Arnold Columns for July 2011
June 22, 2011
The summer of 2011 is proving to be exciting. Google announced a shift from Web search to mobile search. A shortage of Lucene Solr developers filled my in box with pleas for people who could tame some open source wild ponies. AOL announced that it was going to plunge into the local deal pool. Microsoft announced that it intended to use one user interface across different devices.
With more than two months to go before summer winds down, I anticipate more surprising developments.
Here’s the line up of my for-fee columns for July 2011. Keep in mind that most of these for-fee columns are intended for print. A July 2011 column can appear two months or more after I submit the material.
Enterprise Technology Management (London, England). “Google Grinds Its Search Gears and Delivers Cold Mangos.” I discuss the implications of the Inside Search innovations on Google’s enterprise prospects and customers. Like I said, “Cold mangos.”
Information Today. “Microsoft Escalates the Multi-Device User Experience War.” Microsoft wants to deliver a common user experience across mobile, tablets, and desktop computers. I consider the challenges of this undertaking.
Online Magazine. “Is Solr Drying Up the FOSS Developer Pool?” I take a quick look at the causes and implications of a talent shortage for organizations embracing open source software.
Smart Business Network. “Can AOL Cook Up a Winner with Its Patch Local Advertising Service?” With the sector getting crowded, my hunch is that AOL will have to demonstrate that it can find room amidst some chunky folks.
The content in the for-fee columns does not appear in this marketing oriented Web log. If you want copies of these for-fee columns, please, contact the publishers directly.
Stephen E Arnold, June 22, 2011
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, the resource for enterprise search information and current news about data fusion
Library of Congress: Tweets Are for Real
June 16, 2011
Twitter tweets are headed to a very surprising new home. According to the O’Reily Radar article “How the Library of Congress is Building the Twitter Archive” Twitter plans to hand over all public tweets, since its inception in 2006, to The Library of Congress.
Researchers have been anxiously lining up for their opportunity to crack open the Twitter archive. Twitter fans create millions of tweets per day and according to the article:
“Each tweet is a JSON [JavaScript Object Notation] file, containing an immense amount of metadata in addition to the contents of the tweet itself: date and time, number of followers, account creation date, geodata, and so on. This requires a significant technological undertaking on the part of the library in order to build the infrastructure necessary to handle inquiries, and specifically to handle the sorts of inquiries that researchers are clamoring for.”
It seems that the Library of Congress has validated tweets as real information, not fodder for text analytics. Hopefully the Library will tackle some of the other content it has in its possession. I am thinking about images of which American Memory is a subset and fair copies of certain documents.
Stephen E Arnold, June 16, 2011
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, the resource for enterprise search information and current news about data fusion
Useful Search Comparison Tools
June 13, 2011
Makeuseof gives us “3 Useful Tools To See & Compare Search Results Side By Side.” It presents three tools that it deems to be the most useful of the available search comparison tools.
Each entry allows you to view results in side-by-side panels. 2lingual allows you to search in two languages, while Googawho and SearchBoth each have their own pluses.
Makeuseof‘s Anne Smarty likes Googawho’s ability to switch between engines quickly:
Just type your query, get the initial columns of results and click through search engines in the header to switch between the engines.
SearchBoth excels at switching between vertical searches, such as images or video, shopping, or news. Another nice feature:
Navigate through various local tool versions to combine and compare search engines from your country.
These tools are useful and can be interesting for test queries. See what you think. Worth bookmarking.
Cynthia Murrell June 13, 2011
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, the resource for enterprise search information and current news about data fusion
RollingResearch.com: A New Vertical Finding Service for the Automobile Industry and Consumer
June 8, 2011
New Information Service about Sources of Automobile Information
ArnoldIT.com has developed another news service blog, this one about where to find automotive information on the Internet. Each article in the Web log provides a synopsis of a source, an example of the information available from it, and critical commentary about its value.
Despite the wide availability of Web indexes on Bing.com and Google.com, these services often make it difficult to locate high-value specific information. Vertical findability services such as Rolling Research provide more focused results than those of common Web indexes:
The audience we want to reach wants to get to high value sources of information without wading through a laundry list of search results. Our researchers examine the sources and prepare compact, information-packed descriptions of a source. We think that anyone seeking objective information about the automobile industry will find Rolling Research a useful resource,” said Stephen E. Arnold, publisher and owner of ArnoldIT.com, an independent consulting and engineering firm. “Too much of the available automotive information is advertising fluff. We want to be clear and direct in stories that are crisp and brief. Who wants to spend endless hours clicking on potentially irrelevant or inaccurate sources in a quest for facts?
The blog is sponsored by TheAutoChannel.com, a premier source of information about vehicles since 1994.
Rolling Research is produced by ArnoldIT.com, publishers of Beyond Search and Inteltrax, and publishes Monday through Friday. Current and archived stories are available without charge at http://www.rollingresearch.com. An RSS feed and new-story Twitter notifications are available.
The service includes articles, features, and links to important business information resources. The editorial team takes a critical stance, providing value added commentary about sources of information related to the automobile industry, hybrid vehicles, recreational vehicles, motor sports, and allied fields. Story ideas may be submitted to rollingresearch@yahoo.com
Cynthia Murrell June 8, 2011
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, the resource for enterprise search information and current news about data fusion
Protected: Tips for Debugging SharePoint
June 8, 2011
New Evidence Libraries Are Important
May 22, 2011
When you say “search” to me, I think going to a real, living library. There are people who can assist me. There are online services which I may not have hooked into my home computer. There are honest-to-good reference books and shelves begging me to browse.
So I was disappointed to read the Physorg.com article “Link Found between Spending on Libraries and Student Learning.” Apparently, this is news to some. Why was a study or even the subsequent publication of what is to me a self-evident fact? The new Dark Ages of Online, perhaps?
See, it’s widely believed that spending more won’t improve learning in the schools. While that may be true in some areas, libraries are worth the investment. That’s the conclusion of the Pennsylvania School Librarians Association’s paper, “School Library Research Summarized.” This document pulls together research from across the United States and a bit from Canada:
“[Mansfield University professor, Debra E.] Kachel and a class of graduate students examined school library impact studies, most done in the last decade, by 22 states and one Canadian province (Ontario). Most examined student standardized test scores. A few used qualitative approaches. All found positive links between library support and learning.”
This is important stuff: how can you search if you are poorly educated? How can a person “research” or “reason” that a particular article or author is wrong, wacky, or practicing Facebook-type disinformation. Technology can only make up for so much. Please, read the article for details from the study. And if we want better futures for our children, let’s funnel funds to the school libraries. A little learning is a dangerous thing. But no learning? deadly.
Cynthia Murrell, May 22, 2011
A Password Library
May 20, 2011
Some search systems require log ins. We wanted to pass along what we call a “password library.” Jimmy Ruska gives us a password library update in “Most Common Passwords List from 3 Databases.” We submit this link for your reference.
Writes Ruska,
There has been three instances that I know of where a significant number of hacked account passwords have been publicly released. I have obtained the lists and made a thorough analysis of each of them, including the most common passwords and character frequencies.
Scanning the lists, it’s amazing how many easily hackable choices people use. For example, 123456, password, and letmein feature prominently. Why bother having a password if you don’t take it seriously?
Try a word or phrase that you can remember but that can’t be easily linked to you. Then throw in some numbers and special characters. One technique to help you remember is to replace letters with similar l00king choic3s. This does slow down hacking software considerably. So does using the maximum number of characters.
Remember—the lazy ones are the first victims.
Cynthia Murrell, May 20, 2011
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An Essential Guide for Information Professionals
May 20, 2011
Infonista has posted a review a wonderful book entitled The Information and Knowledge Professional’s Career Handbook. Full disclosure: Ulla de Stricker is a friend of ours, and we just love her and her co-author, Jill Hurst-Wahl.
Though we admit to a little bias, we’re sure we’d be recommending this book in any case. The Infonista review summarizes what you have to look forward to:
“In fifteen chapters, the authors provide detailed, practical career advice that comes across as a cross between coaching, mentoring, and okay, (in the nicest possible way), a bit of nagging. But it’s clear that their goal is to help readers avoid career potholes if possible. . . .
“Reading The Information and Knowledge Professional’s Handbook is like hanging out with two really smart, experienced, and wise mentors who aren’t going to sugarcoat any of their advice – because they know you really need the real deal. The information they provide is practical, actionable, and from this professional’s experience, spot on.”
This praise is no surprise to us, of course. We knew these ladies are at the top of their field.
Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy right away.
Cynthia Murrell May 20, 2011
Keep on Top of Microsoft Knowledge Base Updates
May 11, 2011
We are always on the look out for useful SharePoint resources. At a small gathering of corporate clients I attended last month, more than 80 percent were heading for SharePoint 2010 at various speeds. Not a scientific study, but it concurs with anecdotal evidence we have seen recently. At that meeting a colleague at Search Technologies mentioned a new service that provides hourly updates to Microsoft FAQs (frequently asked questions). I took a look at Microsoft Knowledge Base Articles, a site not affiliated with Microsoft.
A cursory review of the site suggests that it would have considerable value if the service kept pace with Microsoft’s own knowledge base publication flow. Microsoft FAQs are called knowledge base articles, and these appear at irregular intervals. There may be few KBs provided and then a number of them become available.
According to the independent site:
The purpose of this site is to inform you about the latest information of the Microsoft Knowledge Base articles. Every day Microsoft releases new KB articles. This site checks Microsoft’s information 24 times a day. This means that the Microsoft Knowledge Base information provided here is up to date.”
One quick example: the story “Description of the SharePoint Foundation 2010 Cumulative Update Package” from April 28, 2011, described the hot fixes available in that update and tips for implementing them. On May 5, 2011, I found “TFS Test Manager – Run Test Error: 403: Forbidden,” which explains the reasons for, and resolution of, that particular error.
Many, many more examples are available for your perusal. Check it out— keeping up with this site could save a lot of frustration.
At www.searchtechnologies.com, we focus on search-related implementation services, especially for SharePoint. We have delivered more than 25,000 consultant days of Fast Search-related services in the last four years along. We are currently helping more than a dozen organizations take a search-led approach to upgrading to SharePoint 2010.
Iain Fletcher, May 11, 2011
Jewish News Archive: Another Hot Curated Vertical Content Source
May 9, 2011
Anne Mintz, the star of the Forbes’ organization’s information center, shifted direction a while back. She dropped into stealth mode, alerting me to her activities via brief emails. I am delighted to be able to announce her Jewish News Archive project.
The remarkable collection of JTA news reports from 1923 to the present is now available for free at archive.jta.org . Formerly the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, now JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People, the organization is a not-for-profit media company similar to the Associated Press. Ms. Mintz, one of the world’s leading experts in business information, told me:
Writing the first draft of Jewish history. The archive of original reporting from around the world documents the Jewish experience of the 20th century, much of it not written about in the mainstream media.
I was delighted with the depth of this new service. She said:
There are more than 7,000 contemporaneous articles reported from Europe between 1937-1945 that document the Holocaust on a daily basis, at least that many documenting the experience of Russian Jews throughout entire reign of Communism, coverage of life in then-Palestine before the new state was inaugurated in 1948, and much more.
You can explore this exceptional resource at http://goo.gl/kPk6d.
If you are one of the video addicts who read Beyond Search, you can get additional information from a nifty YouTube video.
Ms. Mintz–who vies with Marydee Ojala, Barbara Quint, and Ulla de Stricker for the title of best business information expert in the world—told me after I asked about her involvement:
Yes, I worked on the project for four months helping prepare the site for launch on May 9, 2011. The content speaks for itself. One interesting aspect of my role was to help surface the articles on news events that didn’t mention the overall subject, such as the Holocaust and the Six Day War, which of course weren’t referred to as such in the original coverage. Another is making sure that people who search for Sabbath also get stories about Shabbat and Shabbas.
The shift from running a commercial organization’s information operation to developing curated vertical information services is one that is interesting to me. Most of the curated sites are little more than plays for revenue from online advertising services. Ms. Mintz’s work delivers quality without the search engine optimization baloney. This is a victory for curated content. Ms. Mintz receives a virtual laurel wreath from the team in Harrod’s Creek.
Three quacks for this service. What’s next?
Stephen E Arnold, May 9, 2011
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