Cambridge Analytica and Fellow Travelers
March 26, 2018
I read Medium’s “Russian Analyst: Cambridge Analytica, Palantir and Quid Helped Trump Win 2016 Election.” Three points straight away:
- The write up may be a nifty piece of disinformation
- The ultimate source of the “factoids” in the write up may be a foreign country with interests orthogonal to those of the US
- The story I saw is dated July 2017, but dates – like other metadata – can be fluid unless in a specialized system which prevents after the fact tampering.
Against this background of what may be hefty problems, let me highlight several of the points in the write up I found interesting.
More than one analytics provider. The linkage of Cambridge Analytica, Palantir Technologies, and Quid is not a surprise. Multiple tools, each selected for its particular utility, are a best practice in some intelligence analytics operations.
A Russian source. The data in the write up appear to arrive via a blog by a Russian familiar with the vendors, the 2016 election, and how analytic tools can yield actionable information.
Attributing “insights.” Palantir allegedly output data which suggested that Mr. Trump could win “swing” states. Quid’s output suggested, “Focus on the Midwest.” Cambridge Analytica suggested, “Use Twitter and Facebook.”
If you are okay with the source and have an interest in what might be applications of each of the identified companies’ systems, definitely read the article.
On April 3, 2018, my April 3, 2018, DarkCyber video program focuses on my research team’s reconstruction of a possible workflow. And, yes, the video accommodates inputs from multiple sources. We will announce the location of the Cambridge Analytica, GSR, and Facebook “reconstruction” in Beyond Search.
Stephen E Arnold, March 26, 2018
SEO Tips for Featured Snippets
March 26, 2018
We like Google’s Featured Snippets feature, at least when the information it serves up is relevant to the query. That is the tool that places text from, and links to, a site that (ideally) answers the user’s question at the top of search results. Naturally, Search Engine Optimization pros want their clients’ sites to grace these answer boxes as often as possible. That is the idea behind VolumeNine’s blog post, “Featured Snippets in Search: An Overview.” Writer Megan Duffy sees Featured Snippets as an opportunity for those already well-positioned in the search rankings. She explains,
There’s no debate that holding the primary spot on a search engine results page helps drive a ton of traffic. But it takes a long, disciplined approach to climb to the top of an organic search result. The featured snippet provides a bit of a shortcut. The featured snippet is an opportunity for any page ranked in the top ten of results to jump straight to the top with less effort compared to building a page’s search rank from, for example, from eighth to first. Having a featured snippet effectively puts you at search result zero and allows your business to earn traffic as the top search result.
Duffy goes on to make recommendations for maximizing one’s chances of being picked for that Snippet spot. To her credit, she emphasizes that good content is key; we like to see that is still a consideration.
Cynthia Murrell, March 26, 2018
Turn Back the Online Clock: Portals Are Back
March 25, 2018
Short honk: Believe it or not “portals” are once again a must have. Don’t believe it. Navigate to Menafn and read “Enterprise Portal Market Is Expected to Reach Approximately USD 41 Billion by 2023.” Sound like a bandwagon to ride? The Beyond Search goose thinks the report is precursor to one about hand cranked washing machines.
Stephen E Arnold, March 25, 2018
CNN Facebook Put Down: CNN. Imagine!
March 24, 2018
I noted this article on the CNN Web site: “Mark Zuckerberg Is Not Comfortable with the Enormous Influence He Has Over the World.” I associate this type of take down with the gentleman who ran a charity in the US, loved cricket, and took a very, very dim view of Americans. He once told me, “Kentucky has a great deal about which to be modest.”
CNN appears to be suggesting that Mr. Zuckerberg is a little big man.
I noted this statement in the write up:
“Any company that can influence a US presidential election without being aware that it is doing so is demonstrably too powerful,” Roger McNamee, Zuckerberg’s former mentor and a venture capitalist, told CNN by email.
The write up offered this assessment:
Brian Wieser, an analyst who tracks Facebook for Pivotal Research Group, says the real issue plaguing the company may not be whether it’s too powerful so much as whether it became powerful too fast. “It looks like a problem that has emerged is that they may have become big and powerful too quickly, without ensuring their foundations were solid enough to withstand the growth they have had,” Wieser told CNN.
I wish CNN has asked Mr. Zuckerberg how he was going to cause the next recession?
Stephen E Arnold, March 24, 2018
Silicon Valley Management Method: Has Broflow Replaced Workflow?
March 23, 2018
In early March, we noted a story about Silicon Valley and evil. “How Silicon Valley Went from ‘Don’t Be Evil’ to Doing Evil” reported about the “bro” culture and a casual approach to customer privacy. There was a nod to fake news too. We noted this statement:
“[A] handful of companies or concentrated in one or two regions. The great progress in the 1980s and 1990s took place in a highly competitive, and dispersed, environment not one dominated by firms that control 80 or 90 percent of key markets. Not surprisingly, the rise of the oligarchs coincides with a general decline in business startups, including in tech.”
Today we noted “Here is How Google Handles Right to Be Forgotten Requests.” We found this passage suggestive:
Witness statements submitted by Google “legal specialist” Stephanie Caro (who admitted: “I am not by training a lawyer”) for both trials explained: “The process of dealing with each delisting request is not automated – it involves individual consideration of each request and involves human judgment. Without such an individual assessment, the procedure put in place by Google would be open to substantial abuse, with the prospect of individuals, or indeed businesses, seeking to suppress search results for illegitimate reasons.”
No smart software needed it seems. And the vaunted technical company’s workflow with regard to removal requests? Possibly “casual” or “disorganized.”
When considered against the backdrop of Facebook-Cambridge Analytics, process seems less important than other tasks.
Perhaps some management expert will assign the term “bro-flow” to the organizational procedures implemented by some high profile technology firms?
Stephen E Arnold, March 23, 2018
Patrick Roland, March 9, 2018
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Tackles Image Search: A Missed Block Halts the Speeding Researcher
March 23, 2018
The Met Wins The War to Get Online
For a few decades, art and history museums have been struggling with their online presences. The experience of seeing a Jpeg of a painting or sculpture is not the same as seeing it in person. That’s true. But there is one area where museums are holding a lot of valuable data and just now it’s starting to be searchable. We discovered this recently when the Metropolitan Museum of Art ‘s database “MetPublications.”
According to the page:
“MetPublications includes a description and table of contents for most titles, as well as information about the authors, reviews, awards, and links to related Met titles by author and by theme. Current book titles that are in-print may be previewed and fully searched online, with a link to purchase the book. The full contents of almost all other book titles may be read online, searched, or downloaded as a PDF.”
This includes over five hundred books about various exhibits that have spanned the last five decades. These slim volumes, usually released in conjunction with various exhibits, is fully searchable and a huge score for art lovers and historians. Previously, it was seen as too daunting and, potentially impossible. As far back as 2002 Computer Weekly was bemoaning the fact that museums had missed the digital boat. Turns out museums like the Met didn’t miss the boat, it’s just that their ship sails a little more slowly than the white knuckle world of Silicon Valley.
Stepping back, Beyond Search has noted that image collections remain difficult to use. Browsing often works best. Searches can be frustrating. Results rendering sluggish. Interfaces confusing. Even commercial image search systems are challenging. For example, locate the Google “Life Magazine” collection. Now try to find the image from the 1950s showing a child jumping from a tank in the side yard of the Smithsonian Museum. Impossible, right? (I know. The kid was my much younger self, and my family kept the page from the magazine but it was misplaced. Before my father died, he wanted me to locate that image. Fail even with three of my researchers beavering away.)
Consequently useful reference resources fall short of the mark. That often makes a museum visit necessary. And getting access to certain content remains difficult.
Stephen E Arnold, March 23, 2018
Algorithm Positions Microsoft on Top of Global Tech Field
March 23, 2018
This is quite a surprise. Reporting the results of their own analysis, Reuters announces, “Microsoft Tops Thomson Reuters Top 100 Global Tech Leaders List.” The write-up tells us that, in second and third place, were:
… Chipmaker Intel and network gear maker Cisco Systems. The list, which aims to identify the industry’s top financially successful and organizationally sound organizations, features US tech giants such as Apple, Alphabet, International Business Machines and Texas Instruments, among its top 10. Microchip maker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, German business software giant SAP and Dublin-based consultant Accenture round out the top 10. The remaining 90 companies are not ranked, but the list also includes the world’s largest online retailer Amazon and social media giant Facebook.
The results are based on a 28-factor algorithm that measures performance across eight benchmarks: financial, management and investor confidence, risk and resilience, legal compliance, innovation, people and social responsibility, environmental impact, and reputation. The assessment tracks patent activity for technological innovation and sentiment in news and selected social media as the reflection of a company’s public reputation. The set of tech companies is restricted to those that have at least $1 billion in annual revenue.
That is an interesting combination of factors; I’d like to see that Venn diagram. Some trends emerged from the report. For example, 45 of those 100 companies are based in the US (but 47 in North America); 38 are headquartered in Asia, 14 in Europe, and one in Australia.
Cynthia Murrell, March 23, 2018
Google and Its Smart Software Take on Job Search
March 22, 2018
Google has a real entrepreneurial spirit for a multi-million dollar corporation. It seems like every time you turn around Google’s hands are in a new cookie jar, and chances are they will grab everything in sight. The latest industry to hold its breath while Google makes a splash is the hiring world. According a recent Independent story, “Google Launched its Own Jobs Search Engine—Here’s How It Works,” they are already deeply in the business.
The story states;
“[T]he new feature employs machine learning-trained algorithms to sort and organize job listings from a range of employment sites including LinkedIn, Monster and Glassdoor….So if you decide to find your next gig on Google, you’ll have a streamlined place to search and AI technology on your side.”
Google’s experience with machine learning and AI make it a real threat to actually outdo those sites, like Monster, that it currently uses. Our best guess is that Google will utilize those sites and then eventually attempt to overtake them. However, the market is not exactly easy pickings. Those aforementioned companies are sure to put up a fight, as well as social media, which is also throwing its hat into the jobs ring. Facebook, for one, is drastically expanding its job hunting services. This is sure to be a fistfight.
And let’s not forget LinkedIn and the US government’s service.
Perhaps Google is arriving at peak job time? Is it too late?
Patrick Roland, March 22, 2018
Hyperbolic Reasoning: Smart Software and Blockchain
March 22, 2018
What pairing of words can rival “blockchain” and “artificial intelligence”? I submit that this word duo could become the next peanut butter and jelly, Ma and Pa Kettle, or semantic search. (Yeah, I know “semantic search” is a bit fuzzy, but like smart software and blockchain, marketing and hyperbolic reasoning is mostly unbounded.)
I read “How Blockchain Can Transform Artificial Intelligence.” Now I don’t know what “artificial intelligence” is. I think I understand that blockchain is a distributed database. Blockchain has the charming characteristic of housing malware, stolen videos, and CP (that’s child pornography, I believe).
I agree that a database and data management system are important to many smart software systems. I am not sure that blockchain is the right dog for the Iditarod race, however.
The write up begs to differ. I learned:
By creating segments of verified databases, models can be successfully built and implemented upon only datasets which have been verified. This will detect any faults or irregularity in the data supply chain. It also helps to reduce the stress of troubleshooting and finding abnormal datasets since the data stream is available in segments. Finally, blockchain technology is synonymous with immutability, this means the data is traceable and auditable.
And the article identifies other benefits. But won’t other types of data management systems work as well or better than the much flogged blockchain?
I would suggest that some public blockchains leak information. Furthermore, the blockchain technology can house “attachments”, unwanted fellow travelers accompanying the encrypted data and assorted impedimenta the technology requires.
Some organizations like GSR and Cambridge Analytica prefer to keep their data and access to those data under wraps. The firestorm about Cambridge Analytica’s use of social media data certainly suggests to me that a blockchain approach may not have been an enhancement to the Cambridge Analytica system.
But read the write up. Make your own judgment.
For me, the this plus that approach to buzzwordisms does not convince. The promise— indeed the hope— that zippy technologies will deliver synergies is an example of hyperbolic reasoning.
Stephen E Arnold, March 22, 2018
Million Short: A Metasearch Option
March 22, 2018
An interview at Forbes delves into the story behind Million Short, an alternative to Google for Internet Search. As concerns grow about online privacy, information accuracy, and filter bubbles, options that grant the user more control appeal to many. Contributor Julian Mitchell interviews Million Short founder and CEO Sanjay Arora in his piece, “This Search Engine Startup Helps You Find What Google Is Missing.” Mitchell informs us:
Founded in 2012, Million Short is an innovative search engine that takes a new and focused approach to organizing, accessing, and discovering data on the internet. The Toronto-based company aims to provide greater choices to users seeking information by magnifying the public’s access to data online. Cutting through the clutter of popular searches, most-viewed sites and sponsored suggestions, Million Short allows users to remove up to the top one million sites from the search set. Removing ‘an entire slice of the web’, the company hopes to balance the playing field for sites that may be new, suffer from poor SEO, have competitive keywords, or operate a small marketing budget. Million Short Founder and CEO Sanjay Arora shares the vision behind his company, overthrowing Google’s search engine monopoly, and his insight into the future of finding information online.
The subsequent interview gets into details, like Arora’s original motivation for creating Million Short—Search is too important to be dominated by a just few companies, he insists. The pair explores both advantages and challenges the company has seen, as well as a look to the future. See the article for more.
Cynthia Murrell, March 22, 2018
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