Microsoft Nudges English to Ideographs
May 5, 2015
Short honk: In my college days, I studied with a fellow who was the world’s expert in the morpheme burger. You are familiar with hamburger. Lev Soudek (I believe this was his name) set out to catalog every use of –burger he could find. Dr. Soudek was convinced that words had a future.
He is probably pondering the rise of ideographs like emoji. For insiders, a pictograph can be worth a thousand words. I suppose the morpheme burger is important to the emergence of the hamburger icon like this:
Microsoft is pushing into new territory according to “Microsoft Is First to Let You Flip the Middle Finger Emoji.” Attensity, Smartlogic, and other content processing systems will be quick to adapt. The new Microsoft is a pioneering outfit.
Is it possible to combine the hamburger icon with the middle finger emoji to convey a message without words.
Dr. Soudek, what do you think?
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What about this alternative?
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How would one express this thought? Modern language? Classy!
Stephen E Arnold, May 5, 2015
Survival of SharePoint and the Big Bang Theory
May 5, 2015
The ebb and flow of SharePoint expansion and contraction can be described as a “big bang theory” of sorts. This cyclical pattern can be seen in many businesses, but Redmond Magazine helps readers see the cycle in SharePoint. Read more in their article, “The SharePoint Big Bang Theory.”
The article sums up the illustration:
“As Microsoft added capabilities to SharePoint over the years, and provided the flexibility to configure or customize its features to meet just about any business requirement, the success of the platform exploded . . . End users and administrators alike started thinking about their information architecture and information governance policies. Companies . . . began consolidating their efforts, and started to move their businesses toward a more structured content management strategy . . . [then] the rise of the enterprise social networks (ESNs) and cloud-based file sharing solutions have had (are having) a contracting effect on those intranet and structured collaboration plans. Suddenly end users seem to be totally in charge.”
There’s no doubt that SharePoint has learned to weather the turbulent changes of the last twenty years. In some ways, their adaptability is to be applauded. And yet, most users know the platform is not perfect. To stay attuned to what the next twenty years will bring, keep an eye on ArnoldIT.com. Stephen E. Arnold has made a career of out reporting on all things search, and his dedicated SharePoint feed distills the information down into an easily digestible platform.
Emily Rae Aldridge, May 5, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Microsoft and Its Play in the Document Database Sector
May 3, 2015
The number of companies offering alternatives to Oracle’s traditional database management system continues to go up. The most notable anti-Oracle outfit may be Microsoft, or, the “new” post-Ballmer Microsoft.
A number of specialist companies have offered expensive and often quite complicated NoSQL content management systems. These have been positioned as publishing systems, analytic systems, business intelligence, and other types of unstructured information solutions.
I read “Microsoft Announces General Availability of Azure DocumentDB.” The key paragraph in the write up is a quote from a Microsoft expert which asserts:
We built DocumentDB in response to the increasing demands of mobile first, cloud first application development. NoSQL databases are becoming the tool of choice for many developers however running and managing these databases can be complicated and costly, especially at scale. DocumentDB is delivered as a fully managed database-as-a-service (DBaaS) with built in high availability, SQL query over indexed JSON and multi-document transaction processing.
Like most things Microsoft, this solution has been chugging along for many years. Microsoft has its own relational database to nurture. Leaving the market to the likes of MarkLogic and legions of open source developers and repackagers motivated the ageing Microsoft to keep on pecking away at the unstructured information problem.
Will Microsoft be successful?
The question is, “Sure, probably.” There are many Microsoft certified professionals, certified Gold resellers, and tag-along consultants who milk the Microsoft cow. The installed base combined with job security and consulting opportunities means that over time, Microsoft’s document database will have an impact.
What companies will be affected? There are several categories of firms which may suffer some immediate pain; for example:
- MarkLogic-type proprietary vendors will have to deal with the price pressure Microsoft brings to the market. Microsoft also supports a community familiar with the Byzantine methods of Microsoft software. The combination of familiar programming conventions and job security are likely to be a powerful mix.
- Vendors who drifted from Microsoft may have to fall in love again. Some specialist companies like Coveo and Smartlogic have shifted from Microsoft centric business to support for other systems and methods. If the document centric database sector catches on quickly, then these companies will have to rekindle their Microsoft affection. The challenge will be to fit into a Microsoft world in which more loyal developers have been faithful.
- Licensees reeling from the cost and complexity of XML centric document solutions may find that loyal licensees are kicking the tires of the Microsoft approach. Microsoft developers are easier to find and hire than masters of proprietary XML programming methods. JSON may become a good enough alternative to XML wonkiness.
What about search? I assume that an open source outfit like Elastic will encourage its fans to carry coals to the New Microsoft castle. Vendors of proprietary Microsoft add ins are likely to be revving up to offer snap in solutions to Microsoft’s migraine inducing search and retrieval function.
Net net: Microsoft is creating an opportunity as it inflicts pain on companies struggling in a tough economy. Worth monitoring this initiative. Will Oracle sit on the sidelines? How will proprietary content processing vendors respond? No answers yet.
Stephen E Arnold, May 3, 2015
A Binging Double Take
May 1, 2015
After you read this headline from Venture Beat, you will definitely be doing a double take: “ComScore: Bing Passes 20% Share In The US For The First Time.” Bing has been the punch line for search experts and IT professionals ever since it was deployed a few years ago. Anyone can contest that Bing is not the most accurate search engine, mostly due to it being a Microsoft product. Bing developers have been working to improve the search engine’s accuracy and for the first time ever ComScore showed that both Google and Yahoo fell a 0.1 percentage and Bing gained 0.3 percent, most likely stealing it from DuckDuckGo and other smaller search engines. Microsoft can proudly state that one in five searches are conducted on Bing.
The change comes after months of stagnation:
“For many months, ComScore’s reports showed next to no movement for each search service (a difference of 0.1 points or 0.2 points one way or the other, if that). A 0.3 point change is not much larger, but it does come just a few months after big gains from Yahoo. So far, 2015 is already a lot more exciting, and it looks like the search market is going to be worth paying close attention to.”
The article says that most of search engine usage is generated by what Internet browsers people use. Yahoo keep telling people to move to Firefox and Google wants people to download Chrome. The browser and search engine rivalries continue, but Google still remains on top. How long will Bing be able to keep this bragging point?
Whitney Grace, May 1, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Hoping to End Enterprise Search Inaccuracies
May 1, 2015
Enterprise search is limited to how well users tag their content and the preloaded taxonomies. According Tech Target’s Search Content Management blog, text analytics might be the key to turning around poor enterprise search performance: “How Analytics Engines Could Finally-Relieve Enterprise Pain.” Text analytics turns out to only be part of the solution. Someone had the brilliant idea to use text analytics to classification issues in enterprise search, making search reactive to user input to proactive to search queries.
In general, analytics search engines work like this:
“The first is that analytics engines don’t create two buckets of content, where the goal is to identify documents that are deemed responsive. Instead, analytics engines identify documents that fall into each category and apply the respective metadata tags to the documents. Second, people don’t use these engines to search for content. The engines apply metadata to documents to allow search engines to find the correct information when people search for it. Text analytics provides the correct metadata to finally make search work within the enterprise.”
Supposedly, they are fixing the tagging issue by removing the biggest cause for error: humans. Microsoft caught onto how much this could generate profit, so they purchased Equivio in 2014 and integrated the FAST Search platform into SharePoint. Since Microsoft is doing it, every other tech company will copy and paste their actions in time. Enterprise search is gull of faults, but it has improved greatly. Big data trends have improved search quality, but tagging continues to be an issue. Text analytics search engines will probably be the newest big data field for development. Hint for developers: work on an analytics search product, launch it, and then it might be bought out.
Whitney Grace, May 1 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Altiar Decides to Embed dtSearch Engine
April 30, 2015
PR Newswire has a big announcement for fans of dtSearch Engine: “Announcing The Altiar Cloud-Based (Optimized For Microsoft Azure) ECM Platform Embedding The dtSearch Engine.” Altiar is a leading enterprise collaborative content management platform based in the cloud, developed for prime optimization in Microsoft Azure. To improve the enterprise content system, dtSearch’s search engine (its headlining product) will be integrated into Altiar platform.
Altair wants to improve how users find content on the platform. Users can upload and create brand new content on Altair, but with files from so many different programs it can be confusing to manage and locate them. Altair hopes to remedy any search problems with the integration:
” ‘Utilizing the power of dtSearch Engine at the core, users can search across the entire database of files uploaded by other users as well as manage their own uploads simply and quickly,’ explains Altiar. ‘Search results deliver relevant results from the content within every file as well as any additional data provided at upload.’”
Altair restates what we already know about search: it is one of the most important functions of technology and without out people would not be able to track down their content. Comprehensive search across multiple programs is a standard feature in all computers these days. Is searching the cloud more complex than a regular system? What improvements need to be made to make search handle the extra work?
Whitney Grace, April 30, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Microsoft Goes Mobile with Delve
April 30, 2015
Microsoft has made enhancements to the core functionality of Delve, as well as rolling out native mobile app versions for iOS and Android. ZDNet breaks the news in their article, “Microsoft Delivers iOS, Android Versions of Delve.”
The article begins:
“Microsoft has made native mobile versions of its Delve search and presentation app available for Android phones, Android wear devices and iPhones. Delve presents in card-like form information from Exchange, OneDrive for Business, SharePoint Online and Yammer enterprise-social networking components. Over the coming months Delve will be adding more content sources, including email attachments, OneNote and Skype for Business.”
This seems like a Microsoft component that has great potential for mobile use, since its focus is “at a glance” information retrieval. Keep an eye on ArnoldIT.com to see what Stephen E. Arnold has to say about it in coming months. Arnold has made a career out of following all things search and enterprise, and he reports his findings at ArnoldIT.com. His dedicated SharePoint feed collects a lot of interesting reporting regarding SharePoint and the rest of Microsoft productivity offerings.
Emily Rae Aldridge, April 30, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
SharePoint Release Delayed and Criticized
April 28, 2015
SharePoint was lauded earlier in the year for committing to a new on-premises version of SharePoint Server 2016. However, since then the rollout has been beset by delays and criticism that on-site installations will continue to play the ugly stepsister to the cloud. The United Kingdom’s The Register provides a cynical assessment of the latest news in their article, “SharePoint’s Next Release Delayed Until Deep into 2016.”
The article begins:
“Exchange Server 2016 will be not much more than a rollup of features already deployed to cloud Exchange . . . Redmond’s also revealed that SharePoint server won’t get another refresh until the second quarter of 2016. There won’t even be a beta – or technical preview as Microsoft likes to call them these days – to play with until 2015’s fourth quarter . . . But all those cloudy bits may not be so welcome for the many smaller organisations that run SharePoint, or for organisations waiting for an upgrade. SharePoint 2013 was released in October 2012, so such users are looking at nearly four years between drinks.”
Every SharePoint rollout seems to be plagued by trouble of some variety, so the delay comes as little surprise. The test will be whether tried and true on-premises customers will settle for what increasingly seems to be little support. We will withhold ultimate judgment until the release is made available. In the meantime, head over to ArnoldIT.com to keep up with the latest news. Stephen E. Arnold has made a career out of following all things search, and his dedicated SharePoint feed keeps you informed at a glance.
Emily Rae Aldridge, April 28, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Stalled SharePoint Deployments Do Not Deter Adoption
April 23, 2015
Despite SharePoint’s broad adoption, it suffers from a perceived lack of user commitment. So it becomes a paradox that it is one of the fastest growing software options ever, and shows no signs of slowing down. CMS Wire tells us more in their article, “Businesses Committed to SharePoint, Despite Stalled Deployments.”
The article begins:
“It is little surprise then, that in a recent AIIM survey of 422 organizations respondents described their SharePoint projects as stalled (26 percent) or just not meeting expectations (37 percent). Inadequate user training and a general lack of planning, investment and expertise were the main reason given for this malaise. And the recent talk about how Office365 and cloud fit in with SharePoint has further muddied the waters. And yet support for SharePoint remains strong.”
In recent news, Microsoft has pushed the general availability of SharePoint Server 2016 back. Combine these release delays with the local delays organizations face regarding customization, investment, and expertise, and most deployments face an uphill battle. For most users and managers, staying in touch with the latest news is essential. Stephen E. Arnold of ArnoldIT.com offers an efficient newsfeed regarding all things search. His SharePoint feed is an efficient way to keep an eye on news, tips, tricks, and workarounds that impact all aspects of SharePoint use.
Emily Rae Aldridge, April 23, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Microsoft Improves Search, Again, with Delve
April 20, 2015
The article titled Microsoft Beefs Up Office 365’s Delve, Aims To Complete Its Rollout By May on Computerworld discusses the improvements to the enterprise search and discovery app Delve. Delve was built for Office 365’s Office Graph machine learning engine, and helps create and analyze detailed data on users by linking to content through card icons. The article states,
“Based on what it learns about the user’s work, it determines which files, colleagues, documents and data are most relevant and important at any given point, and displays links to them in a graphically rich, card-based dashboard. Delve provides this assistance in real time, so that users can prioritize their work and find the information they need as they participate in whatever work projects and tasks they’re involved in.”
This means that Delve can figure that a user’s upcoming meeting will be about a particular topic with particular colleagues, and then collect information that is relevant in a timely manner for display in the dashboard. Microsoft is currently working to make Delve capable of analyzing email content within Exchange Online attachments. Yammer actions will also be performable in the near future from the Delve interface. It can also, of course, be used more traditionally as a search engine, but Microsoft has big plans for more dynamic and innovative capabilities.
Chelsea Kerwin, April 20, 2014
Stephen E Arnold, Publisher of CyberOSINT at www.xenky.com
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