Weekly Watson: Watson for President
February 10, 2016
I don’t want to confuse you. Watson for President has nothing to do with IBM. But, it is an election year, so maybe this is just some of that good, old campaign misdirection.
Now to the froth of the matter. A Web site is online which makes a case for electing IBM Watson, the cognitive choice, as president.
Here’s what a news conference would look like if and when IBM’s Lucene, acquired technology, and home brew scripts takes over America.
I like the hair style.
The Web site points out:
What makes Watson unique is its interface capabilities with humans. It not only interacts by speech but has a visual representation to convey its current state. Just in the same way humans have facial expressions to convey emotions, Watson changes its visual form to express its level of confidence in a selected answer. Wouldn’t the country be better if all politicians were that transparent?
There is a discussion of issues, but no reference to Watson’s ability to deliver on fiscal promises. I noted that turnover among staff is another lacuna. Watson has “weathered” another change among its human tenders.
Enjoy the videos and support Watson. Here’s what one happy supporter looks like:
Rah rah.
Stephen E Arnold, February 10, 2016
Semantic Search: Yep, Everything You Need to Know about Semantic Search. Everything!
February 10, 2016
I love universals like “All men are mortal.” The problem is that there are not too many which click with me. I noted the write up “Everything You Need to Know about Semantic Search and What It Means for Your Website.” Very personal headline. I thought of my grandmother saying, “You should eat your spinach.” Yeah, right.
This write up is a search engine optimization take on “everything” about semantic search. Sure, there are some omissions, no code snippets, no examples of how to overcome computational bottlenecks, etc. But, hey, why quibble. This is 2016 and everything does not mean the “All men are mortal” reasoning. We are after clicks. We want sales leads. We want to be a maven.
The write up defines, illustrates with Google queries (getting smarter everyday, just maybe not with relevant results), dives into “ontology” with a diagram, gives a revisionistic glimpse of the history of semantic search, dips into the categorical affirmative barrel in “What Are All The Factors That Search Engines Use To Perform The Search?”, and offers an explanation of why semantic search is just better than old fashioned precision and recall. Oh, yeah. There is even a section which includes a superlative and this injunction:
Create high quality content.
Yep, eat your kale. Now.
If you want to become really good at semantic search, you may find that other information will be required. But, hey, this is 2016. Good enough is excellence. Close enough for SEO horse shoes is the name of the game.
Stephen E Arnold, February 10, 2016
Reviews on Dark Web Email Providers Shared by Freedom Hacker
February 10, 2016
The Dark Web has many layers of sites and services, as the metaphor provided in the .onion extension suggests. List of secure Dark Web email providers in 2016 was recently published on Freedom Hacker to detail and review the Dark Web email providers currently available. These services, typically offering both free and pro account versions, facilitate emailing without any type of third-party services. That even means you can forget any hidden Google scripts, fonts or trackers. According to this piece,
“All of these email providers are only accessible via the Tor Browser, an anonymity tool designed to conceal the end users identity and heavily encrypt their communication, making those who use the network anonymous. Tor is used by an array of people including journalists, activists, political-dissidents, government-targets, whistleblowers, the government and just about anyone since it’s an open-source free tool. Tor provides a sense of security in high-risk situations and is often a choice among high-profile targets. However, many use it day-to-day as it provides identity concealment seamlessly.”
We are intrigued by the proliferation of these services and their users. While usage numbers in this article are not reported, the write-up of the author’s top five email applications indicate enough available services to necessitate reviews. Equally interesting will be the response by companies on the clearweb, or the .com and other regular sites. Not to mention how the government and intelligence agencies will interact with this burgeoning ecosystem.
Megan Feil, February 10, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
The History of ZyLab
February 10, 2016
Big data was a popular buzzword a few years ago, making it seem that it was a brand new innovation. The eDiscovery process, however, has been around for several decades, but recent technology advancements have allowed it to take off and be implemented in more industrial fields. While many big data startups have sprung up, ZyLab-a leading innovator in the eDiscovery and information governance-started in its big data venture in 1983. ZyLab created a timeline detailing its history called, “ZyLab’s Timeline Of Technical Ingenuity.”
Even though ZyLab was founded in 1983 and introduced the ZyIndex, its big data products did not really take off until the 1990s when personal computers became an indispensable industry tool. In 1995, ZyLab made history by being used in the OJ Simpson and Uni-bomber investigations. Three years later it introduced text search in images, which is now a standard search feature for all search engines.
Things really began to take off for ZyLab in the 2000s as technology advanced to the point where it became easier for companies to create and store data as well as beginning the start of masses of unstructured data. Advanced text analytics were added in 2005 and ZyLab made history again by becoming the standard for United Nations War Crime Tribunals.
During 2008 and later years, ZyLab’s milestones were more technological, such as creating the Zylmage SharePoint connector and Google Web search engine integration, the introduction of the ZyLab Information Management Platform, first to offer integrated machine translation in eDiscovery, adding audio search, and incorporating true native visual search and categorization.
ZyLab continues to make historical as well as market innovations for eDiscovery and big data.
Whitney Grace, February 10, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Yahoo Is Not Playing Games
February 9, 2016
Years ago I had to review a Google pitch to Yahoo about games. The basic idea was that the Alphabet Google thing wanted to team up with Yahoo in the mobile and online game sector. Yahoo, as I recall, blew off their neighbor. Not surprising. The Alphabet Google thing and Yahoo had a legal do si do about the GoTo/Overture advertising notion. There was a settlement, and I think that the Yahooligans were not completely comfortable having their lunch eaten by those sports down the road.
Flash forward to 2016. The old Yahoo is still the old Yahoo. I think the company is for sale, but the Xoogler running the show won’t spill the beans. There are more opportunities than ever for the purple gang to find their future elsewhere.
I read “Yahoo Games Has Passed Away at Just 13” and learned that those games that once caught the fancy of Googzilla are no more. The write up informed me:
Yahoo Games, THE once-hopping online game hub best known for its simulacrum of classic board and card games, is shutting down. The news was buried amidst major changes for the company: As we reported Tuesday, Yahoo will lay off roughly 15 percent of the company, downsize across the board, and shutter many offerings, including its TV efforts.
One wonders what might have been if Yahoo and the Google got their act together and did a game deal. My hunch is that the answer is not much. Both companies believe that if they enter a niche, success is inevitable.
Yahoo and its stakeholders have learned how that has worked out. The Googlers are just now beginning to ponder the limits of there zero gravity approach to online revenue.
Net net: A good idea a decade ago won’t carry the water from the river to the well today. Yahoo may be moving down a path that Google will reluctantly follow.
Stephen E Arnold, February 9, 2016
Alphabet Google Giveth and Taketh Away
February 9, 2016
Folks are buzzing because there is a new head of Google search. You can read the news in “Head of Google Search Retires, Artificial Intelligence Chief to Take Over.”
None of the write ups I have scanned point out that the Google system since 2001 has been essentially tweaked, not changed. Search improvements have been like plastic wrappers swathing the clever girl’s algorithms.
The 2001 era system was also easy to spoof, rooted in the now archaic paradigm of boat anchor computers, big monitors, and non-touch technologies. And my favorite: Search engine optimization and the death of relevance.
So count ‘em. 2001 to 2016. That works out to 15 years. Wonder why search is less and less relevant? Perhaps the world view of Google’s search and retrieval system is as relevant as a zoot suit in downtown San Jose.
The more significant items in my opinion are that Google is back in the killing features business. Check out “Google Earth Traffic Layer Dropper.” The write up points out:
Google Maps still has live traffic information, which shows as different colors on the route when you ask for directions as seen below, so it is evident that Google still has the information.
Good news? Maybe. Google just does stuff. Makes sense. Take action and move forward.
The other announcement struck me as straight out of Europe’s medieval period. I read “Google Fiber Plan to Give Free Internet to the Poor.” Interesting idea. The Alphabet Google thing is helping out folks so these individuals can take advantage of Google’s smart services and products.
Droit du seigneur is alive and well.
Smart software, capricious actions, and helping out the folks who lack some resources. The world’s most valuable company is evolving. Left out in the cold? Hmm. Too bad.
Stephen E Arnold, February 8, 2016
Microsoft AI Faves
February 9, 2016
I noted a blog post called “From Discovery to Selection: Announcing the Seattle Accelerator’s Third Batch.” The post lists companies which Microsoft wants to nurture. Here’s the list:
- Affinio: Audience insights
- Agolo: Summarization of text
- Clarify: Rich media search
- Defined Crowd: Natural language processing
- Knomos: Palantir style analysis
- Medwhat: Doctor made of soft software
- OneBridge: Middleware for Microsoft cloud
- Percolata: Retail staff monitoring
- Plexuss: Palantir style analysis
- Sim Machines: Similarity search and pattern recognition
Net net: Microsoft continues to hunt for solutions in search and analytics. There is a touch of “me too” in the niche plays too. Persistence is a virtue.
Stephen E Arnold, February 9, 2016
Squiz and Verint Team up to Save the Government from Itself
February 9, 2016
The article titled Verint and Squiz Announce Partnership to Further Enable Digital Transformation for Government on BusinessWire conveys the global ambitions of the two companies. The article positions Verint, an intel-centric company, and Squiz, an Australian content management company, as the last hope for the world’s governments (on the local, regional, and national level.) While things may not be so dire as all that, the merger is aimed at improving governmental organization, digital management, and customer engagement. The article explains,
“Today, national, regional and local governments across the world are implementing digital transformation strategies, reflecting the need to proactively help deliver citizen services and develop smarter cities. A key focus of such strategies is to help make government services accessible and provide support to their citizens and businesses when needed. This shift to digital is more responsive to citizen and community needs, typically reducing phone or contact center call volumes, and helps government organizations identify monetary savings.”
It will come as no surprise to learn that government bureaucracy is causing obstacles when it comes to updating IT processes. Together, Squiz and Verint hope to aid officials in implementing streamlined, modernized procedures and IT systems while focusing on customer-facing features and ensuring intuitive, user-friendly interfaces. Verint in particular emphasizes superior engagement practices through its Verint Engagement Management service.
Chelsea Kerwin, February 9, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
US and Europe Split After Much Attensity
February 9, 2016
Most companies that are split across oceans usually have a parent company they remain attached to, however, PR Newswire shares that “IMCap Partners Acquire Attensity Europe.” Attensity Group Inc. is a leading provider in customer interaction management and its sub-company Attensity Europe headed its solutions across the pond. Recently, IMCap Partners invested money in a deal for Attensity Europe to split apart from the parent and become an independent company. Thomas Dreikauss will remain the CEO and also become a new shareholder in the new company. None of the details related to the purchase price and other details remain private.
Attensity Europe plans to focus on developing its omni-channel customer service and its market-leading product Respond, multilingual and omni-channel response management software. Respond increases productivity processing customer written requests and ensures better transparency over the service level.
“ ‘The market for CRM solutions is growing by just under 14% a year on average, according to Gartner, and therefore at a much more rapid rate than the overall software market. With Respond Attensity Europe is focusing on the highly attractive and rapid-growth customer interaction management/customer care segment, providing a solution that also fully meets the requirements of very large customer service units. The solution’s analytics, scalability and integration capacity are setting standards in the industry. Respond is a highly flexible, future-proof platform for customer service covering all written communication channels, including social media,” indicated Rolf Menne, operating partner at IMCap. “In cooperation with the highly motivated team at Attensity Europe, we see extremely attractive growth potential.’”
Attensity Europe will be rebranded and already has plans to take off in the coming year.
Whitney Grace, February 9, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Google DeepMind: Headhunters Rejoice
February 8, 2016
Google is not keen on publishing lists of employees. Sure, one can dig through public documents like patent applications, blog posts, and journal articles. But wouldn’t it be wonderful for Google to make available a list of key people for a hot discipline like artificial intelligence? Sort of an artificial headhunters’ list?
You can find a partial list of DeepMind Googlers in “The 14 Most Impressive AI Scientists Working at Google DeepMind.” I assume that folks looking for smart software wizards will be checking out LinkedIn, white pages, and conferences to have a chat.
Stephen E Arnold, February 8, 2016
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