Watson Does Mail and Analytics to Complement Inventing Recipes
November 19, 2014
IBM is beating the drum for Watson. “IBM Brings Watson Tinged Analytics to New Mail and Social Platform” reports about “an enterprise social collaboration platform with built in analytics.”
When I read the article, I thought of Semandex. My recollection is that this New Jersey-based company has a similar system. Perhaps the IBM collaboration function will be different from what Semandex offers.
My reaction to the flow of Watson “news” is that IBM is going to have to shift into high gear in order to generate $1 billion in revenue from scripts and open source software. With the $10 billion target looming 60 months out, I would suggest that IBM needs to make big sales to high profile clients quickly and in a serial fashion.
Right now Watson is enriching public relations and marketing types. IBM needs big, high margin sales. We have identified 36 companies providing more advanced functions than Watson. Time may be running out, particularly if an IBM competitor snaps up two or three of the outfits on our watch list.
Stephen E Arnold, November 19, 2014
Search Every Tweet: Sounds Like a Perfect Circle
November 19, 2014
If you want to find a single Twitter message, you may have to license a comprehensive archive. According to “Now You Can Search Every Tweet That Was Ever Sent”, you allegedly can use the Twitter search engine and click “all”, which is one of the 20 somethings’ favorite words. I won’t poke at this assertion.
The passage I highlighted in this IDC wonderful write up was:
Now, every public tweet since Twitter’s launch in 2006 is fair game. The change is being rolled out over the next few days to the Twitter website as well as to its iOS and Android apps. It doesn’t change how search works on Twitter. You still search from the regular search bar or the advanced search page. Clicking on the “all” tab reveals results from the full index of tweets, and over time more tweets will also appear in the “top” results tab, Twitter said in announcing the enhancement Tuesday.
Now what’s more important: [a] a single tweet or [b] an analysis of Twitter messages by some useful index point?
I won’t ask the annoying questions that I contribute to LinkedIn posts that are essentially from another dimension. I won’t ask, “What happens to Twitter messages generated by a hacked account?” Nope, not me.
The single shot search just sounds great. Give it a whirl.
Stephen E Arnold, November 19, 2014
Synthesio Leads in Listening Platforms in Forrester Wave Report
November 19, 2014
The article titled Synthesio Named a Leader in The Forrester Wave Enterprise Listening Platforms Report on Synthesio.com provided some new jargon in the discussion of enterprise listening platforms. (Listening platforms, not surveillance platforms.) The work these “listening platforms” do is largely tuning into the discussion of a given company on social media and use the information to better satisfy customers. The report named Synthesio as a leader among the eleven providers that “matter most.” The article quotes the report,
“European-based listening solution Synthesio was a leader in this study due to its superior global data coverage, automated analysis built from human coding, and functional dashboard. Synthesio has a strong road map that focuses on cooperative and connected sources of consumer feedback data. Well-satisfied customer references score the vendor highly for its flexibility and the frequency with which it recommends new approaches… Today, buyers need tools that provide more stakeholders with access to listening data.”
It is customer support that seems to have won this high ranking for Synthesio. Additionally, the report credits the user-friendly nature of their platform, even stating that the tools for this listening platform require “little training.” The field of enterprise eavesdropping platforms seems likely to grow as more and more conversations happen on social media, and Synthesio is leading the way, ears-first.
Chelsea Kerwin, November 19, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Scribd Competes with Kindle for Audiobook Subscriptions
November 19, 2014
The article titled Don’t Just Read, Listen” Scribd Adds Audio Books on CNet gives the details of the new addition to the Scribd service. In fact, 30,000 audiobooks were brought into the Scribd library, along with the 500,000 plus ebooks available. In a time when people seem to be losing interest in the written word, the spoken word might be the answer (especially spoken by celebrities like James Earl Jones.) The article explains,
“That catalog of 30,000 books includes new releases and award-winning books, including “The Hunger Games” trilogy, “No Country for Old Men” by Cormac McCarthy and “The Days of Anna Madrigal” by Armistead Maupin. There are also children’s titles narrated by a few big-name actors, such as Meryl Streep reading”Chrysanthemum” and James Earl Jones reading “Who’s in Rabbit’s House?” Scribd is partnering with media company Findaway World to provide the e-books.”
In October of last year, Scribd began offering a $9 per month ebook subscription. The price will remain the same with the addition of the audiobooks, which puts Scribd just under the $10/month price of the Amazon Kindle. Purchasing individual books through itunes can cost a fortune, so these options are sounding mighty attractive in comparison. The brief article does not get into the question of search capabilities within audio, but they do mention the feature of a sleep timer for listening to audiobooks before bed.
Chelsea Kerwin, November 19, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Want to Lose Weight? Google Results Could Make You Fat
November 18, 2014
I never know what to make of article that report about research results. Mistakes that would not fly in a Stats 101 class are the norm. I did work through “Poor-Quality Weight Loss Advice Often Appears First in an Online Search.”
Here’s the passage that I highlighted with my new bright pink marker:
The study reveals that the first page of results, using a search engine like Google, is likely to display less reliable sites instead of more comprehensive, high-quality sites, and includes sponsored content that makes unrealistic weight loss promises.
I would not be surprised if there were a Federal grant boosting this ground breaking, never before thought of, issue.
I find the results presented by advertising supported search engines incredibly useful, relevant, and on point. The notion that one might have to use a system other than Bing or Google to get accurate information is a new thought.
I liked this bit about the timeliness and rigor of the research too:
In 2012, the researchers accessed 103 websites for queries specific to weight loss and scored the content on its adherence to available evidence-based guidelines for weight loss. Medical, government and university sites ranked highest, along with blogs.
Yes, blogs and governmental entities are fonts of accurate information. With data from a mind boggling 103 Web sites to evaluate, I am amazed with the speed with which the information found its way to an online publication.
Stephen E Arnold, November 18, 2014
Google Free and Clear to Rank Search Results Any Way It Wants
November 18, 2014
Well, bad news for those who want to force Google to modify the order in which search results appear. If I understand “Court Rules Google Can Arrange Search Results Any Way It Wants,” relevance is what Google wants. Period.
Precision. Irrelevant.
Recall. Irrelevant.
Relevance. Google defines it, thank you.
Here’s the key passage in the “real” journalism write up:
Sure, this [San Francisco court decision] doesn’t mean Google will be protected forever from other angry websites, here at home or elsewhere around the globe. But, should a similar lawsuit arise, it does allow the company to argue that a court has already agreed with it before.
The GOOG is unleashed. Are you thinking more about AdWords.
Stephen E Arnold, November 18, 2014
Version 6 of Varonis Metadata Framework to Be Generally Available by Years End
November 18, 2014
The article on CNN Money titled Varonis Announces Metadata Framework Version 6, Including New Functionality For Four Varonis Solutions explores the new features of Version 6. Varonis, the leading software provider, focuses on human-generated data that is unstructured and might include anything from spreadsheets to emails to text messages. They can boast over 3,000 customers in fields as varied as healthcare, media and financial services. The Varonis MetaData Framework has been perfected over the last decade. The article describes it this way,
“ [It is ] a single platform on a unifying code base, purpose-built to tackle the many challenges and use cases that arise from the massive volumes of unstructured data files created and stored by organizations of all sizes. Currently powering five distinct Varonis products, the Varonis Metadata Framework intelligently extracts and analyzes metadata from customers’ vast, distributed unstructured data stores, and enables a variety of uses cases, including data governance, data security, archiving, file synchronization, enhanced mobile data accessibility, search, and business collaboration.”
Exciting new features in Version 6 include a search API for DatAnswers, “bi-directional permissions visibility” for DatAdvantage to reduce operational overhead, and reduced risk through DatAlert with the information of malware location and timing.
Chelsea Kerwin, November 18, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
The Latest Advice for SEO Pros
November 18, 2014
As Google’s search algorithm evolves, so the search engine optimization crowd adapts. Business2Community offers tactical updates in, “Semantic Search: Keyword Choices and Relevancy.” Writer Kaila Strong cites a recent Searchmetrics study which emphasizes four key factors to high rankings: semantically relevant and semantically comprehensive wording; long form/ higher word-count content; enriched content with diverse media; and easy to read content. Strong observes:
“While all these areas are important, the first bullet – ‘semantically relevant…’ – stands out to me in my role as an SEO professional…. Let’s see how this new emphasis on semantics and ‘semantic search’ affects how we evaluate keyword choices and relevancy further.
“So grab a coffee and get ready to dive a bit deeper into the technical aspects of exactly how a computer program (bot/spider/search engine like Google) determines what the meaning of a page is – what question this page is the best answer to – and, subsequently, what it should rank for.
“Keep in mind that as a marketer, you have control over a page’s quality, as well as the keywords the page could rank for. But the lines of influence and manipulation are blurred. A proper understanding of the science behind search can help shed light on the best way to develop content in today’s Google world.”
Strong notes that recommendations don’t come directly from Google, but from SEO experts who research the issue. Emphasizing that the semantic web is all about connections, she describes in detail three components of Google’s algorithm these pros have identified: a clustering method called co-citation, the concept of co-occurrence, and holistic linguistics. See the article for details about leveraging each.
Cynthia Murrell, November 18, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Gamification Makes SharePoint Fun
November 18, 2014
According to Wikipedia, “Gamification is the use of game thinking and game mechanics in non-game contexts to engage users in solving problems.” This could be a good solution for SharePoint users, who typically have a lot of problems to solve, and not a lot of fun doing it. CMS Wire covers the latest news in their article, “Badgeville Offers New SharePoint Gamification.”
The article begins:
“SharePoint’s not pretty. Adoption, therefore, can be slow. Officials at gamification provider Badgeville believe they can change this by making SharePoint fun. And they’re doing so with a new release of their gamification integration specifically for SharePoint. Badgeville for SharePoint is the Redwood City, Calif., provider’s next generation solution to add game, reputation and social mechanics to SharePoint community and collaboration environments.”
Stephen E. Arnold of ArnoldIT.com has made a career out of following all things search and reporting back to users and managers about the latest news, tips, and tricks, Gamification is a trend in a variety of software settings these days, so it could be good for SharePoint. Stay tuned to Arnold’s SharePoint feed to see how gamification might affect, for better or for worse, your SharePoint implication.
Emily Rae Aldridge, November 18, 2014
Loons Afloat in Australia
November 17, 2014
I enjoyed reading “Google’s Bal-LOON-y Trial Gets QLD Telstra Spectrum.” If you are a 20 something at heart, there’s a video too.
The point of the write up is to document Google’s teaming with Telstra, a telco with some appetite for interesting ventures.
Loon is a secret Google project to provide Internet to those in the world not yet able to gobble Google results and advertisements.
Australia, based on my travels, has quite a bit of space and not too many people yet. I am not sure how the cost of the Loon works out in terms of ad revenue. Perhaps this is a proof of concept, not a money making play.
I hope the precision and recall of the Google Web search systems gets some attention. More timely index refreshes for less popular content would be a plus too. For now, Loon is getting the resources.
Stephen E Arnold, November 18, 2014
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
