Bright Planet Gets Coverage in Rolling Stone
October 25, 2013
Bright Planet once provided a federated search system, competing with outfits like Deep Web Technologies and the pre-IBM Vivisimo. I learned in “Meet the Private Companies Helping Cops Spy on Protesters” that Bright Planet has expanded into a search application niche. The write up surprised me. Here’s the passage that caught my attention:
Another program, made by Bright Planet and called BlueJay, is billed in a brochure to law enforcement as a “Twitter crime scanner.” BlueJay allows cops to covertly monitor accounts and hashtags; three that Bright Planet touts in promotional material are #gunfire, #meth, and #protest. In another promotional document, the company says BlueJay can “monitor large public events, social unrest, gang communications, and criminally predicated individuals,” as well as “track department mentions.” Bright Planet did not respond to a request for comment.
As search and content processing vendors seek to generate revenues, product extensions are understandable. My question, “How many other search and content processing firms are shifting from enterprise search to other niches?”
I am okay with these moves, but I have not seen a comprehensive listing of search and content vendors moving in this direction. Perhaps one of the azure chip consulting firms has this report available for a fee. Is there a no cost, publicly available listing of these companies. The Rolling Stone magazine has, it seems, done a better job of reporting on search than some of the poobahs, wizards, and former English teachers now covering the field. I thought Rolling Stone wrote about moving rocks. I am definitely out of touch.
Stephen E Arnold, October 25, 2013
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