HP Autonomy: Back in the News
December 2, 2018
I read “Ex-Autonomy boss Mike Lynch, finance VP Stephen Chamberlain charged with fraud in US.” The main point is that Mike Lynch (founder of Autonomy) and an officer of Autonomy have been charged with fraud in the US. The allegations of fraud are a consequence of Hewlett Packard’s purchase of Autonomy in 2011 for $11 billion. Autonomy was a company engaged in licensing its information processing technology. The $11 billion price tag was, I believe, the most paid for an information retrieval company. HP subsequently decided that it had to write down $8 billion of the purchase price because Autonomy was not generating the type of revenue HP anticipated. The story provides a run down of some of the highlights of this remarkable purchase and the subsequent legal disputes and allegations about the deal. Beyond Search does not have a horse in this race.
Several observations can be offered from rural Kentucky:
- HP paid a significant amount of money, and it appears it did not understand the business of information retrieval, its revenue potential, or the mechanism for maintaining the accounts
- HP subsequently split into two companies and wound down its software businesses apparently realizing that the company had to reinvent itself
- Management change at HP has been once characteristic of the company. This in itself may have resulted in HP not doing its homework and checking the match before handing over the check for the deal.
interesting case study with a number of key business issues in play; for example, What did the accountants and auditors do? and What management consulting firms worked on the market analysis for the Autonomy suite of tools?
Interesting with more to come. And don’t forget: My team did some small research projects for Autonomy because it was in the search business, and I was once informed about that business sector. But $11 billion? Quite a valuation.
Stephen E Arnold, December 2, 2018
Baidu May Force Google to Do Search the Chinese Way
November 22, 2018
China has famously strict internet policies. The world’s largest population also is known to have the world’s largest firewall, preventing net freedom. However, that doesn’t mean search there is stuck in the stone age. In fact, it’s quite profitable, as we discovered in a recent Quertime story, “The 20 Most Popular Search Engines in China.”
According to the story:
“The search engine market in China has maintained an overall stable growth. As a matter of fact, during the last quarter of 2012, various search engines have earned about $8 billion RMB. By the third quarter of 2014, it reached more than $15 billion RMB, which presented more than 50% increase in just a period of two years.”
Tops on their list was not Google, but Baidu. While you might have vaguely heard of it, it’s a name you should pay attention to. Baidu is mentioned in concert with other Chinese tech giants, like Alibaba. Recently, it was chosen as a strong stock to purchase alongside the Chinese Amazon, which should tell you quite a lot. There is undoubtedly a tech boom happening in Asia now and it’s the smart investor who can find a way to tap into a little of that magic while it is hot.
Patrick Roland, November 22, 2018
Cloudtenna for Combined Cloud and Local Search
November 16, 2018
Here’s a claim we’ve heard before: ZDNet declares, “Find a File Anywhere: Cloudtenna Targets Local and Cloud File Search.” Writer Robin Harris begins by describing the problem this upgrade addresses—an increasing number of cloud storage locations, combined with on-premise servers, make good search solutions even more challenging to build. Startup Cloudtenna is now expanding their cloud search engine, DirectSearch. Harris writes:
“The new product adds a machine learning platform that find files across disparate platforms, including Dropbox, Box, Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive, Outlook, Gmail, Slack, Atlassian JIRA and Confluence, and local file servers. You can search on name, sender, date, file type, keyword, content, and other attributes regardless of where the file is located. That’s a lot, but it’s not the hard part. Nor is respecting file permissions, meaning that users can’t access files they aren’t supposed too. The hard part is doing this and delivering sub-second response times, even when thousands of users are searching across billions of files stored on dozens of repositories.”
Machine learning and a lightweight crawler (that collects metadata instead of files themselves) are strengths of the new platform. The company was understandably tight-lipped about the tech behind their cloudy search prowess, but they did release this tidbit:
“It uses real-time binding to build its file index and then performs consistency checks to capture deltas, such as a security change or a deleted file. File deduplication and ACL crunching reduces data required by the index, significantly reducing storage costs and requirements.”
A new OEM partner program helps users embed DirectSearch into existing platforms, and Cloudtenna offers a free, three-month account as a trial for potential users. Based in Sunnyvale, California, the company was founded in 2013.
Cynthia Murrell, November 15, 2018
Big Data NLP Search Engine
November 10, 2018
Adding natural language processing to big data search engines is not new, but new advances related to the technology are something to watch. Beta News reports that there are, “New Tools Bring Natural Language Search To Big Data.” The opener tells us something we have known for years: that organizations need quick, easy, and accurate search engines and if you do not have them it hinders business. The visual analytics company Arcadia Data has a new business information and analytics search tool in its enterprise suite Arcadia Enterprise.
Arcadia Data describes its new search tool akin to DuckDuckGo, Google, or Bing, except in an enterprise shell. All of the prior listed search engines use natural language processing in their search queries and return search results with quick and decent accuracy. The Arcadia Enterprise search tool responds to natural language questions and responds with visualizations based on size data sets. The Arcadia Enterprise search will also include:
“Features include AI-driven type-ahead and suggestion capabilities that recommend related questions users may be interested in. Arcadia Enterprise also scores questions against all datasets in the system. The best answer is displayed immediately, and a list of other possible answers with lower scores are shown as well. As users click on alternative answers, the system learns that those results are potentially more relevant to the typed question. Users can start with a simple search bar and then as they become more familiar with the system move into a detailed set of advanced BI interfaces to build and deploy data applications.”
Arcadia Data is offering a search tool that will be beneficial in a BI enterprise system and is necessary given the reliance on technology.
Whitney Grace, September 10, 2018
Does Search Mean Bias?
November 7, 2018
As CEOs from Facebook, Twitter, and the like get paraded before Washington, one company has been suspiciously absent: Google. The search giant is in a tough spot and much of it stems from how uneven trust is in government for its product. We learned more in a recent Axios story, “Exclusive Poll: Big GOP Majority Fears Bias in Search Engines.”
According to the story:
“The survey shows that tech companies will have a hard time convincing the public that their algorithms aren’t built to favor any point of view, regardless of the reality. The distrust is driven largely by the right, but a significant minority of independents believe the results are biased toward the left, too.”
This lack of clarity and trust in Washington might seem laughable on the surface. But this epidemic of “fake news” could have real business implications for search and social tech companies. For example, the FCC is now looking into greater oversight into all three. If Republican lawmakers had trust in these institutions, you can bet they wouldn’t be cracking down as hard. Clearly, these companies have some PR work to do, and fast. Otherwise, they might be drowning in new regulations.
Patrick Roland, November 7, 2018
Google Search Tips List
November 6, 2018
Another Google Search Tip List Fails
Listicles are popular articles, because they can be easily digest, curated, and take huge advantage of ad placement if you put the listed information on separate pages. One type of listicle that always pops up is how to get the best out of your Google search and the search results. The Teche Blog adds its own post to the Google tips archive with “Customize The Date Range Of Your Search And 10 More Use Google Tips.”
The article starts with a Google history tidbit:
“Most know that Google was founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were Ph.D. students at Stanford University, California, but did you know that the company has also experimented with becoming an Internet carrier? That’s right, in February 2010, Google Fiber was announced, a fiber-optic infrastructure that was installed in Kansas City; while in April 2015, it launched Project Fi in the United States, combining Wi-Fi and cellular networks from different providers; and in 2016, it announced the Google Station initiative to make public Wi-Fi available around the world, with initial deployment in India.”
The search tips in the post are either useless or already known. For instance, the wildcard asterisk * tip to replace words you don not know is as old as the Internet as is the next tip about putting a word in quotes for the exact phrase. It also tells readers about how Google can define words, convert measurements, track flights, flip a coin, and exclude specific keywords. UGH!
There are a few useful tips, such as how to search for a specific file type: [keywords] filetype:[filetype], search within a specific Web site: site:[Web site] [keywords], and related Web sites: related: [Web site].
These tips, however, are outdated, old fashioned, and most people already know them. Try something a little more robust next time.
Whitney Grace, November 6, 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
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
Omnity Search: Adjusting Fast and Slow
October 14, 2018
Beyond Search maintains a file about the Omnity search system. We noted that a new white paper became available in April 2018. If you want a copy of the 42 page document, you can download a free copy at this url.
The white paper is interesting because it suggests that the current methods of finding information are “inherently biased.” Omnity’s indexing is different; for example:
Omnity has developed a semantic signature technology that impartially and mathematically articulates the deep structure of a document, and self-assembles by inter-connecting to other documents with similar structure.
Omnity may be the first search and retrieval syst4em to embrace blockchain technology, but we are not 100 percent certain. Frankly we don’t pay much attention to distributed databases because the technology is another spin down database lane and the next big thing mall.
The document contains some interesting diagrams. Some of these remind us of sense making systems for law enforcement and intelligence professionals. The company positions itself against Palantir and Quid as well as Bloomberg and Lexis Nexis. Surprisingly Linguamatics is a “leader” like Omnity.
What is fascinating is that Omnity seems to be embracing the digital currency approach to raising funds. One of the firm’s advisors is the really famous Danny Kahneman.
My recollection is that Omnity was going to knock Google search off its mountain top. Then Omnity shifted to a commercial model like the old Dialog Information Services. Now it is blending findability with blockchain and crypto currency.
More information about the company is at www.omnity.io. Get the white papers. Check out the diagrams. One question is, “Should Palantir and Quid be looking over their individual and quite broad shoulders?”
Omnity’s approach is a good example of search vendors repositioning fast and slow.
Stephen E Arnold, October 15, 2018
Images Are Hot
October 8, 2018
Snapchat is reinventing itself or at least tweaking its high school science club management methods. That creates an opportunity to other picture sharing services.
Consider Pinterest.
We know that watching YouTube videos and fiddling with a mobile phone are the future of education. Enter Pinterest. This highly visual platform detailed some if its plans for advancement in a recent Social Media Today story, “Pinterest Adds Pinch to Zoom, Updated Visual Search.”
According to the story:
“We’ve made some improvements to the tool based on feedback we’ve heard from Pinners. We updated the button so it’s clearer, especially for people who are new to Pinterest, and moved it so it’s a little easier to reach. And it’s working too – in early tests of the improved button, nearly 70% more people used the visual search tool.”
While the possibilities of Pinterest becoming the leader of visual search, the information highway is not pothole free. Snapchat, Instagram, and other services beckon.
Will Snapchat convert the click to buy into revenue gold? And there is the often ignored image system at Amazon.
A picture may be worth a thousand words, but the trick is to shift the equation to making a picture worth a $1,000.
Patrick Roland, October 8, 2018
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