News for the Non-Reader
May 23, 2014
Zeef is a new video publishing and distribution service that is still being developed and improved. Videos are becoming more and more popular, as users are inundated with a deluge of daily information. Zeef explains more about who they are and what they do on their “About” page.
It explains:
“With so much information online, finding the right product or service can become a time consuming and difficult task. ZEEF combines human (expert) knowledge, performance and customer ratings to help consumers find the best products and services online. We are still working hard on developing our product ZEEF.com.”
One area in which video struggles and continues to fall behind is search. All you have to do is visit YouTube and try to find something specific in order to be faced with a lack of successful indexing and findability. So while Zeef looks like a great resource for those who want to put video out onto the market, there’s still no relief for those who need to search through existing content and pull video out.
Emily Rae Aldridge, May 23, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
MaxxCAT Reveals New Model and Adjusted Pricing
May 23, 2014
The article titled MaxxCAT Anmounces New Hardware, Pricing in Preparation for New OS on ICT Procurement came with a disclaimer that seemed aimed at other tech giants like Apple. Burt LeFay, hardware manager for Maxxcat, wanted to assure customers that the new hardware would be compatible with the old. There is nothing more annoying than downloading a new version of, say, ITunes, only to learn moments after that it is no longer compatible with your old Macbook. The article states,
““We know how it feels to purchase your hardware and a week later the company announces something new,” said Burt LeFay… “We began testing the new hardware several months ago and developed a special release of our earlier OS to work with the new hardware. That way we could begin shipping the new hardware while we finalized the latest OS.” Customers who have purchased their appliance recently have received the new hardware and can contact MaxxCAT support to schedule an update.”
Maxxcat has been creating high-performance search appliances since 2007, of which they offer a comparison to Google on their website. Demos are available on request. The new model, MaxxCAT 5.0, is touted for its more potent hardware and competitive pricing.
Chelsea Kerwin, May 23, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
TopSEOs: Relevance, Precision or Visibility?
May 22, 2014
I have a couple of alerts running for the phrase “enterprise search.” The information gathered is not particularly useful. Potentially interesting items like the rather amazing “Future of Search” are not snagged by either Google or Yahoo (Bing). I have noticed a surprising number of alerts about a company doing business as TopSEOS.com. The url is often presented as www.topseos.co.uk and there may be other variants.
Here’s a typical hit in a Google alert. This one appeared on May 22, 2014:
The link leads to a “story” in DigitalJournal.com. a “global media network.” The site is notable because it combines a wide range o f topics, tweets, links, categories, and ads. If you want to more about the service, you can read the about page and get precious little information about this Canadian company. This site appears to be a typical news aggregation service. The “story” is a news release distributed by Google-friendly PRWeb, located in San Francisco.
What is the TopSEOs’ story that appeared as an alert this morning?
The story is a news release about an independent team that evaluates search engine optimization companies. Here’s how the story in my alert looked to me on May 22, 2014:
Several things jumped out at me about the story. First, it lacks substance. The key point is that TopSEOS.co.uk “analyzes market and industry trends in order to remain information of the most important developments which affect the performance of competing companies.” I am not sure exactly what this means, but it sounds sort of important. The link to www.topseos.co.uk redirects to www.uk-topseos.com/rankings-of-best-seo-companies:
Google: Another AdSense Allegation
May 22, 2014
These allegations about Google’s AdSense surface once in a while. I read “Google Hit by Class Action Lawsuit over Claimed AdSense Fraud.” According to the write up:
The legal action…claims that Google knowingly canceled the AdSense accounts of customers so that it wouldn’t have to pay out any revenues from internet users’ clicks.
The story then hooks this most recent allegation with an earlier allegation made by a former Googler. The article states:
The lawsuit mirrors allegations made online in April by a claimed former employee of Google who asserted that the Chocolate Factory has a huge system in place to systematically defraud AdSense users. The posting claims that the program has been in place since 2009 and also involved monkeying about with Google analytics data.
My thought is that Google does no evil. Assuming this is true, how can a series of algorithms behave in a punitive manner. If one doubts the “do no evil” assumption, then algorithms are performing actions that could be evil. I don’t want to follow this chain of reasoning because the notion that a large corporation would have a flaw is anathemic to my world view.
I wonder how this class action matter will play out. My hunch is that parties to the matter will have to have money to try to prevail. How will parties involved in this matter generate money? Well, there’s always AdSense.
Stephen E Arnold, May 22, 2014
Interview with Jeff Catlin on the Future of Enterprise Data
May 22, 2014
The interview titled Text Analytics 2014: Jeff Catlin, Lexalytics on Breakthrough Analysis may be overstating its case when it is billed as a breakthrough analysis. Most of the questions cover state-of-the-industry topics and Lexalytics promotion. Catlin offers insight into the world of enterprise data and the future of the industry. For example, when asked about new features for 2014 and the near future, Catlin responded,
“As a company, Lexalytics is tackling both the basic improvements and the new features with a major new release, Sallience 6.0 which will be landing sometime in the second half of the year. The core text processing and grammatic parsing of the content will improve significantly, which will in turn enhance all of our core features of the engine. Additionally, this improved grammatic understanding will allow us to be the key to detecting intention, which is the big new feature in Salience 6.0”
Catlin repeats in several of his answers that the industry is in flux, and that vendors can only scramble to keep up, even going so far as to compare 2013 and 2014 enterprise data to the Berlin Wall. He describes two “fronts”, one involving improving core technology, and the other focused on vertical market prospects.
Chelsea Kerwin, May 22, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
DeCartas L2 Geospatial Search Engine Makes Waves
May 22, 2014
The article on GPS World titled DeCarta Search Engine for LBS Expands to 120 Countries opens by identifying deCarta, Inc as an “independent LBS platform company.” Unfortunately it never goes on to explain what on earth an LBS is. We do learn that the company has recently made improvements to its local search technology which is called the L2 Geospatial Search Engine. The article explains (sort of),
“The L2 Search engine is an integral component of deCarta’s LBS platform which provides specialized geospatial technologies for maps, routing, navigation, geocoding, local search and geo-data integration and processing. deCarta offers two deployment models for its LBS platform: a Hosted LBS Platform Service (PaaS) or, alternatively, customers can self-host the platform either on-premise or in a cloud service such as Amazon’s AWS. Both approaches utilize deCarta’s advanced REST API architecture and can scale to support billions of maps and searches and millions of users per month.”
J. Kim Fennell, CEO of deCarta, describes the excitement of the company at their advances and competitiveness with Google Maps. He believes this is due to better customer service, the user’s ability to customize their content, and license terms that don’t limit use. L2 also allows for businesses to merge their content with industry map and POI content, allowing for more control over content.
Chelsea Kerwin, May XX, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
What to do When SharePoint Performs Poorly
May 22, 2014
SharePoint is not exactly known for being a seamless installation, so it comes as no surprise to many when SharePoint runs poorly. But for all the investment in time and money, users shouldn’t have to put up with poor performance. LifeHacker offers a quick checklist to consult when SharePoint heads south in their article, “Stuff To Check When SharePoint Runs Badly.”
The article begins:
“Setting up SharePoint is a masochist’s idea of fun, frankly — but not all the things that can go wrong are to do with the portal software itself. Here are some other platform issues you should check when SharePoint is performing sluggishly. SharePoint guru and author Robert Bogue shared some common issues encountered with SharePoint during a talk at TechEd North America 2014.”
Stephen E. Arnold knows all too well what happens when SharePoint goes bad. He has made a career out of search and reports his findings on ArnoldIT.com. His SharePoint feed is a great resource for SharePoint users and administrators. It is helpful to not only know how to fix your SharePoint installation, but also how to prevent it from going bad, and readers can look to ArnoldIT for both of those information needs.
Emily Rae Aldridge, May 22, 2014
Smashwords: Pressuring the Old Line Publishers
May 21, 2014
I am not sure if you think much about the commercial database publishers like ProQuest, Ebsco, and Chemical Abstracts. You are not alone. Traditional research databases are in a crunch. The reason? Libraries have to make difficult decisions about what to lease, buy, and license. I assume that these commercial sources of information will consolidate and eventually be available only to those who have quite a bit of money. These outfits are ill suited for the new world of mobile access.
Not surprisingly the financial plight of libraries has created opportunities for outfits with fresher business models. “Self Published Ebook Site Smashwords Expands to More Libraries in Deal with Overdrive” describes an interesting twist on information access. According to the write up:
Digital self-publishing site Smashwords is making its ebooks available to more libraries through a partnership with Overdrive, the country’s largest digital library distributor. Through the partnership, Overdrive library clients — the company works with about 28,000 libraries and schools worldwide — will be able to purchase about 200,000 ebooks by 88,000 Smashwords authors and lend them out to their patrons.
My question is, “How can one find ebooks?” Is there another opportunity available? If so, it may be another, more sprightly organization that creates a comprehensive catalog of these materials. Finding “gray” content is tough, and I struggle with the search services available from Slideshare, Scribed, and similar services.
I am not sure that Baker & Taylor or 3M are likely to fill the gap. Will a commercial database publisher take action? Two or three years ago I outlined the opportunity for an EBooks in Print to a hoity toity database outfit. Those folks were concerned about pumping up their library-dependent revenue. Is it too late? Probably.
Stephen E Arnold, May 21, 2014
Improvements to Kidrobot Website Yield Positive Results
May 21, 2014
The article titled Kidrobot Turns to SLI Systems to Boost E-Commerce Sales and Strengthen Brand Visibility on EConsultancy LLC discusses the changes implemented on the Kidrobot website. Immediately visible on the website is the suggestion to “Try our NEW Search”, suggestive of the excitement at Kidrobot over the improvements, which have yielded an 87% increase in users finding what they are looking for (within the first five results to appear) since November 2013. The article quotes a Kidrobot employee as follows,
“From the capabilities of their technology to the helpfulness of their support, the whole package of working with SLI is a huge improvement from what we had before,” said Kelsey Vendetti, e-commerce and digital marketing manager for Kidrobot. “Learning Search has created a better overall user experience, and when visitors use Rich Auto Complete, it opens their eyes to all that we have to offer – they’re three to four times more likely to click on a search suggestion.”
Kidrobot sells trendy pop art toys with unique names, making search tricky for users who weren’t certain of exactly what they were looking for. SLI’s Rich Auto Complete aids in this by actually learning from past experience what customers are most likely trying to find.
Chelsea Kerwin, May 21, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Coveo Client Advises on Search Deployments
May 21, 2014
Market Wired hosts a press release titled, “Join Coveo and Majedie Asset Management at Enterprise Search Europe 2014.” The title is a bit confusing, since it was published (at least at Market Wired) on the last day of that conference. It describes a presentation to be given that day by Coveo client Majedie Asset Management on best practices for search deployments in the financial services field. The write-up reports:
“During a presentation taking place on Wednesday, April 30 at 12:20 p.m., titled, ‘Search and Relevance in the Financial Services Industry,’ Simon Hazlitt, information director and co-founder of Majedie Asset Management, will share details of Majedie’s search-driven knowledge solution. After sharing the firm’s objectives and planning process for the initiative, Hazlitt will detail how Majedie provided its analysts with powerful, secure, single-point access to contextually relevant enterprise knowledge from across multiple on-premise and cloud-based systems.
“‘We worked closely with Majedie Asset Management to architect a truly next-generation knowledge solution for the firm,’ commented Coveo’s de Jong. ‘We are honored that Majedie’s innovation and successes will be highlighted at the conference, and suspect that conference attendees will gain many valuable and actionable insights from Simon’s presentation.'”
Kind of short notice, I think. Nevertheless, we’re intrigued by the term “search-driven architecture.” What does that mean, exactly? The press release offers this link to more information on Majedie’s implementation, but I could not find the answer there, either. Hmm.
Founded in 2005 by some members of the team which developed Copernic Desktop Search, Coveo serves organizations large, medium, and small with solutions that aim to be agile and easy to use yet scalable, fast, and efficient. The company maintains offices in the U.S., Netherlands, and Quebec.
Cynthia Murrell, May 21, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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