Social Media: Making the Personal Impersonal
August 25, 2011
Search engines are now using social media data to rank query results. As crazy as it sounds, your Tweets could now alter the way Google gives you information on such benign things as “George Washington” or “grilled cheese sandwiches.” eSchool News takes a look at how “New Web-Search Formulas Have Huge Implications for Students and Society.”
Search results now differ from person to person based on algorithms have been altered to include social media data. Knowing that most people don’t go past the second page of results, they have tailored their ranking system to consider links you have clicked on and create a filter system based on those previous links. This isn’t something ground breaking since Amazon and Netflix have been using it for years to recommend books and movies, but is new to the major search engines.
At the 2011 Technology, Entertainment, and Design talk, Eli Pariser, the author of The Filter Bubble, shared his reservations with the “invisible algorithmic editing of the web.” He believes it only shows us what it thinks we want and not what we need to see.
[I]t was believed that the web would widen our connections with the world and expose us to new perspectives, Pariser said: Instead of being limited to the newspapers, books, and other writings available in our local communities, we would have access to information from all over the globe. But thanks to these new search-engine formulas, he said, the internet instead is coming to represent ‘a passing of the torch from human gatekeepers [of information] to algorithmic ones.’ Yet, algorithms don’t have the kind of embedded ethics that human editors have, he noted. If algorithms are going to curate the world for us, then ‘we need to make sure they’re not just keyed to [personal] relevance—they also should show us things that are important, or challenging, or uncomfortable.’
It seems that search engines may be focusing on personal factors, but are not personalizing the process. The user has no control over results. That customization is left to a rigid algorithm. If a restaurant says that they make burgers “made-to-order,” then I expect to be able to pick mustard and onions on one visit, and pick cheese and ketchup on the next visit. The server should not just look at my past orders and make an educated guess. There is nothing “personal” about that.
Could this lead some well meaning people down an unintended and risky path to censorship-by-computer. Users must gain more control over these search formulas. There are certainly times when social media parameters are acceptable, but sometimes you want and need to see the other side. It depends if you are settling an argument between your friends over song lyrics or writing a thesis on communism. Until users are offered more liberal control, I think this “personal” ranking system will actually suppress and limit a lot of important information that users are seeking. The social impact on a search comes at a pretty high price.
Jennifer Wensink, August 25, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Facebook Groups News Feeds by Topic
August 18, 2011
LifeHackers highlights the new trends and developments in IT in, “Remains of the Day: Facebook’s Grouped News Feed Highlights What’s Popular with Your Friends.”
“Facebook users may soon notice a change in their newsfeeds. The social networking site has begun grouping News Feed stories by topic, allowing users to easily see what stories are popular.”
ZDNet provides more details about the natural language processing that supports the grouped feeds.
It turns out Facebook is using natural language processing on status updates as well as the headlines of posted links to figure out if a topic mentioned has a corresponding Page, and then searches to see if your other friends have done so as well. This helps users quickly see which topics are popular (in Twitter terms, that would be trending topics) amongst their Facebook friends (as opposed to across all of Twitter). It also obviously gives a boost to Pages.
Clearly trying to capitalize on the Twitter concept of trending, grouped news feeds have potential implications to boost ad revenue. Lastly, the feature enables research into a particular individual or topic. Post something on your own page about a politician, for instance, and any subsequent postings by friends will not only group around the original post, but also point to that politician’s personal page as well. In this way, a user could easily follow developments on individuals or organizations of personal or professional interest.
Emily Rae Aldridge, Augsut 18, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com, publishers of The New Landscape of Enterprise Search
Dassault Systemes: Taking Crowd Sourcing to Next Level
August 17, 2011
With crowd-sourcing becoming more and more prevalent in an effort to capitalize on collective intelligence, it’s no surprise that Dassault Systemès recently announced the creation of a military vehicle created entirely from crowd-sourcing. The article, DARPA, Dassault and Local Motors Crowdsource New Military Vehicle, on MCADCafe,
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) joined with 3D Project Lifecycle Management experts, Dassault Systemès to bring this ingenious idea to the world market of engineers and vehicle enthusiasts. It was simple really. The U.S. military needed a vehicle that was built for Combat Reconnaissance and Combat Delivery & Evacuation. Local Motors (experts in crowd sourcing) partnered with Dassault Systemès to entice a large global community of vehicle enthusiasts to design the vehicle through an online challenge. The result: the military vehicle DARPA had wanted, going from an idea to prototype in less than six months.
Dassault Systemès is pretty fascinating, but they don’t do it alone. Several other companies help make the 3D mega minds perform at the level they do. One such company is Exalead, whom we adore. The content management company is like a herd of little worker ants diligently processing data for its clients. As their web site explains,
The system collects data from virtually any source, in any format, and transforms it into structured, pervasive, contextualized building blocks of business information that can be directly searched and queried, or used as the foundation for a new breed of lean, innovative information access applications.
The landscape of digital data is changing and we like where it is going. Crowd sourcing is increasing in popularity and use, and with more data coming and going content management is becoming a necessity for all companies. Projects like the one mentioned in this article give us just a taste of what the future holds.
Catherine Lamsfuss, August 17, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com, publishers of The New Landscape of Enterprise Search
Google Plus Demographics
August 14, 2011
Here at the Beyond Search goose pond, we pay more attention to the less zippy aspects of search. The notion of asking someone and getting an answer is a method we learned at our orientation class at Halliburton NUS 40 years ago. The training went something like this.
When you need to know where the diagrams for the ECCS are, you need to ask the duty officer?
Not too fancy, but the method worked despite government and plant operator bureaucratic “efficiency.” Moving questions to another communication medium seems pretty understandable to us. Searching the digital artifacts is an obvious step. We can even get our tiny minds around the notion of knowing who asked whom, what, and when.
When we think about Google Plus, we see a new service which is changing. We think that the changes are coming less quickly than we anticipated. Google seems to be putting considerable effort into the new service. Once a person provides the who, what, why and when for routine communications one has a very interesting commercialization opportunity.
“Study Google+ Winning over Suburban Parents, Losing College Kids and Cafe Dwellers” caught our attention on august 13, 2011. The write up provides some early data about the demographics of the 20 million plus Google Plus users. (Am I the only one who eschews using the plus sign because of its role as an operator in some search systems?)
Here’s the passage we noted:
Google+ seems to be falling out of favor among the “colleges and cafes” crowd, generally younger people without children. However, it’s seeing an increase in interest from the “kids and cabernet” segment — defined as “prosperous, middle-aged married couples living child-focused lives in affluent suburbs.” That’s a group that hasn’t embraced Facebook as much as the rest of the population, according to the Experian Hitwise data.
My hunch is that Google is going to want hundreds of millions of users of all demographic stripes and hues. The inclusion of games is a first obvious step of what is a consumerizing move. The video stuff also points down market to me, but I am 67 and not too keen on the boob tube whether implemented on a big screen TV, a mobile device, or some intermediate gizmo like an iPad. A wasteland is a wasteland to me.
The more consumerized a service, the less utility that service has to me. Facebook is the ultimate consumer “space”, and I don’t spend much time in that service. (A couple of the goslings are working on a Facebook implementation for Augmentext.com, but I just watch and learn. I don’t “do.”) Google Plus seems more appropriate to me, but if it goes down-market, then I will drift away. LinkedIn has already become a crazy “hire me” and “I am an expert” place, and I am not too keen on that digital watering hole either. I am willing to be semi flexible, but since I can’t touch my toes, I don’t know how far I can go in this down-market type environment.
Stephen E Arnold, August 14, 2011
A Google Plus Index Transition?
August 12, 2011
A few weeks after the Google Plus launch, Senior VP at Google Vic Gundotra is addressing feedback and criticism of the new social platform. Google Plus itself is a transition for Google, a move from their trademark keyword indexing and a move toward the trendy social tagging. In “Google Plus Is Being Changed This Week Based on User Feedback,” Google’s next move is discussed.
You may think Google could sit back and watch the Google Plus network grow, but that would be a mistake. The search company has realized it can’t just watch what happens, it needs to respond to users quickly in order to keep them happy and the network growing. While the general view of Google Plus is a positive one, there’s also a lot of criticism and user feedback of which Google is about to tackle.
Google is no doubt remembering failed ventures like Buzz and Wave while striving to make Google plus a lasting service. Another possible motivation is worth considering. Does Google see the end of the era of indexing? With social media placing more and more importance on social meaning within a given context, perhaps tagging is becoming more relevant than keyword indexing. If this is indeed the case, Google no doubt hopes to insure their dominance for the next generation through Google Plus.
Emily Rae Aldridge, August 11, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com, publishers of The New Landscape of Enterprise Search
Protected: Going Retro: Add MySpace Features to SharePoint
August 12, 2011
Search Innovation: The Apodora Snake in the Google Garden of Eden
August 4, 2011
I wrote about the mercurial nature of innovation in one of our longer postings this week. You can find my “Innovation” essay here. I summarized the findings of work in which I was involved 40 years ago. The main point was that big companies spend a significant amount for innovation but find that innovation is tough.
Will this snake find its way to Google? The apodora papuana. Source: http://morelia-viridis.winnerbb.com/t2343-apodora-papuana
Now think about the information in “Science Fair Gold Medalist, 17, Invents Better Way to Search Internet.” The news story describes Mr. Schiefer, who is a teenager, and his approach to searching certain social media. Think Twitter messages, which are short, cryptic, and often context free. Here’s the passage I noted:
Seventeen-year-old Nicholas Schiefer has found a better way to search small documents, such as tweets and Facebook statuses – all for his Grade 11 science fair project. The Pickering resident created an algorithm to filter through, and find relevant information. Created using linear algebra and discrete math, his algorithm is named “Apodora” after a python species with extraordinary search capabilities.
The Globe and Mail report includes several interesting quotes from the young search wizard. Here are three I marked and filed for future recycling:
- The genius in Facebook was not so much algorithmic, but in the social aspect of the network. What [Mr. Zuckerberg] managed to create very well was a desire. In search in general, we already have the desire to search. The technology is trying to catch up to what people expect.
- My algorithm tries to follow connections further. Connections that are close are deemed more valuable. In theory, it follows connections to an infinite degree. One thing which I really liked about my algorithm is that it didn’t rely on my hand coding almost anything. The computer was able to infer that certain words were related.
- It’s been shown that people are increasingly reading shorter and shorter documents.
Several thoughts. The use of a snake’s name reminded me that industry giants can be bitten unexpectedly. Search is a work in progress, difficult, and sufficiently expansive to permit numerical recipes to deliver potentially tasty results. Google will probably hire the lad.
So what? As I said in my “Innovation” essay, innovation is often easier to buy than cultivate at home.
Stephen E Arnold, August 4, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com, publishers of the New Landscape of Enterprise Search
Social Content Feed Tool from Know about It
August 2, 2011
When all your Facebook, Twitter, and other social streams become so convoluted, you might miss out on that link, photo, or music video you would’ve loved. You’ll never know – until now…maybe. Marshall Kirkpatrick looks at the new start-up, Know About It, in “New Service Sniffs out Secret Gems from across Your News Feeds.”
The service brings in all your subscribed content from major social networks, then offers a number of different ways to sort what it finds. My favorite is the filter called “Potentially Missed – links from people who don’t share a lot of links.
Know About It explains on its Web site they collect all the links passing through your social streams and perform a “bunch of analysis on each one to determine which are most likely to be of interest to you.”
Sounds helpful. The idea of sorting all your inbound information in a variety of ways is appealing. You can also look at the service’s recommendations based on your expressed interest or get a personalized email digest.
Mr. Kirkpatrick has not yet tested the service but likes the idea. What isn’t mentioned? Privacy. So what is the ‘bunch of analysis’ and where do all those links end up? Advertisers? If the start-up is successful, time will tell. But with the social web moving at a never-ending pace and growing, social media users wanting to sort their feeds likely won’t mind too much. We think these types of tools are likely to grow in importance as free real time search becomes a difficult service to monetize.
Philip West, August 2, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com, publishers of The New Landscape of Enterprise Search
Endeca Woos Facebook and Earns a Training Session
July 27, 2011
Endeca, a leading provider of agile information management solutions, is setting itself apart from other search vendors as a leader in social media marketing and commerce by forming a well-timed partnership. The news of the David and Goliath tie up appeared in “Endeca and Facebook to Host Webinar on the Social Network’s Growing Impact on Retailers’ eCommerce Strategies.” (Note: Links to news releases often go dark. Nothing we can do about this practice of removing news from open source access.)
Endeca has announced a partnering deal with Facebook. The two companies will host a webinar on how to maximize the Social Network’s impact and improve eCommerce for companies of all sizes. The story revealed:
With over 750 million users globally, Facebook has become an advertising and marketing channel for retailers, and today, it’s beginning to grow into an important revenue source as well,” wrote Alison Durant, Endeca’s senior director of corporate marketing. “in fact, analysts at Booz & Company are predicting that commerce from Facebook will hit $30 billion by 2015.
You can register for the event at this link.
If Booz & Companies predictions are correct, it would be a wise decision for other businesses to follow Endeca’s lead and invest their resources in the social media giant. However, consulting firms are under considerable financial pressure and often cook up trends and insights in order to generate business. Facebook may be behind the eight ball as a result of Google+. Social media is great but who will be the belle of the ball?
Our view is that social media alliances should be like dating in high school: fluid.
Stephen E Arnold, July 27, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com, publishers of The New Landscape of Enterprise Search
Google+: Strong on Social, Weak on Search? What?
July 22, 2011
According to the Computerworld article “Elgan” What I Lost On the Google+ Diet” Mike Elgan thinks it could be the next big thing. Elgan’s main point of his weeklong diet “was to see if consolidating and streamlining all social activity into Google+ was possible and, if so, desirable.”
He gave the platform high marks and found it quite functional and even a little addictive as a social media platform for all types of users. However, Elgan did admit that “Google+ is still a work in progress” and lacks a key factor, search. One of the most vital parts of any social media platform is the search capabilities. People go to Twitter and Facebook not only to talk but to search for jobs, news and other pertinent information.
Being able to search and network with clients in your industry, old high school friends or even potential employers is priceless. Though networking is key, search is the cornerstone of social media platforms. Elgan may thing Google+ could be the next social networking giant but without search, Google+ can’t seriously compete and is just an afterthought.
April Holmes, July 22, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com, publishers of the New Landscape of Enterprise Search
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