra’s business involves the design, manufacture, sales and supports a range of direct thermal and thermal transfer label printers, radio frequency identification (RFID) printer/encoders, dye sublimation card printers, and software.
According to CRM Marketplace,
InQuira for Web Self Service will allow Zebra to deliver customized and accurate results to partner queries initiated on its website any time of the day. Additionally, Zebra will utilize InQuira for Contact Centers to help increase agent productivity, lower training costs and improve the accuracy and satisfaction of every partner interaction.
InQuira, based in San Bruno, Calif., is an established vendor of natural language processing technology. A visitor to an InQuire-based support system can type a question in normal colloquial form. The system will parse the query, understand the user’s meaning, and display relevant information from the processed content.
The company was founded in 2002. My recollection is that two firms merged to create InQuira. I think one company was Answerfriend and the other was Electric Knowledge. In the last eight years, the engineers have supplemented search with work flow, authoring, analytics, and a feedback function.
The company was of interest to me because it was one of the first to take two search and content centric vendors, merge them, and create what appears to me a successful business. For more information about InQuira, navigate to www.inquira.com.
Stephen E Arnold, October 11, 2010
Freebie
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
