Google News in Spain: The Sound of Declining Traffic
December 17, 2014
Well, the Googley conquistadores seem to have caught the attention of the Spanish news sites. I read “External Traffic to Spanish News Sites Plummets after Google Move.” I find it remarkable that “real” journalism outfits fail to understand the power of the GOOG. Axil Springer pumped millions into Qwant. I bet you use that Pertimm-based service each and every day, right? A quick dust up with the Google, and the German publisher rolled over like my clueless boxer Tess. She is deaf, has three good legs, and one eye. But Tess figures stuff out without have to do much more than be aware of her environment. Perhaps there is a lesson there?
Is Tess the rescue boxer smarter than the average European publisher chock full of “real” journalistic wizardry? I can make a good case for Tess. She uses Google to help me research Cyber OSINT and NGIA.
The write up states:
Spanish publishers are now asking for help from the government because of the impact of the law, even though Google warned that it would have to remove their links if the law was passed (any links to Spanish sites are also removed from other content on non-Spanish versions of Google News, but they remain available through a regular Google search).
The reality is that the folks with the wonky logo and teenagers on the payroll are the gatekeepers. If you are not in Google, you do not exist. This applies to cold blooded northern Europeans and the more excitable southern Europeans. Thomas Mann explained this is his novels. Well, some “real” journalists may want to refresh their memories. Reality check: Google has traffic power. Sartre provided some insight in No Exit. I have an idea. Let’s run a modern European literature class for “real” journalists. Yes, students, you can use Google. I excuse from class the wizards at IDG/IDC who suggested that Google pull out of Europe. Europe may request that Google remain available. Look for a report from IDC expert Dave Schubmehl explaining why Google should put its tail between its legs and scurry back to Silicon Valley.
Stephen E Arnold, December 17, 2014
It Is DuckDuckGo PR Time Again!
December 17, 2014
DuckDuckGo remains a strong rival to Google. It might be a small company in Pennsylvania and controls only a small amount of the Web traffic, but it keeps gaining traction because it respects user privacy. Fast Colabs has an insightful piece called, “Inside DuckDuckGo, Google’s Tiniest, Fiercest Competitor.” Gabriel Weinberg started DuckDuckGo in 2008 and it has slowly earned notoriety. In 2011 Union Square invested $3 million in the search engine and Time Magazine listed it as one of the 50 Best Web Sites Of 2011. DuckDuckGo grows 200-500% each year with more traffic.
Weinberg designed DuckDuckGo to provide specific answers to queries over providing a list of results. Also privacy is always a big issue:
“It quickly became clear that taking a no-holds-barred approach to privacy would give DuckDuckGo a unique selling point as Google gobbled up more private user data. So the company positioned itself accordingly and started amassing attention as the issue of online privacy slowly ballooned in the public’s consciousness.”
The article continues with information on how DuckDuckGo is entirely open source and relies on its community for development and improvement. It ends on a description of the employee’s work environment, explaining how there are ever only a few employees in the office due to most working remotely.
DuckDuckGo continues to defy odds and deliver a user Web experience often lacking in Google.
Whitney Grace, December 17, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Verizons SugarString Turns Sour
December 17, 2014
Verizon tried to create a news site dedicated to technology. It is not a simple thing breaking into Internet journalism, it might appear to be simple, and Verizon had enough capital behind it. Things did not go as planned and ARS Technica tracks “Verizon’s Widely Mocked Tech News Site Is Now Completely Dead.”
SugarString got off to a bad start when its editor Cole Stryker told prospective reporters that the Web site would not discuss anything about net neutrality and spying. That is an odd statement considering those are very hot topics in the tech industry right now. It turns out SugarString has not been updated since October 28.
What did Verison say?
“We asked Verizon Wireless yesterday if SugarString is being shut down or if there are any plans for new stories. “As you know, this is a pilot/trial project, and pilot projects undergo a lot of changes/evaluation (and this one is no exception),” a Verizon Wireless spokesperson replied, adding nothing further.”
This was a few days ago. On December 2, the Web site went offline completely and it appears Verizon has learned what they wanted from the pilot project (which failed) and may or may not do something in the future.
What have we learned? A phone company might not be the best place to go for tech news.
Whitney Grace, December 17, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
A DeepMind Could Improve Google Search
December 16, 2014
DeepMind was invented by London-based genius Demis Hassabis to teach computers how to master complex tasks. He later taught the machines to play classic videogames, which caught Google’s attention and they bought DeepMind for $650 million. Technology Review looks at how the new technology can improve Google in, “Demis Hassabis, Founder of DeepMind Technologies And Artificial-Intelligence Wunderkind At Google, Wants Machines To Think Like Us.”
The article acts as a brief biography of Hassabis, highlighting his intelligence program. Computers programmed with the software were told to play Atari games, but were not programmed with any of the rules. Through trial and error the computers mastered the games through reinforcement learning.
“Artificial intelligence researchers have been tinkering with reinforcement learning for decades. But until DeepMind’s Atari demo, no one had built a system capable of learning anything nearly as complex as how to play a computer game, says Hassabis. One reason it was possible was a trick borrowed from his favorite area of the brain. Part of the Atari-playing software’s learning process involved replaying its past experiences over and over to try and extract the most accurate hints on what it should do in the future.”
Now called Google DeepMind, the team of seventy-five people work in London to apply the technology to all of Google’s products. While learning how to apply AI to Google, Hassabis also dreams of new ways it can be used for bigger and better projects. Until then they’re still playing Atari games.
Mr. Hassabis, start applying DeepMind to search.
Whitney Grace, December 16, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Rocket Software Explores The UniDataVerse
December 16, 2014
Rocket Software is growing their product base and Business Wire reports that “Rocket Software’s CorVu NG Business Intelligence Product Now Works With Its UniData and UniVerse Databases.” The new CorVu NG is compatible with UniData and UniVerse-U2 products. All U2 users will be transferred over to the product will not be charged any extra fees and will have access to more features, including drill down path support and Aerotext text analytics.
“Peter Richardson, Vice President and General Manager of Rocket’s business intelligence and analytics business unit, says, ‘One of the biggest advantages that our valued customers gets making this change is getting access to a wider range of Rocket services and products to help them reach their business goals. CorVu NG has the ability to work with the full suite of CorVu performance management modules, including CorStrategy, CorPlanning, CorRisk, and CorProject. This is a major enhancement for U2 customers who are interested in elevating their BI solution to one that includes not only tactical performance visualizations, but also strategic, high-level KPI tracking.’ “
It was also noted that not only is Rocket Software expanding its product base to attract more clients, but the CoVu NG software will allow their current clients to have more opportunities as well. This is in compliance with Rocket Software’s philosophy to offer a broader range of solutions to complement and supplement clients’ solutions.
Whitney Grace, December 16, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Delve, Social, and Other SharePoint Highlights of 2014
December 16, 2014
It is that time of year again – time for year-in-review articles regarding the tech that we know and love. And so it is for SharePoint. Lots of changes have been made and there are plenty of assumptions about the future. So CMS Wire tackles the overview in their article, “The SharePoint Landscape from 30,000 Feet.”
The author begins:
“With the end of the year around the corner, it’s a good time to take a 30,000-foot view of the lay of the SharePoint land and see what’s in store for 2015. While SharePoint may not be perfect, the technology is something many enterprises count on. We’ve seen great growth and energy in SharePoint over the past year and there are some events and developments that will be driving the technology next year.”
The author then goes on to discuss Delve and social projects, including apps. But experts caution that privacy will experience a resurgence in coming months, and the pendulum will swing back the other way, with enterprises concerned about keeping a tight reign on information. To stay on top of all of the latest developments in the new year, stay tuned in to Stephen E. Arnold at ArnoldIT.com. He has made a career out of parsing all things search, and his SharePoint feed is extremely helpful for all levels of users.
Emily Rae Aldridge, December 16, 2014
A Fine Idea from IDG: Google, Bail Out of Europe
December 15, 2014
I found this write up presumptuous. Imagine a traditional publishing company and owner of the mid-tier consulting company IDC providing unsolicited suggestions to the Google. (IDC as you may recall employs the “expert” Dave Schubmehl, who has be known to sell work with my name on it via Amazon. Information is here.)
Navigate to this write up: “Why Google Should Leave Europe.” The story suggests that Google should turn its back on Europe. Okay, great idea. The wizards at IDG/IDC do not have a suggestion for replacing Google’s European revenue. The analysis appears to overlook the Android/Chrome business. The stroke of genius ignores the government contracts on which a few, industrious Google labors. Nope. Bail out. Abandon ship. Leave the market to the stellar alternatives like Qwanta, Exalead Search, and my favorite Yandex.
Here’s a passage I noted when I stopping laughing:
Google is more popular among the European public than any other region in the world. The company has higher than 90% market share in Europe simply because users there prefer it over alternatives. (The company has less than 68% market share in the U.S.) So European corporations and the politicians they lobby are out to destroy Google even as the European public loves Google. To summarize, you have government obsessively and shamelessly pushing unfair protectionism under the guise of various righteous bureaucratic causes and hammering away with censorship, fines, threats, bans and constant harassment. Sound familiar? It should. This is the situation found itself in China five years ago.
Now if I am not mistaken, Google’s issues with China are country specific, not a couple of dozen countries with only a subset of “Europe” united, however loosely, by the European Community thing.
The logic of the mid-tier thinkers is that Google should bail out.
I don’t want to spend any time pointing out that the idea has some hurdles to overcome. I would remind you, gentle reader, that Google has stakeholders. Some of these folks are “European.” Nuking the value of the company with the IDG/IDC approach would create what I would describe as pushback.
You can identify two or three other reasons why cutting ties with Europe might not be a great maneuver at this time. Are you familiar with Google’s employees in Europe? What about Google’s operation in Switzerland? Oh, well, details do not trouble an outfit that sells my content without my permission on a digital Wal-Mart.
If Google does follow this advice, I would be mildly surprised. Perhaps IDG and IDG should turn its attention on remediating its contract processes, its reselling of my content without my permission, and coming up with forecasts that are able to put McKinsey, Bain, and Boston Consulting Group to shame.
That, however, is probably of less interest than offering Google unsolicited advice that sails into the digital aether to disappear. Quickly I assume.
Stephen E Arnold, December 15, 2015
Bottlenose: Not a Dolphin, Another Intelligence Vendor
December 15, 2014
Last week, maybe two weeks ago, I learned that KPMG invested in Bottlenose. The company say that the cash will “take trend intelligence global.” The company asserts here:
We organize the world’s attention and emotion.
I am, as you may know, am interested in what I call NGIA systems. These are next generation information access systems. Instead of dumping a list of Google-style search results in front of me, NGIA systems provide a range of tools to use information in ways that do not require me to formulate a query, open and browse possibly relevant documents, and either output a report or pipe the results into another system. For example, in one application of NGIA system functions, the data from a predictive system can be fed directly into the autonomous component of a drone. The purpose is to eliminate the time delay between an action that triggers a flag in a smart system and taking immediate action to neutralize a threat. NGIA is not your mother’s search engine, although I suppose one could use this type of output input operation to identify a pizza joint.
I scanned the Bottlenose Web site, trying to determine if the claims of global intelligence and organizing the world’s attention and emotion was an NGIA technology or another social media monitoring service. The company asserts that it monitors “the stream.” The idea is that real-time information is flowing through the firm’s monitoring nodes. The content is obviously processed. The outputs are made available to those interested in the marketing.
The company states:
Our Trend Intelligence solutions will take in all forms of stream data, internal and external, for a master, cross-correlated view of actionable trends in all the real-time forces affecting your business.
The key phrase for me is “all forms” of data, “internal and external.” The result will be “a master, cross-correlated view of actionable trends in all the real time forces affecting your business.” Will Bottlenose deliver this type of output to its customers? See “Leaked Emails Reveal MPAA Plans to Pay Elected Officials to Attack Google.” Sure, but only after the fact. If the information is available via a service like Bottlenose there may be some legal consequences in my view.
By my count, there are a couple of “alls” in this description. A bit of reflection reveals that if Bottlenose is to deliver, the company has to have collection methods that work like those associated with law enforcement and intelligence agencies. A number of analysts have noted that the UK’s efforts to intercept data flowing through a Belgian telecommunications company’s servers is interesting.
Is it possible that a commercial operation, with or without KPMG’s investment, is about to deliver this type of comprehensive collection to marketers? Based on what the company’s Web site asserts, I come away with the impression that Bottlenose is similar to the governmental services that are leading to political inquiries and aggressive filtering of information on networks. China is one country which is not shy about its efforts to prevent certain information from reaching its citizens.
Bottlenose says:
Bottlenose Nerve Center™ spots real-time trends, tracks interests, measures conversations, analyzes keywords and identifies influencers. As we expand our library of data sources and aggregate the content, people, thinking and emotion of humanity’s connected communications, Bottlenose will map, reflect and explore the evolving global mind. We aim to continuously show what humanity is thinking and feeling, now.
I can interpret this passage as suggesting that a commercial company will deliver “all” information to a customer via its “nerve center.” Relationships between and among entities can be discerned; for example:
This is the type of diagram that some of the specialized law enforcement and intelligence systems generate for authorized users. The idea is that a connection can be spotted without having to do any of the Google-style querying-scanning-copying-thinking type work.
My view of Bottlenose and other company’s rushing to emulate the features and functio0ns of the highly specialized and reasonably tightly controlled systems in use by law enforcement and intelligence agencies may be creating some unrealistically high expectations.
The reality of many commercial services, which may or may not apply to Bottlenose, is that:
- The systems use information on RSS feeds, the public information available from Twitter and Facebook, and changes to Web pages. These systems do not and cannot due to the cost perform comprehensive collection of high-interest data. The impression is that something is being done which is probably not actually taking place.
- The consequence of processing a subset of information is that the outputs may be dead wrong at worst and misleading at best. Numerical processes can identify that Lady Gaga’s popularity is declining relative to Taylor Swift’s. But this is a function that has been widely available from dozens of vendors for many years. Are the users of these systems aware of the potential flaws in the outputs? In my experience, nope.
- The same marketing tendencies that have contributed to the implosion of the commercial enterprise search sector are now evident in the explanation of what can be done with historical and predictive math. The hype may attract a great deal of money. But it appears that generating and sustaining revenue is a challenge few companies in this sector have been able to achieve.
My suggestion is that Bottlenose may not be a “first mover.” Bottlenose is a company that is following in the more than 15 year old footsteps of companies like Autonomy, developers of the DRE, and i2 Ltd. Both of these are Cambridge University alumni innovations. Some researchers push the origins of this type of information analysis back to the early 1970s. For me, the commercialization of the Bayesian and graph methods in the late 1990s is a useful take off point.
What is happening is that lower computing costs and cheaper storage have blended with mathematical procedures taught in most universities. Add in the Silicon Valley sauce, and we have a number of start ups that want to ride the growing interest in systems that are not forcing Google style interactions on users.
The problem is that it is far easier to paint a word picture than come to grips with the inherent difficulties in using the word “all.” That kills credibility in my book. For a company to deliver an NGIA solution, a number of software functions must be integrated into a functioning solution. The flame out of Fast Search & Transfer teaches a useful lesson. Will the lessons of Fast Search apply to Bottlenose? It will be interesting to watch the story unfold.
Stephen E Arnold, December 15, 2014
Enterprise Search Vendors: Avoid the Silliness of “All”
December 15, 2014
When enterprise search vendors say their systems index “all” of the information an organization has, the statement is silly, if not downright crazy. A good example of why one does not index “all” information on an organization’s computers appears in “13 Revelations from the Sony Hack.” The next time a search vendor runs the “all” spiel, point them to this write up. In addition to salary information that alleges my former neightbor Jennifer Lawrence gets less dough than some others in her recent film, do I need to know a Sony employee has a drinking problem and nuked his liver? Search works if the content is vetted. That means someone has to do an information inventory and make some decisions about what gets indexed and who may view what. “All”—one more reason why enterprise search has found that open source solutions are “good enough” for many prospects.
Stephen E Arnold, December 15, 2014
Hidden Data In Big Data
December 15, 2014
Did you know that there was hidden data in big data? Okay, that makes a little sense given that big data software is designed to find the hidden trends and patterns, but RC Wireless’ “Discovering Big Data Unknowns” article points out that there is even more data left unexplored. Why? Because people are only searching in the known areas. What about the unknown areas?
The article focuses on Katherine Matsumoto of Attensity and how she uses natural language processing to “social listen” in these grey areas. Attensity is a company that specializes in natural language processing analytics to understand the content around unstructured data—big data white noise. Attensity views the Internet as the world’s largest consumer focus group and they help their clients’ consumerism habits. The new Attensity Q platform enables users to identify these patterns in real time with and detect big data unknowns.
“The company’s platform combines sentiment and trend analysis with geospatial information and information on trend influencers, and said its approach of analyzing the conversations around emerging trends enables it to act as an “early warning” system for market shifts.”
The biggest problem Attensity faces is filtering out spam and understanding the data’s context. Finding the context is the main way social data can be harnessed for companies.
Scooping out the white noise for the useful information is a hard job. Can the same technology be applied to online ads to filter out the scams from legitimate ones?
Whitney Grace, December 15, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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