Google Takes to the Air
March 9, 2015
There are numerous Web sites that specialize in tracking down the best price for flights an even applications that aggregate information from these multiple sites. Do we really need another one? Google certainly thinks so, because Slashgear reports “Google Officially Launches Flights,Their Search-Friendly Travel Tool.” Google wants to increase their Web traffic and profit in the travel sector. With its new Flights search tool, users can search the best flight prices without even needing to know where you’re going.
One of Google’s main goals with Flights to help people with their travel plans. The idea is based of the scenario that when a person wants to travel, cost is usually the biggest factor in deciding where they go. Flights helps users track down a great deal on a flight and offers search filters to narrow the field: price range, limiting the layovers, and destinations.
There are still a few bugs, as to be expected in a new tool:
“Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to work with any airline just yet, so if you’ve got loyalty points your squirreling away — you might not be able to earn more with Flights. Still, for the quick getaway or open-ended vacation, Flights is at least another tool to have handy.”
Whitney Grace, March 09, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Funnelback: Getting Quieter and Quieter
March 7, 2015
Prior to some management changes, Funnelback was on my radar. The company seemed active in the UK and Australia. For 2015, the company has commenced operations in the US. The firm’s office is in Santa Monica. There is a Web site refreshing at www.funnelback.com. The last big news items I noticed was that Funnelback became a Crown Commercial Service Supplier on G-Cloud 6. Was Funnelback a bit of a one man band. When the drummer departed, the search focus softened. Worth watching.
Stephen E Arnold, March 7, 2015
SharePoint and Search: Questions Arise
March 6, 2015
SharePoint search has delivered the best of times for consultants who get paid to make the system work. For users, SharePoint has been a contributor to bad findability times.
I read “Excuse Me SharePoint: A Crossroads or an On-Ramp?” Let me cut to the main point: No one knows. I know that I don’t want to be road kill in the busy intersection of high expectations and massive cost overruns.
I have an opinion. But first, let me call your attention to this statement from the write up:
They [a cadre of SharePoint “experts] acknowledged enterprise users’ frustrations, which Holme called more of a communication problem than an IT problem. In the past, Microsoft was way behind the industry in implementing new features and has gone to implementing them so rapidly that an item a company demoed yesterday might be gone today. The focus tends to be on the end user, which isn’t always the most useful for an enterprise. And in 2015, a lot of organizations are still trying to figure out SharePoint 2013.
For me, SharePoint is an opportunity to make money. Customers drink the Microsoft Seattle latte and believe three things:
- SharePoint is the operating system for the organization. Hey, everyone uses Word. SharePoint is just like that.,
- SharePoint does many things really, really well: Ease of use, document management, search, collaboration, etc.
- SharePoint search is the state of the art in finding concepts, people, facts, you name it.
The reality is that SharePoint does many things, but none of them is exactly what the customer believes. Most of the functions can be made to work with sufficient money, expertise, time, and management patience.
The problem is that consultants want to sell their SharePoint expertise. Those engineers with hard won SharePoint expertise, like and Oracle database administrator, have little incentive to explain certain aspects of the SharePoint decision. Users are clueless and senior managers pre-occupied with sales, litigation, their compensation package, and personnel issues.
Getting the truth about SharePoint costs, complexities, weaknesses is difficult. When it comes to search, the number of third party alternatives makes one thing clear—SharePoint search is not as good as third party solutions.
So what? Well, you get to spend more money for a utility that should work. That’s good for the third party vendors. For others? Well, like the future of SharePoint, no one knows or no one is saying.
Stephen E Arnold, March 6, 2015
MovieGraph from Senzari Offers a Better Way to Find Movies
March 5, 2015
The article on Dataversity titled Creating Detailed Semantic Graphs Around Video Content with MovieGraph suggests a possible breakthrough in video sense making. MovieGraph is the platform of entertainment data company Senzari. Chief Operating Officer Demian M. Bellumio spoke to the methods utilized by MovieGraph, which include machine learning and an API for recommendations. The article continues to refer to Bellumio’s statements,
“Senzari focused on metadata while building MovieGraph. He also said that Senzari trained machine learning algorithms to break down the narratives of movies, extracting the data with precision across each element. The company designed their own matrix for cataloging movies; MovieGraph uses machine learning techniques to semantically tag and organize every movie and TV show across hundreds of dimensions. Senzari also added proprietary narrative features to MovieGraph such as setting, conflict, symbols or tones present in a film.”
The possibilities for recommendations seem much more targeted than the Netflix model, which often makes suggestion based on categories that are too wide and abstracted to be accurate. The article mentions that since Netflix only recently closed its public API, MovieGraph may be in a position to fill that gap. MusicGraph is also built to work with MusicGraph, another Senzari platform. Content creators in particular might find the crossover to be useful in terms of finding appropriate content for their projects.
Chelsea Kerwin, March 05, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Google: Just the Facts, Folks
March 2, 2015
Short honk: I read “Google Wants to Rank Websites Based on Facts Not Links.” The article could be a jumping off point for some dictionary excitement. The article reports:
Google research team is adapting that model to measure the trustworthiness of a page, rather than its reputation across the web. Instead of counting incoming links, the system – which is not yet live – counts the number of incorrect facts within a page. “A source that has few false facts is considered to be trustworthy,” says the team (arxiv.org/abs/1502.03519v1). The score they compute for each page is its Knowledge-Based Trust score.
A couple of questions come to my tiny mind:
- What is a fact?
- When two documented facts conflict, which fact is more correct? Example: competing theories in physics about dark matter.
- What is knowledge?
- Will Google be able to manage knowledge is a manner that satisfies “experts”?
The PageRank thing drives so much ad cash because statistical funkiness seems to make intuitive sense for popularity rankings. Will facts generate equivalent financial excitement?
I suppose Google could license Watson and just ask IBM’s system? Here’s what the questions might look like:
Watson, what’s a fact? What’s knowledge? What’s accurate information?
And Watson’s answer, “Tamarind.”
Stephen E Arnold, March 2, 2015
Enterprise Search: A Haunting Phrase Evokes the Ghosts of Failed Search Past
March 1, 2015
I read a practical explication about setting up SharePoint search to facilitate people search. I am okay with the approach in “More SharePoint 2013 Search Tips for Power Users.” The publisher is one focused on generating received wisdom or hoped for truths. That’s okay.
I did note one important and telling phrase. Here is is:
So how can this knowledge be used to create a real business solution?
When I read this sentence, several thoughts flitted through my mind. Here they are:
- Is this opposed to an unreal business solution.
- Are search solutions chimera?
- 3. Are search solutions false, fake, ersatz?
Am I unduly sensitive to a single statement? No. The phrase strikes at the core of search challenges, not just sticky wickets of the SharePoint variety.
Search allows individuals to “find” something in theory. The reality is that what search outputs for a user crafty enough to use the right term, phrase, or hot link is often wildly off the mark.
The fix is to layer additional controls on top of a child’s wagon, not a vehicle designed to carry the weight of today’s information access requirements.
Result? Search is an endless disappointment to users. How does one find a person in an organization who can and will answer a question? More than search is required in my experience.
Stephen E Arnold, March 1, 2015
A Dark Search Engine
February 27, 2015
If anyone mentions the dark Web or the invisible Web, most people would make a Star Wars reference and insert a Darth Vader quote. While getting in touch with your “dark side” can help even out your personality, searching the dark Web reveals a whole new world of information. The only problem is that there isn’t a strict search engine for it. Wired explains that “Darpa Is Developing A Search Engine For the Dark Web.” Darpa is creating a dark Web search engine to help law enforcement discover patterns and relationships in online data about illegal activities.
“The project, dubbed Memex, has been in the works for a year and is being developed by 17 different contractor teams who are working with the military’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Google and Bing, with search results influenced by popularity and ranking, are only able to capture approximately five percent of the internet. The goal of Memex is to build a better map of more internet content.”
The search engine’s main goal is to have a one-size-fits all approach to search results. The data will not only be pulled from the same places commercial search engines crawl, but also the dark Web hidden sites that include TOR network’s Hidden Services. The Memex team also want to automate methods to analyze the data to save law enforcement research time.
Memex is only a tool for uncovering the dark Web, how it is used depends on the organization. It is estimated Memex will cost between $10-20 million to fund.
Whitney Grace, February 27, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Interface Changes for Google Mobile Search
February 26, 2015
Google is the top search US search engine for many reasons and it can maintain this title because the company is constantly searching (pun unintended) to improve its products and services. Google wants to deliver high quality search just as much as it wants to stay ahead of its competition. Mobile search is one of the most competitive digital markets and Google has developed ways to augment its already popular mobile application. BGR highlights the new changes to its mobile search as described in “Google’s Latest Mobile Search Change Brings Some Key Interface Changes.”
One feature that changes is the “Google box” that displays results that are supposed to be the best matches for a query. The Google box will also have a news carousel that lists the latest information on the query.
“ ‘When you search for a topic, just scroll down to see a ‘carousel’ of recent articles, videos or more on that subject,’ Google Search product manager Ardan Arac wrote in a blog post. Tap any link to read or watch exactly what you’re interested in. For example, if you search for NPR, you’ll see links to all their latest articles and videos.”
Google is doing its best to improve mobile search, a task that has usually evaded mobile devices. Mobile technology needs to have more features that are readily available on laptops and computers to make them more reliable and useful.
Whitney Grace, February 26, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Google Search: Live Chat, But Relevance?
February 25, 2015
i read “Google Tests Live Chat With Businesses From Search Results.” According to the write up:
Google is testing out a service that incorporates live chat with businesses right into search results, via a new link that shows whether a business is currently available, and immediately launches a chat via Google Hangouts (on either desktop or mobile) if they are.
I have been doing the online research thing for years. Ellen Shedlarz, formerly Booz, Allen New York’s head information guru, exposed me to commercial online systems in 1973 or so. She was kind enough to let me fumble away with a dorky dumb terminal with bunny rabbit ears.
In the last 40 years, I have to make a confession about my stupidity. I never wanted to enter into a live chat with a person who wrote an article, offered a product, or pretended to be an expert like a mid tier search expert with a degree in English.
I wanted to perform what I naively thought was research. I would obtain information, either print out information or copy it on the 5×8 inch note cards my debate coach in high school mandated I use for research, thus forming a life long habit. I would then read the information I gathered, make notes, and prepare more note cards with identifiers that allowed silly old me to find the connections among the note cards.
After I knew what the heck I was learning, formulating my questions, and then thinking about whom I could approach for more information—then I wanted to talk to a human with alleged expertise.
No wonder I am a loser. When I enter a query for “terminal”, I want to enter a category code so I get the exact meaning of terminal I have in mind and information directly related to documents with that notion of terminal. When I want terminal for a train, I want train stuff.
I suppose now I can run a query for terminal and see these “relevant” results:
Perhaps I can ring the director of the motion picture and ask the fellow where the train station is. Seems very useful, just not to me. Google, how about a return to relevance?
Stephen E Arnold, February 25, 2015
WCC Smart Search and Match Partners with Diona Mobility
February 23, 2015
We learn of a recent deal from PR Newswire’s post, “Government Employment Services Brought into the 21st Century Through WCC and Diona Partnership.” The deal will bring WCC’s search-and-match technology to Diona Mobility’s human-services solutions. The write-up tells us:
“The partnership will integrate WCC solutions with Diona Mobility solutions to provide clients in the employment market with unique options when using mobile devices to find sustainable and appropriate jobs. WCC and Diona will deliver leading-edge solutions to help clients and their caseworkers efficiently find jobs that match the clients’ skills. Clients and caseworkers can locate timely employment positions through their smartphones and tablets while on the go.
“The mobile solution pioneered by WCC and Diona will provide jobseekers with:
*Real-time notifications of available matching jobs;
*The ability to manage their profile and skills, and search for jobs on the fly;
*Benchmarking, analytics and insight into career opportunities; and
*Access to enrollment and referral services for courses and training programs.”
WCC’s CEO Peter Went emphasizes his company’s experience with some of the biggest staffing firms and public employment services around the world, and praises Diona’s focus on quality and customer access. Launched in 1996, WCC is headquartered in Utrecht, The Netherlands, and has locations in the U.S., Serbia, and Saudi Arabia. Founded in 2012 and based in Ireland, Diona maintains several offices around the world. They aim to make social services globally accessible through mobile platforms by 2020.
Cynthia Murrell, February 23, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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