Me Too Innovation Is Real News. Is It?
August 14, 2017
I saw links to a Wall Street Journal write up titled “In Tech, Imitation Is the New Innovation.” To view the document, you will have to [a] buy a dead tree version of the paper, [b] borrow one from a friendly neighbor or a low rise office building with newspapers scattered inside the entrance because who arrives when one can be on vacation, or [c] pay for an online subscription to one of the outfits wanting the US government to bail the newspaper companies out. (Is this an imitation of the Chrysler and GM bailouts? May be, may be.) You can find the story on page A-1 with a jump to page A-8 in the August 10, 2017 edition.
The main point of the write up is that the titans of Silicon Valley have run out of ideas. In order to get new ideas, the companies copy other companies. If the task of copying is tough, the big company may buy the outfit with the idea. Think how well that has worked out for Dodge Ball.
The focus of the write up is the general inability of the titans to come up with new ideas that capture eyeballs. Facebook is the focus, but I think of Google as one of the premier companies using piggyback innovation.
An interesting example of quasi innovation is the Google patent application 2017/0228436 A1, which is a continuation of a patent series reaching back seven years to 2019. The seven year old patent itself nods its head to a Korean patent dating from 2002. The August 2017 patent application reaches back 15 years.
The idea of “standing on the shoulders of giants” romanticizes the fact that coming up with something that captures users is difficult. Very difficult.
What strikes me as “Providing Results to Parameterless Search Queries” is that Google’s “invention” is similar to the “me too” approach to creating something new referenced in the Wall Street Journal write up. Facebook is doing what seems “natural.” Imitation is natural because the original “good idea” cooked up at Harvard needs oomph. Data enables refinement of ideas that may be decades old.
Innovation is less about innovation by copying or acquiring. Innovation is now a way to exploit comprehensive data.
Stephen E Arnold, August 14, 2017
You Have Been Warned, Fear Google!
August 14, 2017
It is hard not to subscribe to Google’s free services, such as their email, office suite, web analytics, Google Home, the Nest tool, and, of course, the search engine. Google promised not to use their services and powers for evil, but Big Brother looms over Alphabet Inc. like an ominous, dark shadow. Google and other search engines, except for DuckDuckGo, collect information about you. It is frightening how much information Google actually knows about a person, especially because it is freely given. TopTenz shares “10 Reasons You Should Fear Google,” listing why Google is more alarming than Big Brother.
CEO Eric Schmidt rubs shoulders with the political elite and has donated money to people in both the Republican and Democratic parties. His unknown power reminds us of Bob Iger, Michael Eisner, and Jeffery Katzenberg. Google can influence foreign governments more than we think, the list shares incidents with China’s totalitarian law and urged on the Iranian revolution. Google is looking to harvest the finances that are emerging in new, democratized countries:
The piece would go on to argue that the technology provided by the private sector would be the driving force in “democratizing” hostile and third world nations, thus making them ripe for private investment.
Soon after, the social media revolutions of Tunisia and then Egypt would excite many in the West, particularly in the government sector, giving companies like Google even more sway in the highest circles. Although many internet based companies tried to carve out a niche in the newfound space, Google had already established themselves as major players.
Perhaps the most dangerous of all is that Google can shape the way people consume and retrieve information. Google could choose and select the type of information its user’s access, meaning it could hide the truth, push a political agenda, and further aggravate the amount of fake news plaguing the Internet.
Some of this is true and some of this is fake. Google is as profit driven as any company, but at the same time, they are working on projects that would benefit humanity. Adding more competition to the market is one way to curb Google’s “evil” intentions.
Whitney Grace, August 14, 2017
Decoding IBM Watson
August 14, 2017
IBM Watson is one of the leading programs in natural language processing. However, apart from understanding human interactions, Watson can do much more.
TechRepublic in an article titled IBM Watson: The Smart Person’s Guide says:
IBM Watson’s cognitive and analytical capabilities enable it to respond to human speech, process vast stores of data, and return answers to questions that companies could never solve before.
Named after founding father of IBM, Thomas Watson, the program is already part of several organizations. Multi-million dollar setup fee, however, is a stumbling block for most companies who want to utilize the potential of Watson.
Watson though operates in seven different verticals, it also been customized for specialties like cyber security. After impacting IT and related industries, Watson slowly is making inroads into industries like legal, customer service and human resources, which comfortably can be said are on the verge of disruption.
Vishal Ingole, August 14, 2017
Google and Apple Narrow Search Results
August 11, 2017
Remaining relevant means making money in technology and Google and Apple are not about to be outdone by Amazon despite it appears that may be the case. In an effort to stem the potential loss of revenue both Apple and Google are re-engineering their search capabilities to “buttress the value of traditional search.”
According to GeoMarketing, the two tech giants are approaching the same problem from different angles:
In a sense, the battle between the mobile web and apps is a proxy war between Google and Apple.
For Google,
The (Q&A box) fits right in with the current idea of getting direct, personalized responses to queries as opposed to the traditional method of showing infinite hypertext listings based on general popularity. It follows a path that Google has already taken with its search functions, including the automatic addition of the term “near me” into the search box as well as providing searchable menu listings for restaurants and direct bookings to salons and spas.
Apple is focusing on apps rather than search, but with the same end in mind.
As consumers are demanding local results and more organic answers to their search questions, search giants have to continually find ways to accommodate. As long as it results in more revenue, the infinite chase is worth it, we suppose.
Catherine Lamsfuss, August 11, 2017
Big Datas Big Leap
August 11, 2017
One of the biggest problems of players of Business Intelligence through Big Data is its adoption. While companies with deep pockets are still scratching their heads, the industry will take off only when small and medium sized business adopt it.
According to an article published by Stats and Bots titled Open Source Business Intelligence, the author says:
Open source BI allows businesses to install the core platform on any system in their environment for free. Hundreds of developers are continuously improving and expanding these products. You can benefit from regular updates, or even customize BI software by modifying or extending source code to meet your company’s specific needs.
Open source tools for adopting BI solutions will go a long way in establishing the industry. The biggest stumbling block in adopting these solutions is cost of implementation. Thus, BI companies now are offering their tools free of cost and as open source.
Google, in order to capture the mobile OS market, offered its flagship OS Android free of cost to OEM and third parties. This enabled the company to create an ecosystem around the OS that is worth billions of dollars now. Open Source is the way to go it seems.
Vishal Ingole, August 11, 2017
TechnoSecurity & Digital Forensics Reminder
August 10, 2017
I wanted to let the world know that the TechnoSecurity & Digital Forensics Conference is about one month in the future, September 18 to 20, 2017. The conference has emerged as one of the most important resources for corporate network security professionals, federal, state and local law enforcement digital forensic specialists, and cybersecurity industry leaders from around the world. The purpose is to raise international awareness of developments, teaching, training, responsibilities, and ethics in the field of IT security and digital forensics. The event will feature more than 70 speakers, 60 sessions, 20 new product demonstrations, and 25 sponsors and exhibits. exhibits. For full details and to register, please visit www.TechnoSecurity.us.
Two of the Beyond Search team will be at the event. Check the program for our Dark Web lectures. If you spot one of the Kentucky crowd, ask about our pizza meet up on Tuesday, September 19, or our LE and intel special: A clean identity for Dark Web surfing and a bootable to Tails 3.0 USB. Proof of affiliation required for both show specials.
Stephen E Arnold, August 10, 2017
Web Search Training Wheels: A Play for Precision
August 10, 2017
I read “How to Instantly Boost the Accuracy of Search Results on Google and Bing.” i love the word “instantly”, particularly when coupled to “accuracy.” The write up describes an overlay called Advangle, which helps a person create a search with more than 2.6 words. Interesting neologism Advangle.
These services are what I call “training wheels.” The idea is that a person looking for information fills in a form, which helps the person create a query more sophisticated than “pizza.” Many systems in the last 50 years have tried these types of interfaces. In fact, one can find them in the whiz bang interfaces available to cyber OSINT software users. I won’t drag the old Dow Jones interface into this post, nor will I provide screenshots of Palantir Gotham interfaces. (Hey, you probably know about these already.)
The write up, however, does not explore the concept in too much detail. I noted this statement:
The Advantage interface makes it easier to string together targeted searches with the right syntax, and in half the time it would take to type it all out by hand.
Saving time, not prediction or recall, is the unique selling proposition.
It is useful to keep in mind that formal search operators are still available to users of Bing, Google, Yandex, and a number of other systems. The problem is that as Web search has massified, a tiny faction of the users of ad supported Web search systems bother with formal operators like filetype: or other oddities.
The real problems with search are far deeper than an interface overlay. Let me highlight several which I find consistently troublesome:
- Finding a way to impart the skills of well executed reference interview conducted by an expert in online search and retrieval. (Marydee Ojala, Ruth Patel, Anne Mintz, Ulla de Stricker, and Barbara Quint are individuals who can help a PhD formulate a statement of what information and data are needed, convert that desire into appropriate queries of appropriate databases, and deliver a filtered list of results.) Software, no matter how nifty the interface, at this time cannot replicate this expertise.
- Individuals who need information are more crippled than their counterparts from 30 years ago. Online systems have worked hard to let popularity and past user behavior provide a context for a query like “cyrus.” If you think you will get the pop star before a long dead historical figure, you are more sophisticated than the eager consumers of pop up ads on a Pixel phone
- Databases are governed by editorial policies. In the good old days of 1975, creators of databases figured out what and how to index. Today most users believe that Google has “all” the world’s information. Nothing could be more wrong headed. Indexes, particularly free ones, include what creates traffic. If the content gets a little too frisky, censorship, filtering, and smart / predictive software steps in and delivers “better” information.
I suggest you give the Advantage service a try. You may find that it is better than a room stuffed with Quints and Ojalas and others of this ilk.
My approach is simple: Know what one wants. Formulate a suitable query. Pass the query across the sources/databases likely to have indexed the information. Review the results. Think about the information gaps. Repeat the process.
Pretty crazy today, right?
Who has time to figure out what companies are in the cyber OSINT business or what Dark Web sites continue to offer contraband in the wake of AlphaBay and Hansa.
Research via digital resources, unlike checking Facebook, is a bit of a mental workout.
On the other hand, why not let the ad supported search engines deliver exactly what they think you need. Better yet, let these outfits provide that information before you know you need it.
A system that actually delivered precise, on point, timely, and authoritative results would be great. It would be nice to be able to live forever and travel to the stars.
Reality is a tad different. UX is not yet a replacement for knowing how to research in a way that moves beyond finding Game of Thrones.
Stephen E Arnold, August 10, 2017
Tidy Text the Best Way to Utilize Analytics
August 10, 2017
Even though text mining is nothing new natural language processing seems to be the hot new analytics craze. In an effort to understand the value of each, along with the difference, and (most importantly) how to use either efficiently, O’Reilly interviewed text miners, Julia Silge and David Robinson, to learn about their approach.
When asked what advice they would give those drowning in data, they replied,
…our advice is that adopting tidy data principles is an effective strategy to approach text mining problems. The tidy text format keeps one token (typically a word) in each row, and keeps each variable (such as a document or chapter) in a column. When your data is tidy, you can use a common set of tools for exploring and visualizing them. This frees you from struggling to get your data into the right format for each task and instead lets you focus on the questions you want to ask.
The due admits text mining and natural language processing overlap in many areas but both are useful tools for different issues. They regulate text mining to statistical analysis and natural language processing to the relationship between computers and language. The difference may seem minute but with data mines exploding and companies drowning in data, such advice is crucial.
Catherine Lamsfuss, August 10, 2017
Big Data Visualization the Open Source Way
August 10, 2017
Big Data though was hailed in a big way, it is yet to gain full steam because of a shortage of talent. Companies working in this domain are taking another swipe by offering visualization tools for free.
The Customize Windows in an article titled List of Open Source Big Data Visualization Tools:
There are some growing number of websites which write about Big Data, cloud computing and spread wrong information to sell some others paid things.
Many industries have tried the freemium route to attract talent and promote the industry. For instance, Linux OS maker Penguin Computing offered its product for free to users. This move sparked interest among users who wanted to try something other than Windows and Mac.
The move created a huge user base of Linux users and also attracted talent to promote research and development.
Big Data players it seems is following the exact strategy by offering data visualization tools free, which they will monetize later. All that is needed now is patience.
Vishal Ingole, August 10, 2017
India Jumps on the Filtering Bandwagon
August 9, 2017
We noted “Internet Archive Contacted Indian Govt Regarding the Block but Got No Response.” The main point is that a repository (incomplete as its collection of Web pages may be) seems to be unavailable in India. Perhaps the Indian government has found a way to search for information in the service. We have noted that searching for rich media, including the collection of 78 rpm records, is a tough slog. It is tough to find information even when it is online. When services are filtered, locating facts, semi-facts, and outright hoohaw becomes impossible. We think the actions could impair the outstanding customer support services provided by the world’s second largest nation. Efficient delivery of information centric services, however, are like to improve in Mumbai. China, Indonesia, Russia, Turkey, and now India may be taking steps to put the data doggies in the kennel.
Stephen E Arnold, August 9, 2017
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