After Key Word Search: Social Analytics and Change
May 13, 2011
There’s an outfit called TechChange. Its tag line, the Institute for technology and social change, has little to do with search and content processing. However, the article “SwiftRiver: Where Software Meets Social Change” highlights issues not discussed at search vendor conferences, in the wild and crazy “emotion analytics” world, or at search centric conferences. No big surprise. Most conferences are “pay to play” events. The few “objective” presentations are often little more than day old bread sliced and slathered with oleo.
This article is interesting because it uses a single vendor (SwiftRiver) as the hook for applying a content framework that adds value to information. This sure sounds like search and content processing to me. The difference is the context. Here’s the description of the SwiftRiver system:
Our core platform has several points of easy extension and one of these is the plug-in system we call Parsers. Each parser knows how to communicate with one type of source and how to process data coming from that source. Examples of existing parsers are; the ‘Twitter Search Parser’, the ‘Frontline SMS Parser’ and the ‘Google News Parser’. The Parser plug-in architecture is very simple to program for, meaning that new Parsers for any new source are simple to produce and then leverage. It would therefore, be a relatively simple task for a developer to create a Parser that ‘understood’ how to use discreet data such as geo-coordinates (or in fact any other type of data) and knew how you receive that data from a source such as an SMS Gateway. Once written, the Parser can literally be dropped into the correct folder of the software install and this new Channel (combination of source and data type) would instantly become available for use.
The interesting spin put on the SwiftRiver technology is that a licensee can develop applications that:
can help private sector entities invest in developing counties in a way that is both profitable and socially responsible.
I find this approach fascinating. Too many content processing vendors chase down the trampled path of customer support, sentiment analysis, metatagging, and mashing up stuff. SwiftRiver has hooked next generation content processing into making a social difference. The original perception I had of SwiftRiver was processing large amounts of information quickly. the firm offers semantic analysis, auto categorization, and information classification. Instead of pitching access to documents in a content management system, SwiftRiver is flowing in a different direction.
You can get more information about SwiftRiver at http://swiftly.org in (as I write this) in 11 days, 3 hours and 22 minutes. Mysterious, no?
Stephen E Arnold, May 13, 2011
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ZyLAB Audio Search
May 11, 2011
It’s like semantic search for audio files: Allvoipnews announces “ZyLAB Launches Audil Search Bundle.” The eDiscovery company’s product allows you to search your enterprise’s audio using speech analytics:
Company officials said that the desktop software product transforms audio recordings into a phonetic representation of the way in which words are pronounced. The investigators are able to search for dictionary terms, however also proper names, company names, or brands without the need to ‘re-ingest’ the data.
Kudos to ZyLAB. With this project, the company is pushing ahead of Microsoft Fast and Google. That’s no small feat. However, Exalead has offered audio and video search for several years.
Cynthia Murrell May 11, 2011
Microsoft Alleges Google Apps Carry Hefty Hidden Fee
May 9, 2011
“Microsoft Attacks Google Apps with “Google Tax” marks another 22 caliber shot in the skirmish between Microsoft (the new IBM) and Google (the new Microsoft). Yep, the 22 slug is an allegation that Google imposes a “tax” on users. Interesting but many companies impose a tax on users. Some achieve the revenue with a partner fee, some with training costs, and others with strongly recommended engineering and consulting services.
After interviewing “more than 90 small and medium sized organizations using Google Apps,” Microsoft discovered that:
…For 9 out of 10 companies surveyed, Google Apps are used in parallel to Office.
Additionally, the majority of companies surveyed:
will continue to standardize on Microsoft Office, while they only evaluate free trials of Google Apps, and do not intend to spend money on deployments.
Among the small and medium sized businesses surveyed, I learned that “Only two in five adopted Google Docs and two out of three companies still use Office as their primary productivity solution.”
Microsoft, the article asserted, “has created an iceberg info-graphic that reveals Google’s hidden costs.”
There is a much recycled graphic metaphor depicting the tip-of-the-iceberg up front costs of $50 (per user), and the annual costs and one-Time costs as the unseen base of the iceberg. How hefty are these charges? The article suggests that these fees amount to almost ten times the “visible” costs, in addition to unknown costs for end-user training, staff training, and lost user productivity. I think the “lost productivity” means a person familiar with Word has to waste time trying to make Google Apps deliver the same functionality.
The bottom line is that user prefer Word. Is there a tax for using Microsoft Office? The article sidesteps this issue. In Enterprise Technology Management, a publication of ISIGlobal.com, Stephen E Arnold summarized Google’s pricing of its Google Search Appliance. The Google “tax” may be evident in those data as well. To see the US government’s Google Search Appliance fees, navigate to www.gsaadvantage.gov and search for “GB 7007” or “GB 9009”.
Jane Livingston, May, 9, 2011
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Bundles Reshape Information Retrieval
May 4, 2011
Vendors of enterprise search systems are looking for ways to pump up interest in their sometimes ageing technologies. Now the trend is surfacing in content processing. I read with interest “GfK Partners with NetBase.” The story announced infoTechSpotlight. GfK’s market researchers and NetBase’s social media analysts will work together to build what will most likely become imperative marketing tools.
The article elaborates:
Through this strategic alliance, GfK will use the NetBase platform, social intelligence warehouse, analytic tools and scorecards to provide clients with insights that integrate social media ‘listening’ with other market research methodologies. GfK’s analysis of consumer conversations and sentiment occurring across the spectrum of social networks and other digital platforms will enhance GfK client engagements, providing a deeper understanding of the dynamics and drivers of brand affinity including brand health, customer experience, and corporate reputation to guide current and future marketing initiatives.
The third entity involved here is ConsumerBase, whose social intelligence warehouse underpins NetBase’s platform. Their vast cache of consumer behavioral data is gleaned from across the Web. I don’t want to drag the mobile phone tracking flap into this write up, nor do I want to dwell on the interest some attorneys have in looking at public Facebook content in order to find a legal angle for a client.
What’s important is the wrapping of several different technologies in a package that looks and smells fresh to marketers who want an advantage. Consumer commentary about products, brands, and corporations provide valuable insights. From damage control to leveraging trends, soon no company will want to be without tools such as these. Search and content processing are the ingredients for these new bundles.
Cynthia Murrell, May 4, 2011
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New Spin for OmniFind: Content Analytics
May 2, 2011
IBM has dominated my thinking with its bold claims for Watson. In the blaze of game show publicity, I lost track of the Lucene-based search system OmniFind 9.x. My Overflight system alerted me to “Content Analytics Starter Pack.” According to the April 2011 announcement:
The Starter Pack offers an advanced content analytics platform with Content Analytics and industry-leading, knowledge-driven enterprise search with OmniFind Enterprise Edition in a combined package. IBM Content Analytics with Enterprise Search empowers organizations to search, assess, and analyze large volumes of content in order to explore and surface relevant insight quickly to gain the most value from their information repositories inside and outside the firewall.
The product allows IBM licensees to:
- Find relevant enterprise content more quickly
- Turn raw text into rapid insight from content sources internal and external to your enterprise
- Customize rapid insight to industry and customer specific needs
- Enable deeper insights through integration to other systems and solutions.
At first glance, I thought IBM Content Analytics V2.2 was one program. I noticed that the OmniFind Enterprise Edition 9.1 has one set of hardware requirements at http://goo.gl/Wie0X and another set of hardware requirements for the analytics component at http://goo.gl/5J1ox. In addition, there are specific software requirements for each product.
The “new” product includes “improved support for content assessment, Cognos® Business Intelligence, and Advanced Case Management.”
Is IBM’s bundling of analytics and search a signal that the era of traditional search and retrieval has officially ended? Base image source: www.awesomefunnyclever.com
When you navigate to http://goo.gl/he3NR, you can see the different configurations available for this combo product.
What’s the pricing? According to IBM, “The charges are unchanged by this announcement.” The pricing seems to be based on processor value units or PVUs. Without a link, I am a bit at sea with regards to pricing. IBM does point out:
For clarification, note that if for any reason you are dissatisfied with the program and you are the original licensee, you may obtain a refund of the amount you paid for it, if within 30 days of your invoice date you return the program and its PoE to the party from whom you obtained it. If you downloaded the program, you may contact the party from whom you acquired it for instructions on how to obtain the refund. For clarification, note that for programs acquired under the IBM International Passport Advantage Agreement, this term applies only to your first acquisition of the program.
Watson and Its Methods
April 30, 2011
In the Fast Company article by Ariel Schwartz, IBM is partnering with Caltrans and the University of California at Berkeley to create a “personalized commuter forecast” for individuals living in large cities and high traffic areas. This p.c.f. will be dubbed “Watson” because everyone needs a trusty sidekick.
Schwartz’s article “IBM Will Go All Watson On Your Commute, Keep You Out Of Traffic” explains that the program, which is still in its prototypes stage, will use the GPS on your phone to analyze traffic on your daily route to traffic and suggest the route that will get you to work the fastest. (According to IBM you’re still S.O.L. if you live in an area with no or few alternate routes, go figure.)
Instead of slogging through the traffic, your phone recommends that you drive halfway to work, park in the BART parking lot, and take the subway system the rest of the way. If you leave now, you’ll make your way through traffic just in time to catch the next train to work.
I feel like that’s a little too good to be true. Though IBM’s willingness to utilize already in place technologies such as the road sensors used by Berkeley and Caltrans is admirable (no wonder they’re partnered.)
Let’s face it. It all boils down to money, IBM is hoping to generate cash based upon sales to different transportation entities, merchants who would build along newly used transit systems and sales from advertisements–in exchange for IBM knowing your every location. IBM is not the government. Some people may take the position, “What’s one more conglomerate tracking user behavior?”
Leslie Radcliff, April 30, 2011
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SEO Revealed. Exclusive Interview with Peter Niemi
April 26, 2011
An interesting challenge faces search engine optimization experts. Charging hefty sums, SEO experts now have to cope with demanding clients and Google’s increasingly aggressive efforts to improve the relevance of its search services. After my talk in Manhattan at the end of March 2011, I was able to interview Peter Niemi, founder of GHG Interactive, the marketing arm of Gray Interactive. In our hour long conversation, Mr. Niemi said:
The SEO experts are reeling from Google’s crack down on gaming the Google relevance system. Some SEO professionals react poorly to evidence that they may not be the smartest guys in the room as we saw…The majority of Web sessions commence with search. That’s where the eyeballs start, but not where they end. That’s the first problem, the lack of persistence. How do you get a customer if the customer never comes back or forgets you in a second or two?
He continued:
The second problem is that SEO is a commodity. Everyone is doing it to some degree, from the smallest blog to the biggest consumer brand site. SEO requires constant managing to achieve consistent success. In the last couple of years, more and more effort seems to be needed to keep one’s head above water. Market forces, competition, and changing technology require marketing professionals to revisit our campaigns more and more often. Search media agencies charge nice monthly fees to perpetuate what I call a “search arms race.” Google makes $28 billion a year off search engine marketing. In my experience, neither Google nor the marketers are motivated to challenge the status quo. Like investment banks, they make a good living off the status quo and change is not in their best interests.
With some Web sites struggling to reverse declining traffic, SEO is in the spotlight. To read the full text of the interview with Mr. Niemi, read “Google Squeezes SEO Experts: The Panda Choke Hold”.
If you wish to comment on this insightful interview, please, use the comments function for this Web log.
Stephen E Arnold, April 26, 2011
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Improving Health via Analytics and a Competition
April 14, 2011
We have been poking around in health care information for about eight months. We have an exclusive briefing that covers, among other things, what we call the “shadow FBI.” If you are curious about this shadow FBI angle, shoot us a note at seaky2000 at yahoo dot com. One of the goslings will respond. While you wait for our return quack, consider the notion of a competition to improve health care information in order to make health care better.
Competition promises better health care stated:
The goal of the prize is to develop a predictive algorithm that can identify patients who will be admitted to the hospital within the next year, using historical claims data.
According to the latest survey from the American Hospital Association more than 70 million people in the United States alone will be admitted to a hospital this year. The Heritage Provider Network believes that they can change all of that. The HPN will be holding a two year competition that will award $3 million dollars to the team that can create an algorithm that accurately predicts how many days a person will spend in the hospital over the next year.
An algorithm that can predict how many days a person will spend in the hospital can help doctors create new more effective care plans that can help “nip it in the bud” if there are any causes for concern. If possible the algorithm could help to lower the cost of care while reducing the number of hospitalizations.
This will result in increasing the health of patients while decreasing the cost of care. In short, a winning solution will change health care delivery as we know it – from an emphasis on caring for the individual after they get sick to a true health care system.
HPN believes that an incentive based competition is the way to achieve the big breakthroughs that are needed to begin redeveloping America’s health care system.
Leslie Radcliff, April 14, 2011
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Predictive Movie Watching?
April 12, 2011
Ever wish you could bypass the annoying ritual of figuring out just what movie you should rent? Now you can.
According to ReadWriteWeb, Hunch, a predictive entertainment tool, has reached a collaborative agreement with Samsung and Digitas to launch a new interactive social movie watching experience called “The Smart Living Room.”
After a viewer answers a series of Hunch personality questions, The Smart Living Room creates a personalized movie recommendation including the genre best suited for that viewer as well as movie title suggestions. The viewer can then create a movie watching event by inviting friends and family through Facebook or email.
The Smart Living Room uses Hunch’s same movie predicting ability and applies it to television.
Stephen E Arnold, April 12, 2011
Analyzing Analytics
April 10, 2011
Check out Contrast’s valuable “The Future of Analytics Products.” The blog entry begins with a nod to lead contender Google, but quickly moves beyond. The article explores how needs have changed:
Google Analytics [G.A.] and others like it were designed for a time when page views and visitors were all that mattered. . . . Every graph in G.A. defaults to visitors and views. Features like Goals, Events, Conversion rates have been baked on rather than built in, and this leaves the product vulnerable in certain areas. In addition Google Analytics hasn’t coped well with the growth of social networks.
The author follows up with a list of Google Analytics’ weak points. Next is an intriguing list of competitors, arranged by type: event driven analytics, aggregation tools, real time data, and social analytics. Finally, under Analytics Redesigned, the entry looks at some contenders who are valuable for their simplicity and their fresh take on display conventions. Sometimes, the best approach is to start over. Screenshots from the many, many examples are provided. Extremely helpful whether you want to comparison shop or are simply interested in the direction analytics products are heading.
Cynthia Murrell April 10, 2011
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