How-To Guide for Amazon Search
April 15, 2014
The article on Search Engine Journal titled The Power of Amazon Search lays out the five main components of Amazon search for Amazon authors. The first is content, but the other four are more strategic. SEO experts are exceptional information managers, and this article is built around the components of sales, keywords, category, and reviews. It compares Google search to Amazon when it comes to keyword, and arrives at the following conclusion:
“The difference between doing a search on Google vs. Amazon is that with Amazon you do not want to rely on long tail keywords. Instead, you want to find the exact words people use when searching for a book. Aim for shorter phrases that reflect traditional book browsing. Think “Indian Cookbook” versus “Cookbook of traditional Indian dishes”. For example… when you type in the word Entrepreneur in Amazon there are 22,145 results? Comparatively, when you type in entrepreneurship there are 36,899 results.”
The category component builds on the keyword idea. Instead of opting for the broadest category, the article suggests narrowing your focus, and in turn your competition within a category. Similarly, the reviews component includes the advice to target the top reviewers, and aim for quality over quantity. It also links to Amazon’s Review Hall of Fame as a starting place.
Chelsea Kerwin, April 15, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Hawk Search Runs the Bases
April 13, 2014
We noted that HawkSearch, an open source search solution, from Thankx Media, has been licensed by Wrigleyville Sports. If you are not a baseball fan, you may not recognize the mythic stature of the Chicago Cubs’ baseball team and its relationship with all things Wrigley. According to the firm’s news release (written without too much of that old-style Endeca rhetoric), we learned:
Wrigleyville chose Hawk Search for the following features:
- User-friendly merchandising tools – a merchandising workbench that enables business users to generate dynamic landing pages, implement ranking and relevancy rules, and promote products.
- Easy to understand analytics – customizable dashboards can be used by merchandisers, buyers, and marketing managers to monitor activity on products and adjust strategies.
- Robust out-of-the-box functionality – Hawk Search includes faceted navigation, smart AutoComplete, dynamic landing pages, merchandising tools, and more without customization.
Thankx is an authorized Endeca integrator with some good, old fashioned Endeca professionals on the Illinois company’s team.
More information is available at www.thankx.com. Play ball or navigate to the Cubbies’ store and buy a Wrigley Field cap, no chewing gum included. If you want the computationally challenging Endeca on demand system system, Thankx can fix you up. Information about this late 1998 system is at http://www.thanxmedia.com/what-we-do/site-search/endeca/endeca-on-demand/.
Stephen E Arnold, April 13, 2014
Search and Big Data: Been There, Done That
April 12, 2014
Is the use of search to find information in large collections of content revolutionary? Er, no. What about using search to locate an Internet Protocol address in a repository of monitored email traffic? Er, no.
With the chatter on LinkedIn and the vacuous news releases from some floundering search companies, one would think that gathering up content and running a query was the equivalent of my ancestor stealing and ember and saying, “Look, I invented fire.”
Sorry.
Beyond the rather influential if specious IBM white paper published in 2010 (link is at http://bit.ly/1gckiPJ), a large number of companies continue to position some old as new again.
One interesting twist on the “search is better than SQL” is the useful solution brief from RainStor. In some circles, RainStor has a low profile. In others, the company has caught the attention of some recognized “names” in the Big Data world; for example, Cloudera and Dell. So think Hadoop friendly.
RainStor focuses on cost effective solutions for gathering, archiving, and querying content. Like the old CrossZ technology, RainStor queries the compressed files. There are benefits from this approach. Unlike CrossZ, no proprietary routines have to be run to extract a data cube. The person looking for information can use standard query syntax using SQL, MapReduce, or off the shelf business intelligence tools.
If you are confused by peas-in-a-pod desperate for a cannery with cash, you will want to check out RainStor. The company’s Web site is www.rainstor.com. I would have like RainStor to publish the numbers of their patents that were granted by the USPTO in 2013. The general description here reminded me of several other firms’ systems and methods.
Stephen E Arnold, April 12, 2014
Perceptive Search 10.3 Now Available
April 11, 2014
According to the marketing, the system from the 1980s formally known as ISYS Search is now up to date. Digital Journal shares, “Perceptive Software Launches Version 10.3 for Perceptive Enterprise and Workgroup Search.” New connector options and high-definition viewing are among the updated features for both the Enterprise and Workgroup platforms. The press release also tells us:
“Fidelity options for content rendering in Perceptive Search 10.3 allow administrators to set the appropriate level of fidelity for displaying search results. Options include several levels of standard text, standard XHTML and high-definition HTML5 that produce near-perfect paginated renditions.
“The addition of a document thumbnail preview provides Perceptive Enterprise Search 10.3 users additional confidence that they are selecting the right search results. With a glance at the first page of search results, users can often determine if the files meet the desired criteria. This instant visual confirmation of the search results further accelerates user productivity.”
That thumbnail view is a helpful touch. The search systems‘ updated connectors can access content in Google Drive, Microsoft SharePoint 2013, Microsoft Exchange 2013, and Symantec Enterprise Vault 10.
Founded as Genesis Software in 1988, Perceptive Software offers a range of process- and content-management solutions. Perceptive serves clients in a wide range of industries, and was acquired by Lexmark in 2010. The company is headquartered in Shawnee, Kansas and, according to their About page, is currently hiring.
Cynthia Murrell, April 11, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Hewlett Packard: Foreign Bribes and Search
April 10, 2014
I was disappointed with the news stories about Hewlett Packard’s recent hitch in its git-along. For example, I read “Hewlett Packard Agrees to $108 Million Fine for Foreign Bribes” and saw not one reference to information retrieval, search, and content processing technology. In my view, had HP used the Autonomy technology to process its internal information, IDOL and the Digital Reasoning Engine would have generated some outputs that pointed to anomalies like those the investigators found.
Apparently “findability” is more difficult than it appears even when the company in the spotlight owns one of the go-to search systems. I assumed that it would be trivial to run a few queries and produce documents and “big data” that would show that Hewlett Packard what was cooking in its subsidiaries or with non US deals.
Search apparently was not up to the task because allegations had to be “resolved by third parties.” Apparently it required attorneys and government folks to figure out that HP was taking some short cuts. Here’s a passage I noted:
“Hewlett-Packard subsidiaries created a slush fund for bribe payments, set up an intricate web of shell companies and bank accounts to launder money, employed two sets of books to track bribe recipients, and used anonymous email accounts and prepaid mobile telephones to arrange covert meetings to hand over bags of cash,” said Deputy Assistant Attorney General Bruce Swartz in the Justice Department statement.
Business actions like those mentioned in the Silicon Beat write up make it clear that HP management may not know what is going on or may not be paying attention to existing information about company activities.
Is this an anomaly?
I can’t answer the question, but when investigators from various countries are able to find useful factoids, it raises one question:
What does HP’s much hyped information retrieval system do for company executives?
and
Was important management information not available to HP’s senior executives? If so, who filtered the digital content?
This $100 million fine comes on the heels of HP’s paying $57 million to settle a shareholder lawsuit about the “personal computer maker’s former management of defrauding shareholders by abandoning a business model it had long touted.” See http://reut.rs/1iUC0re
The persistent HP business model seems to be one that does not engender my confidence in the company.
I am not sure the IDOL search system is at fault. Does HP use Autonomy’s fraud detection components? Why not index content, run queries, and make decisions based on the heterogeneous types of information that Autonomy can process, usually with some effectiveness?
The jury’s still out on search at HP. Two big fines in a short period of time is unsettling to me because both are germane to the effective use of information retrieval technology.
Stephen E Arnold, April 10, 2014
Elasticsearch Appeals to Its Core Audience with New Move
April 9, 2014
The open source search wunderkind, Elasticsearch (www.elasticsearch.org) is in the news again. In the crowdsourcing spirit that has helped propel it to the top of many lists, it is sharing more insider information as we learned in the post, “Elasticsearch: The definitive Guide.” http://www.elasticsearch.org/blog/elasticsearch-definitive-guide/ The book helps users of all stripes better understand the engine.
Our favorite part was how the guide is aimed at a particular audience:
“We expect you to have some programming background and, although not required, it would help to have used SQL and have some database experience. We explain concepts from first principles, helping novices to gain a sure footing in the complex world of search.”
There is no watering-down here to appeal to everyone. We like that attitude. The firm has never been one to pull punches regarding tough topics. Just recently they made more headlines by improving their ability to perform log analysis. http://betanews.com/2014/03/20/elasticsearch-makes-log-analysis-faster-and-simpler/ Most search engines would avoid this topic and leave it for programmers, but Elasticsearch understands its audience and gives them tricky tools to play with. We love the things they are doing and eagerly await their next move on the search engine chess board.
Patrick Roland, April 09, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Apple Takes Action to Improve Map Search
April 8, 2014
I don’t have an iPhone. I do have an ageing Mac notebook. It is reasonably reliable, and I have learned to save my high value content to another storage device. When I need to locate a document, I use more robust and less flakey information retrieval tools to retrieve my information.
I have had to help a couple of people look for information using an iPhone. One notable example was locating Cuba Libre restaurant in Washington, DC. A colleague and I were standing in front of Cuba Libre and we wanted to figure out whether to turn left or right to reach a destination. No luck. The restaurant was not findable.
In my opinion, not only was the Apple map search system inadequate, the system did not acknowledge the fungible existence of the restaurant in which I had eaten a pretty good sandwich.
When I read “Amazon A9s VP of Search Heads to Apple to Fix Up Maps Search,” it dawned on me that Apple seems to have taken action to fix at least one of its search systems. The other thought I had is that Apple, like many other big names, is likely to take a look at open source search technology.
I wonder if Hewlett Packard, IBM, and Oracle will be able to convince Apple to go with Autonomy or Watson or Endeca technology. Landing Apple would be a plus for these three enterprise search vendors.
A question: What happens if Apple embraces a hot open source search solution from an outfit like Elasticsearch or Searchdaimon?
The one striction associated with this alleged personnel shift is that I don’t think that Amazon’s search systems are helpful to me when I run a query. I struggle to NOT out books that are not yet available, and I have a very tough time locating some of Amazon’s lists. But in today’s findability swamp, Apple has to begin its long journey with a single step.
Is it the right one?
Interesting to think about I believe.
Stephen E Arnold, April 8, 2014
PageZephyr Search Application Saves InDesign User’s Search Headache
April 4, 2014
The article titled PageZephyr Search on Markzware offers a brief tutorial to PageZephyr Search, an OS X application that allows for the search and view of InDesign documents. The article’s audience is any InDesign user frustrated by the inability to search with a word or phrase from an InDesign document from years past. PageZephyr Search indexes all InDesign documents on the user’s PC to make them searchable. It can also highlight a selected word in a document, and copy a text to your clipboard to make it useable elsewhere. The article also offers this customer testimonial from book designer Matthew MacKay,
“PZ is a one trick pony-and that is a good thing, because it does one trick exceeding well. It saved me hours recently when I was trying to find a version of a three year old InDesign file. I am a book designer, and often receive chapters from other designers. When I need to find a file, I can fire up PZ, go make a coffee and come back and see the file ready for me to work on.”
McKay also points out that PageZephyr Search protects him from his own file naming system (or non-system, as it may be.) If you are interested in testing the service before purchasing it, the demo option might appeal to you. You can try the demo for 15 days and evaluate its usefulness before making a final purchase.
Chelsea Kerwin, April 04, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Open Source Search Gets Confusing
April 3, 2014
Elasticsearch is the favored open source search application and many startups have built their own products on top of the platform, increasing competition among the startups. InfoWorld lets us know that the competition is about to get stiffer in the article, “Logstash Steps Up As Splunk’s Latest Challenger.”
Splunk offers many big data solutions, including security, analytics, application management, and cloud services. The article explains that Logstash is part of a components stack also including Kibaba and Elasticsearch. It is used to log data and can be configured to a user’s needs. It is an Apache-licensed open source endeavor and has a lower cost margin (either free or a different pay for support plans). Elasticsearch has commercialized Logstash through its Marvel product.
It does not appear that Logstash is a direct competitor, but the article explains:
“So far, the biggest distinction between Splunk and its competition is how they’re productized. Splunk’s a proprietary item, but with the emphasis on it being a product and not simply a technology stack. The competition still largely consists of open source stacks rather than actual services, but it’s clear the gap between what Splunk offers at a cost and what others offer for free is closing.”
Another new service pressures Lucid Imagination and other search vendors to create a response, which also makes investors inpatient as Elasticsearch surges forward with bigger and better ideas. Search vendors are lost in the middle as they try to be competitive and earn a profit at the same time. Kudos to Elasticsearch and open source applications.
Whitney Grace, April 03, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
A Search Engine for Similar Web Sites
April 2, 2014
How many times have you searched Google or DuckDuckGo and wanted to find a Web site similar to one you had already found? Instead of sifting through the search results, a new startup in Berlin has come up with a new and useful concept. Called Similarsitecheck, the startup is a free search engine that that finds similar and related Web sites.
Similarsitecheck works by:
“In order to find similar websites for a given domain Similarsitecheck analyzes the entire content as well as external links for the webpage. During the analysis we collect the most important keywords and phrases for a webpage. To actually calculate the alternative websites we search for the found keywords and phrases in our database, compare the sites and get a similarity score for the domains.”
After doing a practice search with www.att.com, we were given alternative phone and Internet companies, including local att.com providers. When we searched for www.ArnoldIT.com, the results were cluttered with Web sites that were similar in theme, but not legitimate. The algorithm needs more tweaking, but the idea is sound.
Whitney Grace, April 02, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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