The Government Printing Office Plays the Name Game
May 8, 2014
According to The Washington Post Article, “Does The 153-Year-Old Government Printing Office Need A Digital-Era Name?” there is a bipartisan bill in the Senate to change the office’s work to better explain its digital age work. Senators Saxby Chambliss and Amy Klobuchar sponsor the bill. It would change the name “printing” to “publishing” and the two titles for the Government Printing Office’s (GPO) head officials would no longer be “public printer” and “deputy public printer,” but “director” and “deputy director.”
“Supporters of the measure say the current GPO name ignores the agency’s past and present efforts to reinvent itself for modern times with digital offerings such as e-books, apps and the Federal Digital System, which allows the public to search for, browse and download official publications from all branches of the government.”
The bill moved to the full Senate on April 10. The federal government funds only 16 percent of the GPO’s budget. The rest of its income is generated by digital and print sales of its products. The name change would better explain how the GPO has advanced availability of its records as well as endeavors to expand itself further. Go for the name change, GPO! The good thing is that the GPO wouldn’t need to change its initials.
Whitney Grace, May 08, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
SharePoint Integration with MailChimp
May 8, 2014
SharePoint is looking for more ways to increase their influence for businesses of all sizes. The latest announcement seems like great news for smaller or medium sized businesses. Read the full story in the PR Newswire article, “Sharepoint AMS’ Integration of MailChimp to Aid Sharepoint Online Users in Design of High-Caliber Email Marketing Campaigns.”
The article begins:
“This week the innovators of the SharePoint Mobile Sync service released another new service that will help companies using SharePoint Online with email newsletters and marketing campaigns. ‘SharePoint MailChimp Sync’ [the service] auto synchronizes SharePoint lists with MailChimp lists and works with SharePoint 2010, 2013 and SharePoint Online.”
This service is one that will appeal the millions of MailChimp users, many of them small business owners. And it is good news for SharePoint, as they look to appeal to smaller organizations. Stephen E. Arnold has been a lifelong leader in all things search and a frequent contributor to the SharePoint discussion. His Web site, ArnoldIT.com, provides readers with a way to stay on top of the SharePoint feed and manage what is most pertinent.
Emily Rae Aldridge, May 8, 2014
The Digital Public Library Turns One and Celebrates with Big Partnerships
May 7, 2014
It is interesting that no one thought of creating a public library entirely online until last year. There are many libraries and archives that have online components to their collections, but nothing matches the sheer volume found on the Digital Public Library of America. Arstechnica reports that “Digital Public Library Of America To Add Millions Of Records To Its Archive” with six partnerships, including the California Digital Library, the Montana Memory Project, Indiana Memory Project, the US Government Printing Office, Connecticut Digital Archive, and the J. Paul Getty Trust. Also the New York Public Library will increase its catalog items in the DPLA to over one million.
The DPLA is a platform that connects digital archives and libraries through one hub. DPLA allows its users to search through all its partners’ databases through one portal, think of it as Google sans advertisements and Web site results.
“In its first year, one of the DPLA’s most important goals has been to catalog and connect to as many digital works as possible. Ars caught up with [DPLA Executive Director Dan] Cohen again this year, and he told us that the organization has made it a priority to help public libraries digitize their works using a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to advocate for putting resources online. “We are helping to train public librarians with the digital skills they will need for the twenty-first century and to participate in a large-scale digital project like DPLA,” Cohen wrote in an e-mail.
The DPLA also has several third party apps that help users take advantage of its immense wealth of knowledge. The best thing about the DPLA is that access to its items are entirely free! Researchers don’t have to worry about subscribing to a database or paying for to locate records. This is how research should be done everywhere!
Whitney Grace, May 07, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
MapR Integrates Elasticsearch into Platform
May 7, 2014
Writer Christopher Tozzi opens his Var Guy article, “MapR, Elasticsearch Partner on Open Source Big Data Search,” with a good question: With so many Hadoop distributions out there, what makes one stand out? MapR hopes an integration with Elasticsearch will help them with that. The move brings to MapR, as the companies put it, “a scalable, distributed architecture to quickly perform search and discovery across tremendous amounts of information.” They report that several high-profile clients are already using the integrated platform.
Tozzi concludes with an interesting observation:
“From the channel perspective, the most important part of this story is about the open source Hadoop Big Data world becoming an even more diverse ecosystem where solutions depend on collaboration between a variety of independent parties. Companies such as MapR have been repackaging the core Hadoop code and distributing it in value-added, enterprise-ready form for some time, but Elasticsearch integration into MapR is a sign that Hadoop distributions also need to incorporate other open source Big Data technologies, which they do not build themselves, to maximize usability for the enterprise.”
It will be interesting to see how that need plays out throughout the field. MapR is headquartered in San Jose, California, and was launched in 2009. Formed in 2012, Elasticsearch is based in Amsterdam. Both Hadoop-happy companies maintain offices around the world, and each proudly counts some hefty organizations among their customers.
Cynthia Murrell, May 07, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Trifles in Enterprise Search History
May 6, 2014
Search conferences are, in my experience, context free. The history of enterprise search is interesting and contains useful examples pertaining to findability. Stephen E Arnold’s new video is “Trifles from Enterprise Search History.” The eight minute video reviews developments from the late 1970s and early 1980s. These mini snapshots provide information about where some of the hottest concepts today originated. Do you think MarkLogic invented an XML data management system that could do search and analytics? The correct answer may be Titan Search. What about “inventing” an open source search business model. Do you think Lucid Imagination, now Lucid Works, cooked up the concept of challenging proprietary systems with community created software? The correct answer may be Fulcrum Technologies’ early concoction of home brew code with the WAIS server. What about the invention of jargon that permeates discussions of content processing. A good example is a “parametric cube”. Is this the conjuring of Spotfire and Palantir? Verity is, in Mr. Arnold’s view, the undisputed leader in this type of lingo in its attempts to sell search without using the word “search.” Grab some SkinnyPop and check out Trifles.
Kenneth Toth, May 6, 2014
The Remarkable SEO Success of RetailMeNot
May 6, 2014
For a case study on the leveraging SEO (search engine optimization) success, turn to Priceonomics‘ post, “The SEO Dominance of RetailMeNot.” Priceonomics is in the business of analyzing the SEO effectiveness of publicly traded companies for its hedge fund clients. Writer Rohin Dhar makes clear this look at one success story is meant to showcase his firm’s work.
RetailMeNot is a digital coupon site that employs a number of tricks to capture a striking amount of shopping traffic. Note that this write-up is not about how the company achieved its unusual click-through success; Dhar admits he has no idea. Rather it explains the steps one company is taking to make the most from that market dominance. Our main question, though, remains unanswered—what do such steps mean for relevance and objectivity of a searcher’s results? After all, other shopping and promotions sites might decide to copy RetailMeNot’s formula.
A theme that caught my eye is the warning Dhar includes about the shifting fortunes of those who hitch their wagons to Google’s search algorithms. He writes:
“Given Google’s dominance in search, conquering its results page can be incredibly lucrative. But in RetailMeNot’s case, it’s also a lot of eggs in one basket. A shift in the Google search algorithm could cause the entire company to collapse. Traffic would plummet, leading to declining revenues and a flailing stock price.”
Later, the article concludes:
“But SEO is both RetailMeNot’s major strength and its achilles heel. There might not even be a precedent for a company dominating monetizable keywords so thoroughly for an extended period of time. At some point, Google will change the rules, RetailMeNot will trip up, or competitors will catch up. It’s not really a matter of if Google pulls the rug out from under you, it’s a matter of when.”
Will RetailMeNot and similar sites be able to adopt an agile stance, one that will allow them to stay on their feet when that proverbial rug is pulled?
Cynthia Murrell, May 06, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
MarkLogic Platform Now Supports JavaScript, JSON and Node.js
May 6, 2014
We learn that MarkLogic has become more supportive from the announcement, “MarkLogic Enhances Enterprise NoSQL Database Platform with Support for JavaScript and JSON” at Yahoo Finance. The press release tells us:
“With support for JavaScript and JSON at every tier, developers can create applications using a language and data format they are familiar with while being assured that the database platform will pass the scrutiny of IT operations and risk management. JavaScript expands the current list of languages that MarkLogic supports, including Java, PHP, C#, Ruby, Python, C++, C, Perl, SQL, and XQuery.
“The MarkLogic Node.js client will give developers a simple and agile way to use MarkLogic, while server-side JavaScript support will deliver the ultimate in performance and flexibility. With JavaScript and JSON at the core of the schema-agnostic, horizontally scalable and elastic architecture, developers can build, revise and deploy applications across multiple systems consistently, while being able to combine JSON, XML, binary, text and Semantic triples in the same database.”
The write-up emphasizes that MarkLogic’s Enterprise NoSQL database platform already offers high-quality integrated search, disaster recovery, and “government-grade” security, among other advantages. See the post for details, or navigate straight to MarkLogic‘s site for more info. The company is headquartered in San Carlos, California, and maintains offices around the world. Some of its high-profile clients include Citigroup, Boeing, and Warner Brothers.
Cynthia Murrell, May 06, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
The Many Versions of the SharePoint Migration Nightmare
May 6, 2014
SharePoint migration is one of the most highly blogged about topics within the SharePoint arena. Regardless of the way that an organization brings up SharePoint, chances are they are performing some type of migration. But for all the need to migrate, there is a high risk of messing up the migration. SearchContentManagement covers the topic in their article, “Does SharePoint Migration Have to be a Nightmare? Lessons Learned.”
The article begins:
“There are many, many ways to migrate into SharePoint: from an earlier version of SharePoint, from a platform other than SharePoint, in-place upgrade, and into a new farm. And as many ways as there are to migrate, there are even more ways to botch it up.”
Stephen E. Arnold is a longtime leader in search and follows SharePoint on his Web service, ArnoldIT.com. For the latest SharePoint news, and for tips on how to avoid frustrations, such as migration failure, stay tuned to ArnoldIT.
Emily Rae Aldridge, May 6, 2014
Video Ads: Print Publisher Reveals the Unviewable Truth
May 5, 2014
I read “The Great Unwatched.” Clever title. (Keep in mind the link may go dead and you will have to hunt for a hard copy. Good luck with that, gentle reader.) The main point is that video ads do not draw eyeballs. Er, this is a revelation I suppose. What I find interesting is that in my poking into video on the Web something became obvious years ago; to wit, put up a lot of videos and the videos don’t get much action. Sure, there may be a breakaway video that draws lots of eyeballs, but those viral wonders are tough to predict.
Now, what about ads? People want to turn them off or ignore them. There is a reason that regular TV commercials blast sound. Couch potatoes and walking media consumers want what they want, not what advertisers want them to want.
The New York Times reports, as real journalists do, the following:
By many estimates, more than half of online video ads are not seen, either because they are buried low on web pages or run in tiny, easily ignored video players on those pages, or run simultaneously with other ads. Vindico, an ad management platform company, deemed 57 percent of two billion video ads surveyed over two months to be “unviewable.”
There you have it. Most people don’t watch video ads.
I thought that Google’s gyrations were a pretty strong hint that video ads were an issue. The companies pumping money into ad videos may not be overwhelmed with customer demands for their products. The Web site data we examined showed that video was fun to talk about, often fun to produce, and probably fascinating for a handful of people. But getting the videos watched was a problem. If videos are not watched, what’s this mean for video ads? My understanding is that video ads are a sales disappointment.
There are some interesting implications. First, Google and others looking for video to deliver the next influx of easy money may have to rethink their assumptions. Second, fun stuff like making videos may have the value of a ride on a roller coaster. Once the ride is over, more fun requires another ride. There is limited satisfaction from the carnival attraction. Third, marketers may find themselves looking for a way to generate leads and makes sales that actually work. In short, video dreams disappear like the image on a display screen when the power cuts off.
Making an ad video is way more entertaining than watching a video ad. Just don’t tell anyone who does not “get” the joy of non linear editing.
Stephen E Arnold, May 5, 2014
Cognition Is More Than A Nuance
May 5, 2014
Nuance Communications is synonymous with speech technology. The company keeps making headway in the field and acquiring other companies that have technology to further its mission. Last July, Nuance Communications purchased Cognition Technologies. Cognition was known to be a groundbreaking group that was working on transforming computational linguistics, formal semantics, and machine learning so that people can have an intelligent conversation with technology.
“Cognition holds the key to intelligent dialogue that will enable users to communicate with a device as though they were talking to another person. With Cognition you will converse naturally and intelligently with your TV about what to watch next, and converse with your microwave to figure out how to cook dinner.”
Which is probably why Nuance acquired it. Imagine having the TV verbally responding with show suggestions or a washing machine saying a load’s uneven. Are images of The Jetsons floating around in anyone’s head? That might even be too outdated for younger readers. The acquisition still has left Cognition’s Web site up with a few trial demos of its products, but only one still works. Nuance Communications is the place to go now to see what NLP products are available.
Whitney Grace, May 05, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
