Easily Generate Your Own Word Clouds
November 19, 2013
Word clouds have become inescapable, and it is easy to see why– many people find such a blending of text and visual information easy to understand. But how, exactly, can you generate one of these content confections? Smashing Apps shares its collection of “10 Amazing Word Cloud Generators.”
The write-up introduces:
“In this session, we are presenting 10 amazing word cloud generators for you. Word cloud can be defined as a graphical representation of word frequency, whereas word cloud generators simply are the tools to map data, such as words and tags in a visual and engaging way. These generators come with different features that include different fonts, shapes, layouts and editing capabilities.”
See the list for all the options. Most offer a range of shapes, colors, and fonts to play with, so check each one out for the features most appealing to you. A couple, Tagxedo and Tagul, will gladly print your word cloud on a t-shirt or mug and sell it to you. It is probably not a coincidence that those also seem, from the examples given, to be the most creative with their cloud shapes.
VocabGrabber is different. It doesn’t even make a particularly pretty picture. As the name implies, VocabGrabber uses your text to build a list of vocabulary words, complete with examples of usage pulled from directly from the content. This could be a useful tool for students, or anyone learning something new that comes with specialized terminology. If your learning materials are digital, a simple cut-and-paste can generate a handy list of terms and in-context examples. A valuable find in a list full of fun and useful tools.
Cynthia Murrell, November 19, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Oracle Endeca Democratizes Data Discovery
November 19, 2013
Oracle is on a mission to empower its clients with self-service discovery capabilities for enterprise systems. The recent announcement came to us via Market Wired in, “Oracle Democratizes Data Discovery With Oracle Endeca Information Discovery 3.1.” The new Endeca software allows users to maintain enterprise features, while offering high-end collaboration that does not pose a security risk.
The new data discovery platform comes enabled with analytics features that incorporate more information varieties and support better decision-making. The new features that enhance better decision-making are self-service data mashup and discovery dashboards, deep unstructured analysis, enterprise class self-service discovery, enhanced integration with Oracle business intelligence, and Web content integration.
” ‘Data Discovery has been a sea change in the analytics market, driven by a desire to make information more accessible to a broader range of users at all levels of the business. With Oracle’s release of Oracle Endeca Information Discovery 3.1, we anticipate an even more improved ability to spur adoption and improved time to value with enterprise-class self-service discovery,’ said Mark Rittman, chief technical officer, Rittman Mead.”
Oracle will reel in more clients with this platform. There are not any details on how much the licensing fee for “democratized data” will cost. It is easy to surmise that is more expensive than open source alternatives.
Whitney Grace, November 19, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
So You Want to Be a Publisher?
November 18, 2013
I read “Bloomberg Newsroom to Lay Off 50” in the Wall Street Journal on November 18, 2013. (Note that this link may go dead or require that you pay to access the story.) The story appeared on page B-4 of the old-fashioned copy that finds its way to me—-usually.
The story contained three fascinating factoids. The first was the reduction in force (RIF) at Bloomberg. Then there was information about the Thomson Reuters’ RIF of 3,000 jobs, and finally the “minimal decline” in News Corp. of the alleged phone-related approach to news gathering.
In short, if the assertion that the economy is rebounding, why are these outfits admitting that employees have to go?
The question I have, “Is staff reduction the easiest way to cut costs?” My assumption was that new products and new services would attract paying customers. With the warm snuggles of innovation, sophisticated, able companies would prosper.
Firing those who work at information centric companies provides a partial answer to the question, “So you want to be a publisher?” The individuals who have to find a new job may start creating content.
That’s a plus for those who have a thirst for information. Manufacturing more competitors for organizations like Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters, and News Corp. may have unintended consequences.
I hope the new publishers are able to get their content indexed by an outfit like Blekko/Yandex.
Stephen E Arnold, November 18, 2013
YouTube: Search for Comments
November 18, 2013
I am not a video goose. I cannot recall the last time I commented on a video. However, I have asked some of my researchers to search for YouTube comments. Well, my recollection is that YouTube “comments” search is not particularly helpful.
I read “Forced Google Plus Integration on YouTube Backfires, Petition Hits 112,000.” I learned that Google is requiring a Google Plus account in order to make comments about a YouTube video. Some YouTube fans are not happy. The big question is, “Will Google listen?”
What is important is that the article reports a modest movement to post YouTube comments on Reddit.com. Reddit’s search function leaves something to be desired. However, my researchers have informed me that Reddit search does work reasonably well.
My view is that Google is trying to cement its revenue opportunities. Google Plus is part of the grand strategy. Search is not number one on the agenda in my opinion. The emergence of an option like Reddit may be an important step. Google fans may have to fend for themselves as Google works overtime to make sure it can hit its revenue numbers.
Those criticizing Google may find that their actions misfire.
Stephen E Arnold, November 18, 2013
SharePoint Online Limits Customization
November 18, 2013
SharePoint in the cloud is attempting to keep up with the overall trend of movement to the cloud. However, some organizations are looking for alternatives, complaining that Office 365 inhibits portability and customization. Redmond Magazine covers the news in their article, “SharePoint Shops Eying Windows Azure as Office 365 Alternative.”
The article says:
“Even the majority of those planning to move to SharePoint in the cloud are leaning toward Office 365 . . . While 66 percent of current SharePoint online users have Office 365 subscriptions (compared with 14 percent using Windows Azure and 15 percent using other cloud providers), of those planning to run SharePoint in the cloud in the future, 55 percent will opt for Office 365 and nearly 29 percent will use Windows Azure. That points to a segment of SharePoint shops that are turned off by the lack of code portability from older versions of SharePoint. By standing up their own SharePoint servers in Windows Azure, they get the benefit of running their custom or shrink-wrapped apps in the cloud.”
Stephen E. Arnold is a long time leader in the world of search – following the trend with his service Arnold IT. He has long argued that SharePoint is on shaky ground, and a plethora of noteworthy alternatives are not only emerging, they are being rapidly adopted. So it is no wonder that Windows Azure is a popular alternative, and may be one angle that Microsoft uses to maintain its relevance.
Emily Rae Aldridge, November 18, 2013
Oracle Keeps Secure Enterprise Search Alive
November 18, 2013
When this article came up on my news feed it appeared to be an average press release: “Secure Enterprise Search 11.2.2.2. Now Available For PeopleTools 8.53.” Companies make upgrades everyday and if we wrote about all of them Beyond Search would turn into an advertising blog. A second glance made me catch notice of the news source: the Oracle Blog. Now this is an interesting development, because Oracle is keeping secure enterprise search breathing.
Secure search is a necessity for enterprise applications, especially those that deal with employee and customer related information. Oracle’s PeopleSoft software is one of the leading human resources and customer management products and the upgrades provide necessary support:
“We are pleased to announce that Oracle Secure Enterprise Search (SES) 11.2.2.2 is now available to PeopleSoft Customers on PeopleTools 8.53. The minimum PeopleTools Patch Version Required to adopt SES 11.2.2.2 is PeopleTools 8.53.06. This version of SES provides some important benefits for PeopleSoft Customers, particularly in the areas of platform support, distributed architecture support, and RAC support. You can get all the details on this update on My Oracle Support.”
Good for Oracle, but are they investing their time wisely in a secure search when there are so many other options on the market? Endeca, RightNow, and InQuira options also available and they are under the Oracle umbrella.
Whitney Grace, November 18, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Autonomy Adds Qfiniti Analytics
November 18, 2013
HP Autonomy is searching for ways (pun intended) to redeem itself after the fiasco from earlier this year. How is the company doing it? HP Autonomy, according to the Silicon Angle article “HP Autonomy Expands Analytics Lineup With Qfiniti 10,” is tapping into the mobile market. The company has expanded its Qfiniti analytics software to now analyze video and social media along with basic and voice and text messaging. The Qfiniti upgrade has a lot more options that make it an attractive solution for customer relations personnel. The IDOL search tool helps users identify patterns in audio, text, and video and the ability to search through old and new unstructured/structured data are tempting to try. The former rather than the latter, of course. The article also mentions how it can be used to keep track of workflows and front and back office processes—something that any enterprise based software usually does.
HP Autonomy is really proud of the new analytics angle and how it can help their clients:
“Rafiq Mohammadi, the general manager of marketing optimization at HP Autonomy, noted that ‘HP Qfiniti 10 closes the loop for the customer contact center, providing a full set of functions to match all requirements. Because HP Qfiniti is a modular platform, customers can cut their total cost of ownership by getting a solution that best fits their needs.’”
We believe that HP Autonomy is moving in the right direction to overcome past obstacles. While reading the article, commercials for the new Nissan Infiniti came to mind. A project manager probably fell asleep while listening to a Nissan commercial and was inspired by the luxury brand. HP Autonomy and Nissan can team up to design the first Big Data compliant car: it drives, saves gas mileage, and provides professional grade analytics as you go.
Whitney Grace, November 18, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Thunderstone Thunders In With An Upgrade
November 18, 2013
While this might not be at the top of anyone’s Black Friday shopping list, it is good to know that ‘Thunderstone Offers Version 9 Of The Thunderstone Search Appliance” according to PR Web. Thunderstone is a little known research and development company that prides itself on providing comprehensive intelligent information and retrieval management solutions. One might recognize their Texis software that provides high-grade text retrieval and publishing.
Thunderstone’s products are used in various fields from multimedia management; help desk support, automated categorization, litigation support, and Web content searching.
The last field is of the greatest interest to us, because the Thunderstone Search Appliance could push the company into a wider range of clients. The upgrade promises to support all of its sister software with improved administrative interface, faster searching, query auto complete, content caching, and a walk log for analysis. Those are just the basic upgraded features.
Thunderstone includes the following benefits with their search software:
· “A one-time, perpetual license that saves customers 40-60 percent (or more) compared to Thunderstone’s closest competitor.
· Two years of included maintenance, easily extended for additional years at affordable annual rates.
· Superior technical support from software engineers readily accessible to customers by phone, email and message board.
· No restrictions on indexing third-party websites for user-empowering applications and for competitive intelligence purposes.
· Ability to fully search targeted repositories (file servers, web servers, intranet/portal servers, database servers, application databases, etc.) and to handle files that exceed 30 MB in size.
· An attractive Product Investment Protection Program that makes upgrading a breeze, applying 100 percent of the initial Thunderstone product’s purchase price to any desired upgrade.
· Availability as a virtual appliance image to run under a hypervisor to allow for more efficient hardware utilization and manageability.”
These are not bad options. However, having never worked with Thunderstone or even heard of it before this press release we have to question its performance capabilities. Does it really do as advertised or is an extended amount of development needed for implementation?
Whitney Grace, November 18, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Paris Holds The Next Criteo
November 17, 2013
Ads are how many companies make money using the Internet and startups are creating other ways to monetize the Internet. The Paris-based Criteo, a company that helps retailers make their ads more personal for users, recently went public and according to “5 Reasons The Next Criteo Will Also Come From Paris” from Rude Baguette says that Venture Capitalists are on the hunt for the next Criteo. Why Paris, you may ask?
Since the merger of Publicis and Omnicom advertising agencies co-headquarters have been established in both New York and Paris. Paris, however, is now considered the advertising center of the world, because Publicis has generated more revenue than Omnicom. Also since it started being traded publicly, Criteo has been buying up AdTech startups and the new IPO has allowed them to acquire new talent and money.
Paris has also surged ahead in the big data boom:
“As we noted last month, France has a bit of a Big Data mafia springing up right now. If not evident enough by events like Datajob, a Big Data recruitment event, the dozens of big data startups that have sprung out of ex-search giant Exalead may be a better indicator of how the number of Big Data startups will explode in Paris in the coming years. Whether it’s pre-, re-, or post-targeting, AdTech is powered by big data, and Paris has got the needed search expertise to create innovative solutions for AdTech startups.”
Paris is also Paris. People have flocked to the city for years for its centralized location in Europe as well as many of the major brands that already call it home. It is an economic epicenter that no one has paid attention to because of Europe’s recent financial crisis. Could it be that Paris is on its way to getting itself out of the red?
Whitney Grace, November 17, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
New Google Video Endeavor May Prove Successful
November 16, 2013
Google has had a stream of unsuccessful projects, but All Things D tells us about how “Google Launches Helpouts, A Live Video Tutorial Service” that is a great idea and it is surprising no one has done it before. Helpouts is a new service that offers users the ability to view live video tutorials, instructions, and services via the Hangouts streaming video platform.
Other Web sites have already tried conquering the helping market, such as eHow.com, but the instructions often lack a personal touch and usually only publish content that has been copied and pasted. Helpouts could fill a gap where people get the personal help touch that the Internet lacks. Helpouts is not a free service, people will pay for the information with a flat fee or a per minute rate. Google will take 20% of the total, though.
The downside:
“It’s easy to pick holes in Google’s Helpouts pitch right off the bat. Though the company assures that it vets all of its partners and instructor participants, that’s hardly a scalable solution, over time — the tackling of which Manber wouldn’t elaborate upon. And you’re basically required to be locked into the Google-verse to use Helpouts; the service requires you have a Google+ account and, for now, an active Google Wallet account.”
YouTube also exists with its own free instructional videos. Google hopes that more than people needing everyday help will use the service. The company wants professional developers and even company brands to use it as a way to network and target consumers.
Will it work? It might. It probably will have its series of success and failures, but the biggest downfall is that people will have to pay for the content. Google needs to make the content better and original to get people to cough up the bucks.
Whitney Grace, November 16, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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