Google Becomes an App Machine
October 28, 2018
Google looks for ways to better the search experience and according to Reuters they might have a new way to search: “Google’s ‘Reserve’ Tool Winning Converts, Taking Search To Next Level.” And ads are important too. Right, Mr. Reuters?
Google’s newest project is the Reserve app that had a quiet launch this year. Reserve users have lauded its ease of use and sparing them a phone call. What is Reserve? It is a search app that is a cross between Yelp and Google Maps. For example, if you want a massage at 6:00 PM near your work, you input your search terms into Reserve, and it returns massage studios near you with available appointments. It even allows you to pay and book an appointment without ever having to speak with a person.
Business participants are happy, because it is driving new customers to them and the customers are happy with the ease of use. What would this mean for Google?
“The early results are a good sign for Google’s strategy for search at a time when it is battling technology rivals to guide consumers to shops, products, recipes, music and more. Google wants to do more than supply users with a list of web pages that they must research themselves. The next step is to complete tasks for them and provide direct solutions.”
Google Assistant will become a bigger feature in Reserve as the app faces upgrades. Google Assistant will take over the booking from the users with a simple vocal command. The market for appointment booking is brand new, but also hot for consumer brand development and competition.
Google is not currently charging any of the businesses listed in Reserve a fee, but in the future it could offer advertising packages to businesses who want an ad featured in Reserve or even charge for inclusion in the search results. There is concern that Google is watering down consumer and business relationships in an effort to capture data, but this is also how the market is shifting.
Amazon Home Services and Yelp are also working on their own booking services, but these projects are still in the development phases. Google’s Reserve is just a search tool masked in an app interface, but it does take out the guesswork.
Whitney Grace, October 28, 2018
Google Maps: Unusable?
October 28, 2018
I read “Google Maps Has Become a Big Bloated Mess of Features Nobody Wants.” I learned from a source far from the old age home that Google Maps is a chubby piggy. No 5J. Just a big pig.
I highlighted this statement:
Correct me if I’m wrong and you do use all of Google Maps’ new features or find them practical, but I open up the app and am annoyed on the daily about what exactly I’m supposed to be doing in it.
About right. The Google Plus method applied to Google Maps.
Stephen E Arnold, October 28, 2018
Bing: Getting More Visual
October 27, 2018
Bing Gets Visual, But Stays Behind The Curve
Microsoft’s red-headed step child of the search world is slowly, and steadily attempting its next stab at greatness. While the little search engine that could has been trying valiantly to overtake Google for years, it is making concrete steps in the right direction with news we discovered in a recent Android Community story, “Bing Update Brings Text Transcription, Education Carousel, Visual Search.”
The update that has us most excited is its visual search:
“Bing also lets you copy and search the actual text that you see on your camera. For example, you take a pic of the menu in the restaurant, tap the text and search how to pronounce it and what it actually is. You can use it to take pictures of phone numbers, serial numbers, email addresses, navigate to an address, etc.”
As expected, Bing is a little behind the curve. While Bing is just beginning to blossom in the world of visual search, Google is already there and also adding greater visual cues aimed at retaining visitors. By incorporating more pictures and videos, and less text, the king of the mountain is looking to hold its grip on users. We would love to see Bing outduel Google someday, but we don’t see it on the horizon.
Patrick Roland, October 25, 2018
IBM Inventor A Minority, Female, And An Anomaly
October 27, 2018
Women and minorities in the technology industry are underrepresented and often white whales, purple giraffes, pink elephants, and even black swans. The Dallas News reports on one of these colorful creatures in the article, “Star IBM Inventor Fears Emails Can Be Brutal, So She Built A Tool To Fix It.”
Romelia Flores is Latina, female, and one of IBM’s top worldwide technologists. She holds 38 patents, including several “high-value patents” that have impacted IBM’s revenue stream, and she has 30 more pending. Flores works with clients to help design products and solutions to their problems in imaginative and innovative ways.
IBM has named Flores an IBM master inventor and she is extremely proud of that title. One of her favorite inventions is an email tone checker. Flores said that email is often impersonal and brutal, so her tone analyzer. She designed it after she was criticized for being too blunt in her communications.
The tone analyzer is apparently very smart:
“‘So before I hit send on my email, it flags to me, ‘Hey, Romelia, you didn’t put any courtesy verbiage at the front,’ or ‘Gee, Romelia, you were pretty direct at giving orders, so you might want to add a please here.’ “It even factors in the personality traits of the IBM recipient. ‘It’ll say, ‘Hey, she doesn’t respond well to directness, so maybe you should be a little nicer and lighten up your email.’ It’ll even propose verbiage for me. Is that cool or what?’”
The rest of the article is an empowering puff piece about an extremely intelligent female and minority engineer at IBM. It makes you wonder if this piece was written to demonstrate how progressive IBM is. Is Flores an anomaly at IBM? Let’s ask Watson? Well, Watson seems to be a male. Is that an issue?
Whitney Grace, October 27, 2018
Google and Popular Searches
October 26, 2018
Why the intellectual bar for online information retrieval is getting lower is revealed in the article “Happy 20th Birthday, Google: What Are the Most Popular Searches?”
Online searching once was the realm of individuals who sought information via Texas Instruments Silent 700s. No more.
To illustrate the type of information that is important to Google and its users, here are the top searches from each of the last five years:
- 2017 Hurricane Irma
- 2016 Powerball
- 2015 Lamar Odom
- 2014 Robin Williams
- 2013 Paul Walker
This list makes clear why Google suggests popular rock stars, pizza, and pizza (oh, did I mention pizza already?).
Google is a wonderful tool. Here in Harrod’s Creek we want weather, gambling, and celebrity or at least C list celebrity information.
I think Alexis de Tocqueville said:
In the United States, the majority undertakes to supply a multitude of ready made opinions for the use of individuals, who are thus relieved from the necessity of forming opinions of their own.
In search, that majority seems to be Google.
October 26, 2018
Microsoft Edges into AI Applications
October 26, 2018
If Microsoft’s history as a late bloomer in the search world with Bing is any indicator, we don’t think Uber and Lyft are too worried about the tech giant’s recent foray into ride hailing. However, some indications point to a novel idea that Microsoft might actually be able to disrupt an industry that is not so close to its vest. We learned more from a recent TechCrunch story, “Microsoft Invests In Grab to Bring AI and Big Data to On-Demand Services.”
According to the story:
“Microsoft has made a strategic investment in ride-hailing and on-demand services company Grab as part of a deal that includes collaborating on big data and AI projects.
We noted:
“Under the agreement, Singapore-based Grab will adopt Microsoft Azure as its preferred cloud platform Azure cloud computing service.”
We’re not saying this will never take off. In fact, there are a lot of optimistic signs that point to this partnership flourishing. For example, Microsoft India has begun to deploy its AI solutions into agriculture and healthcare fields with success. If this technology can help crop rotations, it might just streamline ride sharing apps. We’ll be monitoring this one closely.
Patrick Roland, October 26, 2018
Mapping a Brain without the Treo Founder
October 26, 2018
Remember the Treo. The wizard behind the device has been studying the brain. Jeff Hawkins is beginning to share his findings.
It’s a well-worn joke that things like Google and Facebook impact the ways our brains work. Some might even say our brains wouldn’t function without it. Now, scientists are striving to make that connection even tighter, but in a surprising way. We learned more from a Datanami story: “Partners Look to Scale ‘Chomsky Knowledge Graph’”.
According to the piece, computer scientists are testing out a knowledge mapping tool on the work of social critic Noam Chomsky. Here’s where it gets interesting:
“The initiative builds on Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOGL) pioneering work that used a graph database to organize information and link it to related web sites and sources. Built on top of the graph database, the knowledge graph transformed search from “strings” of key words to “things,” or concepts based on context.”
Why wait for Mr. Hawkins.
By using Google for this project, it’s tough not to assume that Google has the brain under glass. With the news that Google, itself, has been attempting to map the human brain’s neurons, it seems like a natural fit that the two would find an eventual overlap.
Perhaps online ads delivered directly into the brain? We like the idea. We like the idea. We like the idea. Oh, that’s Ikea.
Patrick Roland, October 26, 2018
Cognos Gets a Rework
October 25, 2018
Cognos? Cognos?
Oh, right, that’s the Canadian analytics company founded in 1969. I think that works out to 49 years young. IBM has owned Cognos since 2008, Now after a decade of vast investment, savvy upgrades, and stellar management decisions, Cognos is going to get even better. Think of it as a US professional football player from the 1960s, suiting up and starting for the Kansas City Chiefs or the Chicago Bears. That’s a strategy that the opposing teams will find surprising.
Same with advanced analytics. Quid, Palantir, Recorded Future! Are you nervous about the new and improved Cognos revealed in “IBM Integrates Business Intelligence and Data Science with New Major Update to Cognos Analytics.”
What’s the fountain of youth?
According to the write up:
… Storytelling… allows users to create interactive narratives by assembling visualizations into a sequence and then enhancing it with media, web pages, images, shapes, and test.
And:
Smart exploration will help users be able to better understand what’s behind their results by analyzing it with machine learning and pattern detection.d then enhancing it with media, web pages, images, shapes, and test.
And:
advanced analytics that include predictive analytics, the ability to identify data patterns and variables driving a certain outcome, smart annotation, and natural language generated insights of data.
But the number one enhancement is… wait for it….
The key new features of this release are a new AI Assistant and pattern detection capability. The AI Assistant enables users to make queries and then receive results in natural language. According to IBM, this makes it easier to not only look for answers, but understand where they come in.
Ah, IBM. Making a product that is half a century young even more appealing to millennials.
Stephen E Arnold, October 25, 2018
Do It Yourself Smart Software
October 25, 2018
Data scientists make a lot of comparisons between the network of neurons in our brain and the way big data search operates. We tend to think that’s a pretty good comparison. So, when we discovered someone came up with a way to build a neural network from scratch, the armchair brain surgeon in us couldn’t resist. We learned more from a recent Toward Data Science piece, “How to Build Your Own Neural Network from Scratch in Python.”
We learn:
“Motivation: As part of my personal journey to gain a better understanding of Deep Learning, I’ve decided to build a Neural Network from scratch without a deep learning library like TensorFlow. I believe that understanding the inner workings of a Neural Network is important to any aspiring Data Scientist.”
The write up ignores what my colleagues have identified as Amazon’s meal ready to eat approach to intelligent applications. The idea is that a person selects data, templates, and functions from Amazon. These are then connected with minimal or no programming. The result is the equivalent of pulling a frozen burrito from the fridge and popping it into a microwave. In two or three minutes, lunch is served.
The future of smart software is the type of simplicity Amazon offers those who want to buy a digital book. Our research team’s four part Amazon series begins on October 30, 2018, in DarkCyber, our video news program.
Watch the Beyond Search blog for access information.
Patrick Roland, October 25, 2018
IBM Watson: Amping Up Its Marketing with Hockey Harmony, Earthquake Coping, and World Surf League Insights
October 25, 2018
IBM’s dip in revenues may have contributed to the step up in IBM Watson marketing. The Beyond Search goose noted several interesting examples. These are long on assertions and short on facts about training time, cost, and support. But, hey, this is marketing in 2018, so the approach can be a bit like the two step on Dancing with the Stars.
ITEM ONE: Influential, a company using IBM Watson to power its revenues, has hired a new business officer. Andrew Pelosi (does the name sound familiar?) will be go to smart software champion. His preparation for the job? VP of biz dev at the World Surf League. Sounds like a good fit.
ITEM TWO: What do you do when an earthquake strikes your child’s school? The correct answer, “Trust IBM Watson.” Yep, IBM is in the earthquake amelioration business. “When an Earthquake Hits, Watson Solution Helps Schools Cope” reveals:
“Frida [a Watson powered solution] mitigates natural disasters by combining emergency data with AI technology using IBM IoT platform, Watson Studio, and Watson Services,” said Lin Ju, Watson Studio senior development manager at IBM Canada Lab who led the team. “For our proof of concept, we focused on earthquakes in schools, but this solution can be applied to other areas.”
Rest easy. Frida Watson will help schools cope. Parents? Maybe.
ITEM THREE: How will a company manufacturing athletic gear find a sports personality? The answer, as you might have guessed, is IBM Watson. According to “Fizziology Employs Watson Linguistic Analysis to Match Endorsing Athletes”:
In Fizziology’s endeavor, which it says is the first brand-to-celebrity matching employing the supercomputer’s linguistic analysis, Watson examines the social media posts of a given brand’s fans to determine the personality traits they assign to the brand, as well as the traits indicated by the athletes’ own posts. In both cases, the posts were made to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Do athletes write their own social media posts? My hunch is, “Maybe.” If this is true, Watson will extract from a PR person’s posts the data needed to perform a match. Watson has many talents, including figuring out an athlete’s Closeness, Curiosity, Self Expression, and Harmony score. Yep, hockey players in the Harmony department.
Ah, IBM Watson. Interesting stuff.
Stephen E Arnold, October 24, 2018
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
