HonkinNews Video Available for August 23, 2016
August 23, 2016
After several tests, the fourth HonkinNews video is available on YouTube. You can view the six minute video at https://youtu.be/AIYdu54p2Mg. The HonkinNews highlights a half dozen stories from the previous week’s Beyond Search stream. The commentary adds a tiny twist to most of the stories. We know that search and content processing are not the core interests of the millennials. We don’t expect to attract much of a following from teens or from “real” search experts. Nevertheless, we will continue with the weekly news program because Google has an appetite for videos. We will continue with the backwoods theme and the 16 mm black and white film. We think it adds a high tech look to endless recycling of search and content jargon which fuels information access today.
Kenny Toth, August 23, 2016
Rocket Software Enterprise Search
August 22, 2016
My recollection is that the search plumbing for Rocket Software Enterprise Search is AeroText. If you are not familiar with AeroText, the system was for a number of years a property of Lockheed Martin. But times change. Rocket Software purchased AeroText in 2008. The news release about the deal stated:
The AeroText product suite provides a fast, agile information extraction system for developing knowledge-based content analysis applications. The technology excels at developing a core understanding of content contained within unstructured text, such as emails and documents, as well as an ability to automatically reconcile information cited across multiple documents. Such a capability makes it suited for a variety of applications, from counter-terrorism and law enforcement to business intelligence and enterprise content management. AeroText was originally developed by Lockheed Martin and is often integrated into other solutions. AeroText solutions provide both information extraction and link analysis capabilities by converting unstructured information into structured information.
Is this information important? Well, to those who want to use open source search solutions, nah. To companies wanting a proprietary search system with a defense pedigree, yes.
If you want Rocket Software’s description of one of its uses of the AeroText technology, you can download the white paper “How Enterprise Search Enhances Enterprise Intelligence” at this link. You will have to register and be careful not to hit the “return” key. Don’t care? Well, prepare to complete the information a second time.
AeroText used to require human tweaked rules, a human built classification scheme, and content in XML. Each of these attributes is characteristics of a traditional approach to information retrieval.
Stephen E Arnold, August 22, 2016
Ami Albert Joined Bertin Technologies a Year Ago and Is Alive
August 22, 2016
I learned about the Ami search system called Albert a decade ago. My notes indicated that at that time the company was Swiss but had strong ties to France. Not surprisingly, when Ami’s market momentum dictated a sale, a French company stepped forward and bought Ami and its happy face identity:
Bertin Technologies has integrated Ami Albert into its market intelligence suite. Search appears to be a utility function. The company says that it is “a publisher and integrator of cutting edge software solutions.” The company offers cyber security, digital intelligence, and speech processing.
According to the deal description on the Bertin Web site:
The ability to offer Market Intelligence and Risk Intelligence sees the creation of a key player in Web Content Mining, whose international outlook is supported by an industrial group with a presence in 15 countries.
Ami, a search vendor, morphed into a market intelligence company. When the deal was announced in mid 2015, AMI had 150 clients. The company operated via two subsidiaries in the UK and Morocco. The unique value of Ami comes from Bertin’s capabilities.
In 2006, Ami counted LexisNexis, Sinequa, Lingway, and itself via the Go Albert unit as “partners.”
The company’s search interface looked like this before Ami pivoted to content scraping and “market intelligence.”
Search results looked like this:
Ami emphasized that it could perform metasearch functions; that is, take a user’s query and send it to different systems with individual search interfaces. Here’s how Ami presented this idea to prospective customers:
Ami also emulated the analytic report methods found in i2 Analyst’s Notebook and Palantir Technologies, among others.
No details about the terms of the deal were announced. I did not include Ami Albert in any of the Enterprise Search Report profiles I created. The company seemed to be focused on building traction in Europe, not the US. In retrospect, Ami’s trajectory is similar to many other search vendors’. The company enters the market, moves forward for ten years, and then sells. A new owner is probably a better fate than locking the doors and turning off the lights.
Stephen E Arnold, August 22, 2016
Microsoft to Sunset China Search and News Services
August 22, 2016
Recent news has made clear that online content from the U.S. or any country foreign to China faces challenges in China. An article from CNN Money recently published Microsoft is giving up on its Chinese web portal. This piece informs us that Microsoft will sunset it’s MSN website in China on June 7. Through their company statement, Microsoft mentions their commitment to China remains and notes China is home to the largest R&D facility outside the U.S. An antitrust investigation on Microsoft in China has been underway since July 2014. The article shares an overview of the bigger picture,
The company’s search engine, Bing, also flopped in the country amid tough competition with homegrown rivals. It didn’t help that in Chinese, “Bing” sounds similar to the word for “sickness.
In September, Microsoft finally ditched Bing for users of its Edge browser in China, striking a deal with Chinese Internet giant Baidu (BIDU, Tech30) to use its search engine as the default.
Other Western tech firms have come under scrutiny in China before, including Qualcomm(QCOM, Tech30) and Apple (AAPL, Tech30). Social networks like Facebook (FB, Tech30) and Google (GOOG) remain blocked in the country.”
It looks like Bing will bite the dust soon, in China at least. Does this news mean anything for Microsoft as a company? While regulations China are notably stringent, the size of their population makes up a notably sized market. We will be watching to see how search plays out in China.
Megan Feil, August 22, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph There is a Louisville, Kentucky Hidden /Dark Web meet up on August 23, 2016. Information is at this link: https://www.meetup.com/Louisville-Hidden-Dark-Web-Meetup/events/233019199/
IBM Takes Its University Initiative to Scotland
August 22, 2016
The article on Inside HPC titled IBM Partners with University of Aberdeen to Drive Cognitive Computing illustrates the circumstances of the first Scottish university partnership with IBM. IBM has been collecting goodwill and potential data analysts from US colleges lately, so it is no surprise that this endeavor has been sent abroad. The article details,
In June 2015, the UK government unveiled plans for a £313 million partnership with IBM to boost big data research in the UK. Following an initial investment of £113 million to expand the Hartree Centre at Daresbury over the next five years, IBM also agreed to provide further support to the project with a package of technology and onsite expertise worth up to £200 million. This included 24 IBM researchers, stationed at the Hartree Centre, to work side-by-side with existing researchers.
The University of Aberdeen will begin by administering the IBM cognitive computing technology in computer science courses in addition to ongoing academic research with Watson. In a sense, the students exposed to Watson in college are being trained to seek jobs in the industry, for IBM. They will have insider experience and goodwill toward the company. It really is one of the largest nets cast for prospective job applicants in industry history.
Chelsea Kerwin, June 22, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph There is a Louisville, Kentucky Hidden /Dark Web meet up on August 23, 2016.
Information is at this link: https://www.meetup.com/Louisville-Hidden-Dark-Web-Meetup/events/233019199/
Google Shows Some Smart Software Research
August 21, 2016
If you track Google’s research activities, you may know that papers delivered at conferences become tough to tough to locate. A pointer may return a dead link or a page which asks the intrepid researcher to pay for a copy of the document. Other papers just disappear due to the magic of logical management decisions.
For Google’s latest in smart software, navigate to “ACL 2016 & Research at Google.” The day I visited the site, papers could be downloaded for free. These finely honed Googlist write ups do not have dates and some of the bibliographic details one had to provide in high school, but, hey, you have the write ups.
Google explains that it is a leader in natural language processing. Never mind that MIT’s Technology Review pointed out in “AI’s Language Problem” that some of the nifty methods in use today are not ready for the big show. If one says something, that something is true, right?
Stephen E Arnold, August 21, 2016
An IBM Watson Retrospective
August 20, 2016
We love IBM Watson. We avidly devoured “A Look at IBM’s Watson 5 Years After Its Breathtaking Jeopardy Debut.” The “singularity” is associated in my mind with Google, but the write up is about IBM Watson. What’s not to like?
The review kicks off by reminding the reader (in this case, me) that Watson is a version of DeepQA software. I added this mental footnote: Lucene, home brew code, and acquired technologies.)
I did not know that IBM wanted to create a Siri for business. IBM and Apple have formed a bit of a teamlet in the last year or so.
I highlighted this passage:
Watson shrunk from the size of a large bedroom to that of four pizza boxes and is now accessible via the cloud on tablet and smartphone. The system is 240% more powerful than its predecessor and can process 28 types (or modules) of data, compared to just 5 previously.
In 2013, IBM open-sourced Watson’s API and now offers IBM Bluemix, a comprehensive cloud platform for third-party developers to build and run apps on top of Watson’s many computing capabilities.
But one of the biggest moves that’s made Watson into what it is today was when, in 2014, IBM invested $1 billion into creating “IBM Watson Group,” a massive division dedicated to all things Watson and housing some 2,000 employees. This was the tipping point when Watson went from “startup mode” to making cognitive computing mainstream. It’s when Watson started to feel very, well, “IBM.” Fast-forward to 2016, and Watson has more enterprise services and solutions than I can list here—financial advisor, automated customer service representative, research compiler—you name the service, Watson can probably do it.
The confidence in Watson seems unbounded.
The write up explains the future of Watson. I learned:
IBM is aware of deep learning and last year told MIT Technology Review that the team is integrating the deep learning approach into Watson. The original system was already a bit of a mashup—combining natural language understanding with statistical analysis of large datasets. Deep learning may round it out further.
I was under the impression that training Watson with data was part of the plumbing. Deep learning, I conclude, is a bit of frosting on the cake.
The review ends with a reminder that Watson is an augmented intelligence system just like Palantir Technologies’ Gotham and Metropolitan systems, not an artificial intelligence system.
The future is “powerful ways” for IBM, humans, and Watson to work together. I believe this. I believe this. I believe this. I believe this. I believe… Sustainable revenues and profits will follow. I believe this too.
Stephen E Arnold, August 20, 2016
Alphabet Google and Its Losing Bets
August 19, 2016
I read “A Year after Google Transformed into Alphabet, the Only Thing Clear Is How Much Its Bets Are Losing.” (Now that is a title.) The write up explains that even for the Alphabet Google thing creating sustainable revenue streams is not as easy as solving trivial problems like death. Whoops. Death is not yet cracked. However, Google has cracked the Loon balloon as a wireless component.
I learned from the write up:
Google is still growing—its revenue last quarter was $21.3 billion, up 21% from a year earlier—but similar signs of life have not been seen in Other Bets. In the last four quarters, it’s lost over $3.7 billion, and only generated roughly $500 million in revenue, which works out to less than 1% of Alphabet’s quarterly sales.
In the grand scheme of online ad revenue, what’s the big deal?
This passage caught my attention:
Alphabet’s Other Bets includes things like Google Fiber, the company’s initiative to bring high-speed fiber-optic broadband to the US; Boston Dynamics, a research firm working on humanoid and dog-shaped robots for the military; and Nest, the internet-of-things company Google bought in 2014 that makes smart thermostats and other as-of-yet unnecessary gadgets. In the last year, Nest’s CEO Tony Fadell has left Alphabet amid claims that he was creating a “toxic” work atmosphere, and Boston Dynamics is apparently being shopped around for a buyer as Alphabet struggles to monetize its work.
My hunch is that the article is designed to suggest that the Alphabet Google thing has a problem. I am not sure its “bets” are the challenge. My thoughts flow to Amazon. Mr. Bezos’ outfit has generated additional lines of revenue and seems to be creating new services which complement the core business and open new revenue streams. There’s package delivery, subscriptions, and the cloud business. Even the space initiative and the dead tree newspaper are showing signs of life.
Perhaps the issue is what Google pursues versus what Amazon is doing? Which company is more likely to take a wild and crazy idea and make money from that notion? Some say Amazon; some say Google. Are these company names synonyms for innovation or concentrated market control? Time to go fishing with my Android tablet and a lure from Amazon.
Stephen E Arnold, August 19, 2016
Thiel and Palantir: Big Play or Not?
August 19, 2016
I read “This Company is Billionaire Peter Thiel’s Biggest Holding.” I am not certain if the write up is a rah rah for a savvy investor or a prognostication about the risks of investment concentration.
The subject is Peter Thiel, investment wizard, and Palantir Technologies. I associate Mr. Thiel with Hulk Hogan, which may be an indication of my own shallowness. I associate Palantir Technologies with its legal dust up with i2 Group (a former client, by the way) and the legal spat with the US Army.
The write up points out:
Late last year, Palantir raised nearly $900 million in a round that valued the company at $20 billion. That makes Palantir the fifth-most valuable start-up in the world, after Uber, Xiaomi, Didi Chuxing, and Airbnb.
That’s good.
But the company may be overvalued. The write up asserts:
If Palantir does go public, it could propel his net worth to new heights.
The write up does not address what happens if Palantir’s value falls and the company does not enter into an initial public offering.
That’s a good question. Perhaps a financial black eye will result? What happens if the legal hassle with US Army is resolved in a way that leaves Palantir Technologies out in the cold?
No answers to these unasked questions. But the write up’s headline is a barn burner even if the information payload is a wet noodle.
Stephen E Arnold, August 19, 2016
Another Day Another Possible Data Breach
August 19, 2016
Has the next Ashley Madison incident happened? International Business Times reports on breached information that has surfaced on the Dark Web. The article, Fling.com breach: Passwords and sexual preferences of 40 million users up for sale on dark web, sheds some light on what happened in the alleged 40 million records posted on the The Real Deal marketplace. One source claims the leaked data was old information. Another source reports a victim who says they never had an account with Fling.com. The article states,
“The leak is the latest in a long line of dating websites being targeted by hackers and follows similar incidents at Ashley Madison, Mate1, BeautifulPeople and Adult Friend Finder. In each of these cases, hundreds of thousands – if not millions – of sensitive records were compromised. While in the case of Ashley Madison alone, the release of information had severe consequences – including blackmail attempts, high-profile resignations, and even suicide. Despite claims the data is five years old, any users of Fling.com are now advised to change their passwords in order to stay safe from future account exploitation.”
Many are asking about the facts related to this data breach on the Dark Web — when it happened and if the records are accurate. We’re not sure if it’s true, but it is sensational. The interesting aspect of this story is in the terms of service for Fling.com. The article reveals Fling.com is released from any liability related to users’ information.
Megan Feil, August 19, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
There is a Louisville, Kentucky Hidden /Dark Web meet up on August 23, 2016.
Information is at this link: https://www.meetup.com/Louisville-Hidden-Dark-Web-Meetup/events/233019199/
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