Quote to Note: Google and Toddler Gibberish
January 18, 2013
I read “Harper’s Publisher Says Google’s ‘Toddler Gibberish’ Is Driving Us Insane.” Now the question of who is and who is not sane is interesting, just not germane. Here’s the passage I noted:
It’s no coincidence that Google, Yahoo!, Bing, and Yelp sound like toddler gibberish from the Teletubbies… A psychoanalyst friend tells me that listening to baby talk may be gratifying up to a point, but that constant subjection to it produces unconscious rage in adults. This unending assault of babble potentially could lead to revolutionary conditions in which the new writer-teacher proletariat rises up to overthrow the internet oligarchy and the politicians and government agencies who protect it.
I thought Google’s approach to prose was outstanding. Let me cite an example which I quote in my January 2013 column for KMWorld Magazine:
Wherever your followers are, Google+ brings them together and helps you talk with them, via 10 way video Hangouts. You can even stream and record conversations for playback later.
I suppose Harper’s asserts their prose mavens craft better sentences. I think not. Google defines knowledge, value, and reality. Why not prose? Who doesn’t know about “10 way” hangouts. Clueless? Don’t use Google. And which company makes more money? There you go.
Stephen E Arnold, January 18, 2013
Social Search: Don Quixote Is Alive and Well
January 18, 2013
Here I float in Harrod’s Creek, Kentucky, an addled goose. I am interested in other geese in rural Kentucky. I log into Facebook, using a faux human alias (easier than one would imagine) and run a natural language query (human language, of course). I peck with my beak on my iPad using an app, “Geese hook up 40027.” What do I get? Nothing, Zip, zilch, nada.
Intrigued I query, “modern American drama.” What do I get? Nothing, Zip, zilch, nada.
I give up. Social search just does not work under my quite “normal” conditions.
First, I am a goose spoofing the world as a human. Not too many folks like this on Facebook, so my interests and my social graph is useless.
Second, the key words in my natural language query do not match the Facebook patterns, crafted by former Googlers and 20 somethings to deliver hook up heaven and links to the semi infamous Actor’s Theater or the Kentucky Center.
Social search is not search. Social search is group centric. Social search is an outstanding system for monitoring and surveillance. For information retrieval, social search is a subset of information retrieval. How do semantic methods improve the validity of the information retrieved? I am not exactly sure. Perhaps the vendors will explain and provide documented examples?
Third, without context, my natural language queries shoot through the holes in the Swiss Cheese of the Facebook database.
After I read “The Future of Social Search,” I assumed that information was available at the peck of my beak. How misguided was I? Well, one more “next big thing” in search demonstrated that baloney production is surging in a ailing economy. Optimism is good. Crazy predictions about search are not so good. Look at the sad state of enterprise search, Web search, and email search. Nothing works exactly as I hope. The dust up between Hewlett Packard and Autonomy suggests that “meaning based computing” is a point of contention.
If social search does not work for an addled goose, for whom does it work? According to the wild and crazy write up:
Are social networks (or information networks) the new search engine? Or, as Steve Jobs would argue, is the mobile app the new search engine? Or, is the question-and-answer formula of Quora the real search 2.0? The answer is most likely all of the above, because search is being redefined by all of these factors. Because search is changing, so too is the still maturing notion of social search, and we should certainly think about it as something much grander than socially-enhanced search results.
Yep, Search 2.0.
But the bit of plastic floating in my pond is semantic search. Here’s what the Search 2.0 social crowd asserts:
Let’s embrace the notion that social search should be effortless on the part of the user and exist within a familiar experience — mobile, social or search. What this foretells is a future in which semantic analysis, machine learning, natural language processing and artificial intelligence will digest our every web action and organically spit out a social search experience. This social search future is already unfolding before our very eyes. Foursquare now taps its massive check in database to churn out recommendations personalized by relationships and activities. My6sense prioritizes tweets, RSS feeds and Facebook updates, and it’s working to personalize the web through semantic analysis. Even Flipboard offers a fresh form of social search and helps the user find content through their social relationships. Of course, there’s the obvious implementations of Facebook Instant Personalization: Rotten Tomatoes, Clicker and Yelp offer Facebook-personalized experiences, essentially using your social graph to return better “search” results.
Semantics. Better search results. How does that work on Facebook images and Twitter messages?
My view is that when one looks for information, there are some old fashioned yardsticks; for example, precision, recall, editorial policy, corpus provenance, etc.
When a clueless person asks about pop culture, I am not sure that traditional reference sources will provide an answer. But as information access is trivialized, the need for knowledge about the accuracy and comprehensiveness of content, the metrics of precision and recall, and the editorial policy or degree of manipulation baked into the system decreases.
See Advantech.com for details of a surveillance system.
Search has not become better. Search has become subject to self referential mechanisms. That’s why my goose queries disappoint. If I were looking for pizza or Lady Gaga information, I would have hit pay dirt with a social search system. When I look for information based on an idiosyncratic social fingerprint or when I look for hard information to answer difficult questions related to client work, social search is not going to deliver the input which keeps this goose happy.
What is interesting is that so many are embracing a surveillance based system as the next big thing in search. I am glad I am old. I am delighted my old fashioned approach to obtaining information is working just fine without the special advantages a social graph delivers.
Will today’s social search users understand the old fashioned methods of obtaining information? In my opinion, nope. Does it matter? Not to me. I hope some of these social searchers do more than run a Facebook query to study for their electrical engineering certification or to pass board certification for brain surgery.
Stephen E Arnold, January 18, 2013
Insights from Both Technology and Business Applications Join Forces with PolySpot
January 18, 2013
The world only becomes even more data-driven and Wired offers up some insight on which field, business or technology faces more of the potential issues in collecting, storing and analyzing big data. The article “Big Data: Business or Technology Challenge?” delves into this question by answering it with several predictions.
Finding and employing different technologies that are operated by both side, business and IT, that work in harmony with each other through enterprise architecture and infrastructure technologies will become even more common.
The article states:
In 2013, we will see increased demand for Big Data tools and applications that will be easier to use and will satisfy the business user, not just data scientist users. All market indicators point to this. If you look at Hadoop-based technology capabilities, many are still immature and require unique specialized skills. We have already seen new product announcements that address this need, including the recent announcements on Cloudera Impala and Microsoft Polybase.
Many big player technology vendors are entering in on the scene now, according to the article. However, there are startups like PolySpot that have been integrating enterprise information in different applications, enabling important opportunities to present themselves to decision-makers for years. These types of companies will see success based on our predictions.
Megan Feil, January 18, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search.
Innovation No Longer Driven by Big IT
January 18, 2013
Microsoft, Oracle, and IBM – these companies spend big bucks on research and development every quarter. Microsoft spends $10 billion a year. But none of these companies have made significant contributions to the enterprise in the last ten years. So who’s making the impact? Open source. ReadWrite Enterprise covers the story in, “Trickle-Down Web Innovation Breathes New Life Into Enterprise IT.”
The author gets to the crux of the issue:
“Cloud computing, Big Data, mobile… they’re all being invented elsewhere, not by the enterprise behemoths . . . these tools were open sourced, not put out for sale. That’s how innovation seems to happen in the 21st Century. In large part innovation comes with an open-source license because it’s a by-product of businesses that heavily rely on technology, but don’t actually sell technology. It’s ‘trickle-down innovation’ from the web business community.”
Web giants like Yahoo!, Google, and Facebook are making great strides in large scale applications on low cost infrastructure. The sheer volume of data dealt with is striking. But there are other smaller companies who focus their effort on precise open source enterprise search software, and they are making a big impact in their own way. LucidWorks is one such company, proving that open source can provider better service at a better price point and maintain just as high a level of reliability.
Emily Rae Aldridge, January 18, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Fifteen Year Old Invents Information Filter App
January 18, 2013
Useful apps can be made by anyone, but Fast Company reported on how “This 15-Year-Old Built An App To Help His High School Debate Team. It Could Do Much More Than That.” Tanay Tandy invented an app he calls Clipped that was developed to extract information from news articles and other sources and create a bulleted list. It is being touted as a new tool that could put research assistants, Congressional aides, and judicial clerks out of work. Clipped has received mixed reviews so far, but Tandy is working on an upgrade that should resolve the problems.
Tandy personally created the algorithm for his debate prep. Here is how he uses it:
“I use it to scan over articles, and after using Clipped, if I like an article, I have to go back and read the whole thing. For a typical debate I have about 100 different evidence files about 2-3 pages in length. There might be an article where the title might sound appealing, but after running Clipped, I can see the focus of the article is definitely not what I’m looking for. Last year for a debate on animal rights, I found a paper on animal rights–but it was targeted towards the philosophical side of why to respect animal rights. But for that specific debate, I was looking for evidence from the scientific side, research showing that animals can think as much as humans.”
Tandy does not believe anyone is too young to launch a product as long as the right people are around and ego does not go to a person’s head. Tandy just built a tool to make his life easier and was not looking for fame, but now he has a project that will appeal to college review boards. Also Google might be keeping an eye on him for future jobs.
Whitney Grace, January 18, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Autonomy’s Creative Accounting
January 18, 2013
Autonomy is the hot seat after HP discovered $5 billion worth of creative accounting. HP accused Autonomy of selling software-as-a-service contracts as licensing deals and, of course, the company has denied all allegations. The Department of Justice is currently investigating the claims. Business Insider sat down with one of Autonomy’s former employees to gain insight: “Exclusive: A Former Autonomy Salesperson Says This Is How The Creative Accounting Was Done.” Virginia Briody explained how:
“…Prior to HP’s acquisition, Autonomy executives massaged a SaaS deal into a big software licensing deal so they could recognize revenue up front, and show more growth than what the deal really was, a monthly agreement spanning four years. She says she has evidence – emails and documents.”
Briody is not unbiased, though, as she is currently in a legal battle with HP for unpaid compensation. Her story describes how Autonomy bought out a former company she worked for and inherited the Pioneer Investments contract. Autonomy did not gain all the pieces called for the original contract, so they changed the contract from a hosting to a software licensing deal. Autonomy did this to get the revenue up front. The mess gets even more bungled. It is interesting how contracts can be reworked to reflect dishonesty, if the allegations come out to be true. If so, woe to Autonomy and HP.
Whitney Grace, January 18, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Only Fool Professors Stay In School
January 18, 2013
Students are told to stay in school, less their changes for success are diminished. But does that statement apply to teachers? According to Enterprise Efficiency’s David Wagner “Professors Don’t Need Schools Anymore.” It used to be the only way to get a good education was to attend a university, pay thousands of dollars in tuition, and wait two years before you were even allowed to start on core classes related to your major. These tasks revolved around a physical building, but now with Professor Direct students can access professors and classes for $49. Professors can charge more, but everything goes directly back to them. Schools are actually accepting these classes as credit.
Professors have the chance to make more money than an average university stipend, but there are some drawbacks. Students can’t get a degree directly from the professor and professors lose research support and prestige. The price alone will draw students, but this is the start of change in post-secondary education:
“Even if this alone doesn’t bring down the walls of the school, it is clear technology is going to bring the people with knowledge and expertise closer together. If you’re the CIO or president of a school, you’re going to have to find a way to keep putting yourself into the space or facilitating the contact between students and your own professors. If you fail, expect to be disintermediated.”
Is this good news or bad news? It depends on what side of the education creek you are on.
Whitney Grace, January 18, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
PolySpot Connects Data from Multiple Apps Across the Enterprise
January 17, 2013
Now that more companies understand that big data is the ticket to big opportunity and big insights, the job descriptions of data scientists are becoming more than fleshed out on paper. People are being hired in this position and companies are hoping that articles like “Data Scientists Will Unlock Big Data’s Promise” from The Wall Street Journal’s CIO Report are correct.
After the requisite reflective move to take a step back and look at what data means today, as opposed to their article on big data last week, the article moves in to a discussion on a holistic approach that data scientists take because of the inherent interdisciplinary nature of their work.
The article then takes a holistic look at our usage of data analysis:
Over the past few centuries, we have significantly increased our understanding of the natural world around us by learning how to collect large amounts of data and by developing disciplined ways to study, analyze, model and make sense of all that data. We have similarly applied our scientific methods in the social sciences to enhance our understanding of societies and human behavior.
Where there is a will, there is a way. This is definitely the case with both the jobs of data scientists and also big data solutions that enables the real-time connectivity of information sourced in various apps across the enterprise. We saw PolySpot conquer the latter and we will see data scientists help further the efforts of these technologies.
Megan Feil, January 17, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search.
QlikTech and Attivio Partner for Big Data Analytics
January 17, 2013
More and more collaboration continues to emerge in the Big Data community, particularly among open source-based software companies. Attivio and QlikTech recently formed one such partnership. Daily Finance covers the story in, “QlikTech and Attivio Partner to Deliver QlikView Direct Discovery for Big Data Analytics.”
The article begins:
“QlikTech, a leader in user-driven Business Intelligence (BI), and Attivio today announced a partnership to give customers the ability to combine QlikView in-memory data with Attivio’s Active Intelligence Engine (AIE®) via QlikView Direct Discovery. QlikTech and Attivio have collaborated to test and validate Direct Discovery with Attivio’s AIE to leverage AIE’s capabilities of unifying the variety of Big Data information to give business users a full understanding of not just what has happened, but also why.”
Providing meaning to Big Data is a continuing challenge. But, many excellent Big Data solutions are emerging. LucidWorks Big Data is another to consider. LucidWorks boasts industry respect and long-standing investment in the open source community. Their platform is built on Apache Lucene, and is considered a leader in cost effective enterprise open source search.
Emily Rae Aldridge, January 17, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Big Data Push Back
January 17, 2013
Businesses love Big Data because it allows them to analyze years’ worth of data, discover trends, an open new revenue streams, right? No so, according to Leena Rao of Tech Crunch in her article, “Why We Need To Kill ‘Big Data.’” Rao believes the word is outdated and does not reflect what is going on now with data. The current trend deals with how people use the data, the apps, and the insights it can provide. Big Data is not only used in enterprise systems. Nearly every company these days is a Big Data company and Big Data start-ups do not describe everything the company can do.
It is important to analyze and cash in on the data, because many industries including advertising and e-commerce depend on it. We just have to change the way it is viewed:
“Another fact worth pointing out is that enterprise companies like IBM, large retailers, financial services giants and many others have been parsing through massive amounts of data for some time now, before this word was even coined. It’s just that the types of data we are now parsing through is different, and we don’t need to be using these data analytics systems through on-site data centers. So let’s figure out a different way to describe startups that are dealing with large quantities of data. Perhaps it’s about the actual functionality of apps vs. the data. It’s the New Year and a great time to brainstorm over ways we can avoid ‘the term that must not be named.’”
Big Data is an outdated buzzword, but if we get rid of it what will replace it? Possibly something even more annoying and less descriptive?
Whitney Grace, January 17, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
