Quote to Note: Microfilm Innovation
November 7, 2013
My Overflight service delivered a gem to me this morning. The hot news concerns an executive shuffle. But deep within the comments about libraries and innovation was this paragraph:
To commemorate this pivotal milestone, the company [ProQuest (UMI)] created a comic book that tells the story in true superhero fashion of how microfilm became the gold standard for information preservation. Eugene B. Power and the Wild Beginnings of UMI is available in print and e-book format.
Fascinating. I recall the joy of searching microfilm when I was but a wee lad. Turning that crank and praying the film did not break added such joy to my studies of William Alabaster’s Elizabethiad. Search was a process that required coordination, scanning, and squinting. Who needs online? What milestone can be passed without a comic book? For fans of WWII, UMI’s origins are quite interesting.
Stephen E Arnold, November 7, 2013
Primer That Leads to Adwords
November 7, 2013
If you are into search engine optimization, you will need this Google publication: Google Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide. Useful for those whose jobs depend on traffic. There are some challenges in getting SEO centric traffic. My observation is that following the Starter Guide is a bit of a detour. Just buy Adwords. That’s the future of traffic, gentle reader.
Stephen E Arnold, November 7, 2013
Measuring Customer Loyalty Is Easier On the Web
November 7, 2013
Physical retail stores keep track of their customers with complex e-commerce systems from loyalty programs to surveys, but their digital counterparts have a much easier time of figuring out their customers’ shopping habits says “How Loyal Are Your e-Commerce Customers?” from Woopra. The article points out that it is much harder and more expensive to attract brand new customers than it is to retain older customers because they are experienced with the store and can often act as an advertising mouthpiece.
Retaining customer loyalty is not difficult for an e-commerce Web sites if the implement a few analytical features. Monitoring a basic retention report will show how long and often customers engage on a Web site. Another way to use the retention report is to track how long it takes customers to come back and make additional purchases after their initial one.
It is very important to understand which marketing campaigns attract the most loyal customers. This will allow online retailers to net the biggest profit:
“Many marketers find that customers sourced from different campaigns have varying degrees of engagement and loyalty. This is largely due to the nature of each channel and how customers engage with you through that channel. Oftentimes we rely on guesswork or assumptions to determine which channels will bring the highest quality leads. Yet sometimes the numbers tell a different story, or at least give you hard data to back up your estimations.”
The magical tool here is a retention report. Retention reports hold all the answers to retaining online customers. Why can it not be that simple for physical retailers? In a way it often seems too simple that a retention report holds all the answers. What about customer reviews of products and social media streams that discuss an e-commerce retailer? Can a retention report attract these?
Whitney Grace, November 07, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Misplaced Remorse May Be a Key to Trustworthy Appearance
November 7, 2013
Could research on perceptions of trustworthiness make for a new approach to search marketing? The British Psychological Society‘s Research Digest advises, “Want People to Trust You? Try Apologising for the Rain.” A recent study by researchers at Harvard Business School and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School found that people see strangers who apologize for factors beyond their control as more trustworthy than others.
In the researchers’ series of behavioral studies, first came three lab experiments. See the article for details, but in all three participants did rate strangers as more trustworthy when they had apologized for something that could not have been their fault. A field study conducted at a train station on a rainy day seems to confirm this bias.
Writer Christian Jarrett tells us:
“The most compelling evidence came from [Harvard’s] Alison Brooks and her colleagues’ fourth and final study in which a male actor approached 65 strangers (30 women) at a train station on a rainy day to ask to borrow their mobile phone. Crucially, for half of them he preceded his request with the superfluous apology: ‘I’m sorry about the rain!’ The other half of the time he just came straight out with his request: ‘Can I borrow your cell phone?’ The superfluous apology made a big difference. Forty-seven per cent of strangers offered their phone when the actor apologised for the rain first, compared with just nine per cent when there was no apology.”
Jarrett points out a serious flaw with this particular test: its scenarios are not parallel. Instead of changing the approach from an apology about the rain to a standard one like “sorry to bother you” or even an opener like “excuse me,” the control script went right into “can I borrow your phone?” It could well have been the abrupt request that put off participants. Still, this is an interesting premise, and the lab experiments provide compelling evidence. Perhaps a better designed field study will be done. In the meantime, though, anyone looking to manipulate human nature in the pursuit of good first impressions may want to consider these findings.
Cynthia Murrell, November 07, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
An Analysis of Deleted Tweets
November 7, 2013
It is only human to wish we could take back hurtful or embarrassing words. On the other hand, it is tough to search for information that is no longer there. University of Edinburgh researchers have been looking into the motives behind deleted Twitter missives, we learn in Digital Trends‘ piece, “New Research is Revealing What Tweets Get Deleted—and Why.” You can see the study as a PDF here.
Not surprisingly, a particularly rich field for deleted tweets lies in the political realm. Writer Kate Knibbs tells us:
“Nicko Margolies, projects coordinator for the Sunlight Foundation (the organization that runs Politiwoops) says that they’ve noted a number of reasons politicians have chosen to delete their tweets. ‘The ones that we find most interesting are the situations where politicians change their position on something or craft their language into a message others are using. This is often seen through popular hashtags or talking points that many politicians echo to their followers, bringing the issue (and their position) to the forefront of the digital conversation,’ he says.”
Of course. The team says, though, that public figures are not the only ones concerned with how their 140-words-or-less may be interpreted. They found that many reconsidered tweets contained curse words. In what I suspect is a related finding, they discovered people are more likely to delete tweets very late at night.
Tweets containing sensitive information like social security numbers or email addresses are also more likely to be removed. Knibbs sensibly wonders whether such deletions increased after revelations about NSA surveillance came out, but that information is not available. She hopes other researchers take up the topic of deleted online postings because, she says, what we choose to redact reveals much about online behavior. Such studies could even prompt us to pause before we post something we’d regret. Maybe.
Cynthia Murrell, November 07, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Google Personalization: Less Objectivity, More Revenue?
November 6, 2013
I read “Google Wants to Build Maps That Customize Themselves Based on What They Know about You.” The main point of the write up is that allegedly Google wants to use information about a user’s behavior to figure out what to put on a map. I am okay with this because I use paper maps. Call me old fashioned, but there it is. I wanted to capture this “personalization” item because it supports my argument that objectivity in search results is being redefined. The end of the “individualized Google” or “ig” service does not mean that personalization is losing steam at Google. Personalization is becoming more important as Google works overtime to find a way to keep the ad revenues flowing and growing. The key point is that most users will not know that search results are “shaped.” The notion of some old style yardsticks like precision and recall as ways to determine some of a search system’s attributes is out the window. Shaping raises some interesting questions. Those who don’t care to ponder what happens when information is aggressively filtered using methods that are not disclosed will be just fine. For those who are more sensitive to verification and validation, the effort required to get what I call “clean” and “unfiltered” information goes up. Good for advertisers. Not so good for those who assume that online equates with accuracy, comprehensiveness, and objectivity.
Stephen E Arnold, November 6, 2013
Xenky Vendor Profile: Dieselpoint
November 6, 2013
If you need a search system and love Java, you will want to read the most recent Xenky Vendor Profile. Dieselpoint is based in Chicago, Illinois. Compared to some search vendors, Dieselpoint keeps a low profile. The profile is available without charge at Xenky’s Vendor Profile page. Be sure to read the caveats for these free profiles. If you want to make a comment or explain a point I missed by a mile, use the comments section of Beyond Search. The profiles are drafts and will not be updated.
Stephen E Arnold, November 6, 2013
Google Banner Ads Take Over Results Pages
November 6, 2013
Google is always striving to improve their flagship search engine. Well, improve its profitability, anyway. Ars Technica reports that “New Banner Ads Push Actual Google Results to Bottom 12% of the Screen.” These new adds do not unobtrusively hug the top of the page; for thirty companies lucky enough to be part of this “experiment,” their ads can dominate the results page. Reporter Casey Johnston reminds us this is a tactic Google pledged eight years ago never to employ. Have dollar signs have weakened the company’s resolve?
The article observes:
“The rollout of banner ads comes only days after Google’s most recent earnings call, where financial results showed that Google is struggling with falling mobile ad sales prices. As The New York Times reported, Google sells mobile ads for half to two-thirds as much as desktop ads, but the mobile ads are only a third to a quarter as effective. It bears mentioning that before scrolling, real search results on mobile don’t get much real estate, either.
Google will not publicly address any aspect of the banner ad experiment beyond saying that it is a ‘very limited, US-only test, in which advertisers can include an image as part of the search ads that show in response to certain branded queries.'”
It is worth noting that last bit—”. . . in response to certain branded queries.” In other words, if you search for “Southwest Airlines,” you might get a really big ad about Southwest Airlines. That’s much more reasonable than getting such advertising if you just searched for “airplanes” or “air travel.” (I would not put that evolution past them, though. Stay tuned.) Still, the tactic is bound to rub many searchers the wrong way. Johnston delves into specifics, augmenting her analysis with several screenshots. She concludes with a prediction—she will not be surprised if this experiment turns into a fixture. Neither will I.
Cynthia Murrell, November 06, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
IBM Looks to the Brain for Efficiency Clues
November 6, 2013
IBM’s most recent, disappointing earnings report has the company’s PR machine shifting gears. The company is now highlighting some research progress, as we see in “IBM Unveils Computer Fed by ‘Electronic Blood’” at BBC News. The company continues to look to the human brain as the ultimate computing model, but this time it is our noggins’ energy efficiency they aim to copy.
Reporter James Morgan writes:
“The human brain packs phenomenal computing power into a tiny space and uses only 20 watts of energy – an efficiency IBM is keen to match. Its new ‘redox flow’ system pumps an electrolyte ‘blood’ through a computer, carrying power in and taking heat out. A very basic model was demonstrated this week at the technology giant’s Zurich lab by Dr Patrick Ruch and Dr Bruno Michel. Their vision is that by 2060, a one petaflop computer that would fill half a football field today, will fit on your desktop. ‘We want to fit a supercomputer inside a sugarcube. To do that, we need a paradigm shift in electronics – we need to be motivated by our brain,’ says Michel. ‘The human brain is 10,000 times more dense and efficient than any computer today.'”
Michel credits our vascular system for the brain’s incredible efficiency, and IBM is working to replicate the performance.. Of course, the other factor in any energy exchange is the little matter of cooling. Integrated liquid cooling, or interlayering computer chips with tiny water pipes, takes its cue from the allometric scaling phenomenon found in nature. That is, larger animals are actually more efficient at cooling, since a larger surface area is exposed to air. Finally, IBM looks to the functionality of our blood itself; researchers are searching for a fluid that can simultaneously regulate temperature and deliver fuel. See the article for the details behind these concepts. IBM is taking an interesting approach here. Will it be the key to resurgent growth for the iconic company?
Cynthia Murrell, November 06, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Perspective Search Now Part of Jive Platform
November 6, 2013
Perceptive Software is working with social collaboration firm Jive, we learn from “Perceptive Software Brings Enterprise Search App to Jive Apps Market” at PRWeb. Perceptive Search has been integrated into Jive’s platform, and is available as an app through the Jive Apps Market. The press release reports:
“The Perceptive Enterprise Search App provides companies using Jive with a powerful enterprise search tool to eliminate information silos and aggregate content across multiple repositories, including SharePoint, ECM solutions, traditional file shares, legacy Lotus Notes databases, and others. The app is fully functional right out of the box, readily indexing—and giving users access to—content across multiple repositories and scaling to accommodate spikes in volume.
“The app empowers users to explore data relationships through analytical, reporting and visualization features, giving businesses more opportunity to identify trends and drive value from their content. Such value may be realized in the form of more efficient product development, customer service, marketing and more.”
Perceptive CTO Brian Anderson notes that his company uses Jive with Perspective Search for their own employees, and reports that the app has sped up their own searches. The platform’s analysis, reporting, and visualization features remove those chores from users’ to-do lists, allowing more time to act on resulting insights, he says.
Acquired by Lexmark in 2010, Perceptive Software offers a range of process- and content-management solutions. In business since 1995, Perceptive serves clients in a wide range of industries. The company is headquartered in Shawnee, Kansas and, according to their About page, is currently hiring.
Folks at Jive Software are convinced that “social business is the future.” This is why they employ the latest technology to help clients cultivate crowdsourcing, collaboration, and customer engagement, forces they say are bound to improve the business world for both customers and workers. Founded in 2012, Jive already has five far-flung offices, including their headquarters in Palo Alto, California.
Cynthia Murrell, November 06, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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