Coveo Announces Growth, Success, and an Internal Promotion
June 8, 2015
The article titled Coveo Announces Another Sequential Best Quarter as Its Intelligent Search Apps Upskill Thousands of People on Digital Journal points to increased market demand for its apps. Coveo’s mission is to aid businesses in improving people’s knowledge and ability with Search. Coveo for Salesforce offers customers a hub to resolve the issues that would typically require a customer service rep. The article explains,
“Coveo for Salesforce saw rapid adoption, particularly within the high tech and financial services industries, where mid-size to Fortune 500 organizations selected Coveo to scale customer service operations. Coveo for Salesforce – Communities Edition helps customers solve their own cases by proactively offering case-resolving knowledge suggestions and Coveo for Salesforce – Service Cloud Edition helps agents upskill as they engage customers by injecting case-resolving content and experts into the Salesforce UI as they work.”
The article also discusses the promotion of Mike Raley, currently senior director of demand generation, to VP of marketing. That makes him accountable for the company’s international marketing. The article seems like good news, what with the reported “record levels of bookings growth,” but it offers no actual revenues or information about the $30 million in venture funding the company has amassed.
Chelsea Kerwin, June 8, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
The Semantic Blenders: Not Consumable by Most
June 7, 2015
i read “Schema Markup and Microformatting Is Only the First Step in your Semantic Search Strategy.”
Okay, schema markup and microformatting. These are, according to the headline, one thing.
I am probably off base here in Harrod’s Creek, but I thought:
- Schema markup. Google’s explanation is designed to help out the GOOG, not the user. The methods of Guha and Halevy have proven difficult to implement. The result is a Googley move: Have the developers insert data into Web pages. Easy. Big benefit for Google too.
- Microformatting. A decade old effort to add additional information to a Web page. You can find examples galore at http://microformats.org/.
I am not very good at math, but it sure seems to me that these are two different processes.
But the burr under my blanket is that one cannot apply anything unless there is something written or displayed on a Web page. Therefore, these two additions to a Web page’s code cannot be the first thing. Tagging can occur after something has been written or at the same time when the writing is done with a smart input system.
The notion that these rather squishy logical mistakes occur in the headline did not rev my engine when I worked through the 1,800 words in the article. The assumption in the write up is that a reader wants to create an ecommerce site which garners a top Google result. The idea is that one types in a key word like “cyberosint” and the first hit in the result list points to the ecommerce page.
The hitch in the git along is that more queries are arriving from mobile devices. The consequence of this is that the mobile system will be filtering content and displaying information which the system calculates as important to the user.
I don’t want to rain on the semanticists’ parade, nor do I want to point out that search engine optimization is pretty much an undrinkable concoction of buzz words, jargon, and desperation.
Here’s one of the passage in the write up that I marked and inked a blue exclamation point in the margin of my print out:
Within Search Engine Optimization, many businesses focus on keywords, phrases, and search density as a way of sending clues to search engines that they should be known for those things. But let’s look at it from the human side: how can we make sure that our End User makes those associations? How can we build that Brand Association and Topical Relevance to a human being? By focusing our content strategy and providing quality content curation.
Well, SEO folks, I am not too keen on brand associations and I am not sure I want to be relevant to another human being. Whether I agree or not, the fix is not to perform these functions:
- Bridges of association
- Social listening
- Quality reputation (a method used I might add on the Dark Web)
This smoothie is a mess.
There are steps a person with a Web page can take to communicate with spiders and human readers. I am not sure the effort, cost, and additional page fluff are going to work.
Perhaps the semanticists should produce something other than froth? To help Google, write and present information which is clear, concise, and consistent just like in junior high school English class.
Stephen E Arnold, June 7, 2015
Your Mobile Is the Search Interface: In App or In Ept Revisited
June 7, 2015
I wrote an article for Information Today about the shift from having control of a search to being controlled by a search. The idea is that with an in app search function, the convenience makes the user in ept. With limited choices and the elimination of user defined filtering, the in app search converts searchers into puppets. The string puller is the ubiquitous and convenient search system.
I read “How Google Is Taking Search Outside the Box.” Nifty title but the opposite, in my opinion, is what’s “appening.” Search is now within the mobile device.
The write up asserts:
But search is still the heart of Google, even though the division that once went by that name is now called “Knowledge.” This reflects an evolution of Google search from something that pointed users to relevant websites to an all-knowing digital oracle that often provides answers to questions instantly (or sooner!) from a vast corpus of information called the Knowledge Graph. The whole ball of wax is threatened by the fact that the I/O of billions of users is now centered on mobile devices.
Google is indeed threatened with a search revenue problem. One way to address providing information to a user is to move the interaction inside the Google “walled garden.” In Google Version 2.0, now out of print, I explained that the walled garden allows Google to control the messages, information, and search results. The user consumes what Google delivers. Convenience for many is more important than taking control of the information provided.
For me, it is very, very difficult to run queries on a mobile device. The size and the keyboards present a problem. The results are difficult to manipulate. When I run queries from my desktop, I am able to move content, save it, output it, and process it using tools which are not available on a mobile device.
I do not accept mobile outputs as accurate. Last week I was in Prague. My mobile device connected in Frankfurt, Germany, and the system required two days to figure out that I was working in Prague. The few stabs I took at getting maps for Prague required lots of thumb typing.
The combination of half cooked software, high latency mobile systems for content delivery, and the paramount need to display unwanted information were evident.
The fix, for me, was to take my laptop computer, locate a “neutral” Wi-Fi connection, and take control of the queries.
Those who mindlessly consume what an in app experience delivers are racing toward ineptness. Sorry. Consuming information without considering what’s presented, ensuring that the output is one that meets the needs of the user, and performing the filtering function oneself are pretty dangerous behaviors.
Google is about revenue. The logic of the math club is not an approach designed to help out users. The problem is that consumers of information are not able to think about the objectivity, accuracy, or the relevance of the information.
Not good.
Stephen E Arnold, June 7, 2015
Reasons for Start Up Failure
June 6, 2015
The start ups continue to pop out in the search and content processing sector. Many of these companies make some marketing noise and start a flow of social media content. Then the companies go quiet (Dieselpoint), shut down (Siderean), sell out (Autonomy, ISYS Search Software), or reposition themselves in an effort to appeal to a different market sector (Attivio which was “search” in a LinkedIn post has become “the data dexterity company).
Are there some common characteristics of start ups that fail? The answer is, “Yep.” Navigate to “Autopsy: Lessons from Failed Start Ups.” The list of items can be used as a yard stick against which to measure other flops and to gauge if what looks like a winner but may be a loser in VC’s clothing.
Good resource for MBAs, newly minted experts, and failed Webmasters trying to get “real.”
Stephen E Arnold, June 6, 2015
The Public Living Room
June 6, 2015
While much of the information that libraries offer is available via the Internet, many of their services are not. A 2013 Gallup survey showed that over 90 percent of Americans feel that libraries are important to their communities. The recent recession, however, forced local governments to cut library funding by 38 percent and the federal government by 19 percent. Some library users see the “public living room” (a place to read, access computers, research, play games, etc.) as a last bastion for old technology and printed material.
Alternet’s article. “Why Libraries Matter More Than Ever In The Age Of Google” highlights a new book by John Palfrey called BiblioTech that discusses how libraries can maintain their relevancy and importance in communities. Palfrey’s biggest argument is that humans are creating huge amounts of data, which is controlled by big and small tech companies. These companies are controlling what information is available for consumption, while libraries offer people the ability to access any type of information and free of charge.
Palfrey offers other reasons to continue using libraries: print and ink archives are more reliable than digital, how physical, communal space is important for communities and education, and how librarians are vital components.
“These arguments, however, rely too heavily on the humans-are-better-than-technology rationale where “better” is measured by technological rather than humanistic standards. If librarians have a higher success rate than Amazon’s algorithm at recommending books, this might not be true forever. Does that mean we won’t need librarians at some point? No, the dilemma of disappearing libraries is not just about efficiency, it’s also about values. Librarians recommend books because they are part of a community and want to start a discussion among the people they see around them—to solve the world’s problems, but also just to have a conversation, because people want to be near each other. The faster technology improves and surpasses human capability, the more obvious it becomes that being human is not merely about being capable, it’s about relating to other humans.”
Palfrey’s views are described as ideological and in many ways they are. Politicians cut funding, because they view libraries as archaic institutions and are blinded when it comes to the inequity when it comes to information access. Libraries indeed need a serious overhaul, but unlike the article explains, it is not simply updating the buildings and collections. It runs more along the lines of teaching people the importance of information and free information access.
Whitney Grace, June 7, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Datameer: Action, Not Talk, about Data Governance
June 5, 2015
A happy quack to Datameer. The company is providing tools to deal with issues related to data quality, compliance, and security. If you Hadoop, Datameer is taking action, not just talking with regard to Hadoop crunching. With “end users” fooling around with analytics, outputs can be exciting. Some Statistics 101 students would be reluctant to turn these “reports” is at the end of the term. For MBAs, point and click analyses are quick and easy. Outputs? Hey, isn’t anything generated by a computer correct?
Navigate to “Datameer Adds Governance Tools for Hadoop Analytics.”
Accordin to the write up:
New data-profiling tools, for example, let companies find and transparently fix issues like dirty, inconsistent or invalid data at any stage in a complex analytics pipeline. Datameer’s capabilities include data profiling, data statistics monitoring, metadata management and impact analysis. Datameer also supports secure data views and multi-stage analytics pipelines, and it provides LDAP/Active Directory integration, role-based access control, permissions and sharing, integration with Apache Sentry 1.4 and column and row anonymization functions.
The source is one of the IDC/IDG properties, so check with Datameer to make certain you are getting the straight scoop.
Stephen E Arnold, June 5, 2015
Googlers Vs Xooglers: IQ Dust Up
June 5, 2015
I read “Ex-Googlers Accuse Google of Abusing Its Android Dominance.” The main idea is that former Googlers (aka Xooglers) find that life outside the campus volleyball court is different from life inside. The write up asserts:
The founders of Disconnect, an Android application meant to guard user privacy that was banned from the Google Play Store, include former Googlers, ZDNet reveals.Google apparently banned Disconnect and said that it interfered with other apps last year,the Wall Street Journal says. The app protects a user’s privacy by limiting the ways he or she can be tracked by Google and other apps. An email sent by a Play Store employee explaining why the app was removed said that Disconnect was preventing ads from appearing in apps.
The write up points out:
Sales apparently “plummeted” after the app was removed, though users can still sideload Disconnect if they want to. The app’s creators say Google gives its services unfair advantages over competitors including Disconnect, reducing competition and consumer choice in the process. The company also says that Google illegally discriminated against Disconnect because Google’s own privacy and security software included in Android isn’t held to the same standards.
Which Google grade team will prevail? I am not rooting for either side, but the game will be fascinating to watchi.
Stephen E Arnold, June 5, 2015
Facebook Program May Disintermediate Google
June 5, 2015
Soon, Facebook users may not have to navigate to Google for relevant links then copy-and-paste them into posts and comments. TechCrunch reports, “Skip Googling with Facebook’s New ‘Add a Link’ Mobile Status Search Engine.” If this program currently being tested on a sample group makes it to all users, you can impress your “friends” a few seconds faster, and with fewer clicks. Actually reading what you find before you share the link is up to you. The article describes:
“Alongside buttons to add photos or locations, some iOS users are seeing a new ‘Add A Link’ option. Just punch in a query, and Facebook will show a list of matching links you might want to share, allow you to preview what’s on those sites, and let you tap one to add it to your status with a caption or share statement. Results seem to be sorted by what users are most likely to share, highlighting recently published sites that have been posted by lots of people. …
“If rolled out to all users, it would let them avoid Googling or digging through Facebook’s News Feed to find a link to share. The ‘Add A Link’ button could get users sharing more news and other publisher-made content. Not only does that fill the News Feed with posts that Facebook can put ads next to. It also gives it structured data about what kind of news and publishers you care about, as well as the interests of your friends depending on if they click or Like your story.”
Writers Josh Constine and Kyle Russell observe that, as of last year, Facebook drives nearly 25 percent of “social” clicks, and publishers are becoming dependent on those clicks. Facebook stands to benefit if their Add A Link button enhances that dependency. Then there is the boost to ad revenue the site is likely to realize by keeping users inside their Facebook sessions, instead of wandering into the rest of the Web. A move that will both please users and the bottom line– well played, Facebook.
Cynthia Murrell, June 5, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
The Unacceptable Planned Obsolescence of the Android
June 5, 2015
The op ed on Tom’s Hardware titled Google Can’t Ignore The Android Update Problem Any Longer inspects the release process for Androids, particularly the Android 5.0 Lollipop and the 5.1 iteration. The problem Google faces with its major upgrade per year schedule is that while the Lollipop garners 9.7 percent of the market, it might be several years before the majority of android users catch up to this version, by which time Google might be releasing Android 8.0 (Snickers? M&M?) The article explains the issues with transitioning,
“Because Android is open source and because so many (essentially) OEM-tweaked “forks” of it exist, a “clean” upgrade path is almost impossible. To have a clean standardized update system would mean all the OEMs would have to agree to abide strictly by Google’s guidelines for what they can and cannot modify on the platform.
However, as soon as Google tries to do something like that, the OEMs usually cry foul that Google is making Android more proprietary.”
Obviously Google does not want to lose the business of those OEMs, either. But the article argues that this is unlikely due to Android and iOS cornering the market. The final point is the weakness in the update system due to users desiring more secure platforms, meaning Android adoption will only lessen.
Chelsea Kerwin, June 5, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Big Data Is So Yesterday
June 4, 2015
Chasing Big Data? Give up. Big Data are over according to “Forget Big Data — It’s Already Obsolete.”
Here’s the statement I highlighted:
That is why you need to forget about big data: It is huge data. Smart data. Think about how all of this combines to create a substantial amount of new data that will rapidly move through the evolutionary process into action oriented, near-real-time decision influence systems.
We are in “The Zettabyte Era.” Up next? Lotta yotta.
Stephen E Arnold, June 4, 2015
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