Why Read? Images Are Stronger
March 14, 2012
I came across an article about the value of Facebook profile pictures as opposed to text, and was amazed by the new research that shows that words simply do not matter; it is all about image.
“With the Right Photo, Your Facebook Text Profile Hardly Matters,” covers a couple of studies by Brandon Van Der Heide and two other Ohio State graduate students. The studies look into how people make impressions of others on social networking sites, and it seems that is primarily done through photos.
Apparently, people already have certain expectations of the photos they view on social networking. We expect people to highlight successes and social activities. The study went on to show that if a photo fits what someone expects to see, then the rest of the profile doesn’t have much impact on the viewer. If it doesn’t fit what they expect, that is when people will decide to look closer at what you wrote. The article continues:
Van Der Heide [lead author of the study and assistant professor of communication at Ohio State University] said he believes the results apply beyond Facebook to dating websites and other social networking sites. It should also apply to other traits beyond extraversion and introversion, such as social desirability and even political orientation. It all depends on what is shown in the photographs, and what clues viewers can glean from them.
According to the research, when people use text or photos alone to build an impression, text will typically have a greater influence. As more businesses head to social networking to build strategic relationships and strengthen customer bases, this is something that should be kept in mind. Be sure to highlight exactly what you want the customer to take away at first glance, because that may be the only glance you get.
Andrea Hayden, March 14, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Browse with Vintage Ad Browser
March 9, 2012
Sometimes search is not going to deliver the nostalgia payload.
Here’s an interesting service for finding print advertisements: tap into the Vintage Ad Browser and step back in time. The site presents, by category, “100,000+ vintage advertisements to explore”, going back nearly to the turn of last century. The site’s About page explains:
“Vintage Ad Browser was created in 2009/2010 and released in 2010, by Philipp Lenssen from Germany, currently living in China. This site aims to collect vintage ads from a variety of sources, including comic books, CD-Roms, websites, APIs, your submissions, book, magazine & comic book scans, and more. At the moment, this site contains 123,311 ads. Vintage Ad Browser has a sister site called Cover Browser, started in 2006 – please have a look.”
Interesting project. We find that here search gives way to browsing, just like in 1993. Reminisce with ads for everything from Airlines to Xmas.
The geek in me thinks the Cover Browser site is pretty nifty, too. It is a collection of cover art, mostly from comics but from books and other sources as well. You may recall Mr. Lenssen. He developed Google Blogoscoped, an interesting news service.
Cynthia Murrell, March 9, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Google: More Like Apple?
March 4, 2012
You may know about “more like this.” Well, we think Google has a twist on this search feature. We call it “more like Apple.”
Bloomberg Businessweek recently reported on a new move that Google is planning in hopes of beating out Apple once and for all in the article “Google’s Real Estate Plans Hint It Wants to Own Your Living Room.”
The article argues that while Google has had incredible success in getting other companies to utilize its Android software, the search giant will never be able to out compete Apple until it starts making its own hardware as well. This is where Google’s $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola comes into play.
The article states:
“Though patents were one reason for the purchase, increasingly there are signs that Google will use Motorola to create a more integrated, Apple-esque approach. According to documents unearthed by the San Jose Mercury News, the company is building huge hardware-testing labs, including pricey anechoic chambers for testing the performance of antennae on mobile devices.”
This is definitely a risky move for an already very successful company. The real question is, is Google capable of being Apple? Heck, is Google even capable of preventing encroachment by Amazon, Microsoft, and Yandex?
Jasmine Ashton, March 4, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Qumu Partners with Nexidia on Speech Search
February 24, 2012
The ability to search for spoken words in media files is getting a boost, as revealed in Business Wire’s “Qumu Integrates Nexidia Dialogue Search Into Video Control Center.” Qumu sees speech as the most underutilized (though most useful) search perimeter and aims to change that with their software. Their Video Control Center allows for the capture, management, and distribution of video content. The write up reveals what Nexidia brings to the table:
Nexidia’s patented Dialogue Search now gives employees a richer, more precise way to find and view valuable content by pinpointing where any word or phrase is spoken in their company’s webcasts, training videos and employee-generated content. Nexidia’s patented technology searches across an organization’s different media silos and geographies simultaneously, and supports multiple languages.
So, in this way, voice-to-text becomes an add-in. Companies who have long been in this space like Autonomy and Exalead may find that upstarts will snag some juicy accounts.
Qumu bills itself as the leader in the young video platform market, having won some of the largest Global 1000 companies as clients. Nexidia has spent years developing its phonetic search technologies, opening up audio and video sources to search functionality.
Cynthia Murrell, February 24, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Oxymoron Department: Cloud Storage Appliance
February 23, 2012
This piece is not directly about search, but we think this is an interesting development which may spur more cloud-centric search solutions. Wired Cloudline reports, “Red Hat Appliance Smooths Storage on Amazon Cloud.” The application, Virtual Storage Appliance for Amazon Web Services, is intended to support cloud service providers besides Amazon sometime in the future.
The new appliance is POSIX compliant, which means data need not be modified before using it with the application. The write up informs us:
Terri McClure, an analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group, said in a statement, ‘Organizations are increasingly looking for cloud storage that delivers the flexibility and cost savings of the cloud without having to overhaul their entire application and storage infrastructure. This newest offering by Red Hat enables organizations to seamlessly easily extend their datacenter storage to the cloud while still receiving the performance and availability desired.’
Headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina, Red Hat is a premiere provider of the Linux operating system and other open source solutions. It prides itself on being “the bridge between the communities that create open source software and the enterprise customers who use it.”
Now a virtual appliance in the cloud. How does that differ from any other cloud function? Beats me.
Cynthia Murrell, February 23, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
YouTube Doldrums?
February 20, 2012
Can YouTube break out of its doldrums? GigaOM examines the question in “YouTube & Its Content Discovery Paradox.” The site recently invested big bucks on 100 channels of professionally produced video content that it hopes will improve its image. However, improved content is no good if people don’t know it’s there.
YouTube acknowledged this problem, and has implemented a redesign that serves relevant content to users who have selected channels in the past. However, that approach still limits discovery to channels users already know they like. Channel suggestions are on the page, but are not featured prominently. Highlighting those recommendations would be a start, but more innovative discovery tools would be even better.
Writer Ryan Lawler summarizes:
YouTube is the second-biggest search engine in the world, behind parent Google. But it’s one thing to serve up the right video when a viewer searches for it. It’s a whole other thing to anticipate what a viewer wants to see and help them find it. That’s something YouTube will need to get better at, especially as it tries to increase the average session time that users are staying online for.
Our view is that Google is the cat’s pajamas when it comes to easily findable video and an enhanced Google TV experience.
Cynthia Murrell, February 20, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Yandex Expands Map Service
February 20, 2012
Our favorite search engine is one the road again.
Russian search engine Yandex is growing its map catalog, Search Engine Watch reveals in “Yandex Extends Map Capabilities to 4 More Continents.” Writer Thom Craver explains,
Yandex, the leading search engine in Russia, has expanded its mapping capabilities by purchasing a license for digital maps from NAVTEQ, the leading location provider service. In yet another move expanding their worldwide search services, Yandex has purchased a license for highly detailed maps of Europe, North America, Australia, and developed countries in Asia to expand their Yandex.Maps product. The maps are licensed to show intercity motorways and highways, urban traffic networks, streets, and buildings.
Maps will be available in both the desktop version and mobile apps. Also, Web sites will be able to embed these maps into their pages.
Mapping results on Yandex was limited to Russia and Ukraine until last year, when the service added Turkey to its purview. The recent moves expand the company’s reach significantly.
Our view: Yandex is on the move now because the company sees the incumbents in the field as vulnerable.
Cynthia Murrell, February 20, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Google Plus Functionality X Rayed
February 18, 2012
Why hasn’t Google+ taken off more than it has? ZDNet asserts, “Google+ Numbers Would Be Higher. . . if It Worked.” Writer Tom Foremski has been having trouble with his Google+ and, while he’s at it, Gmail and Google Contacts, too. What’s worse, Google’s famously inadequate support has failed him time and again.
Google’s problem is the company’s lack of participation in social networks, maintains Foremski. Google should be using social media to engage users and to provide some sort of organized support system. The article asserts:
I know that Google wants desperately to have a large social network but it clearly doesn’t get it, because it doesn’t use social networks in providing customer support!. . . . Google will fail at G+ and other social network ventures if it doesn’t fully engage in those networks, and others, with its customers and users. You have to be in it to get it. That’s how things work and there’s no short cuts.
Foremski suspects he is not the only one with Googley problems. He also suspects the company has little interest in fixing his or other users’ issues. The man may just be right.
I noted that Google itself used Facebook to publicize during the week of February 12, 2012, its “major” Google TV and YouTube announcement this week. Interesting. I guess marketers go where the eye balls are, not where the bonus plan suggests.
Cynthia Murrell, February 18, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Autonomy: Ready to Disrupt Again
February 17, 2012
When Hewlett-Packard (HP) purchased the enterprise software company Autonomy for a hefty 10.3 billion last August, the world was left wondering what would come of this new partnership. While HP has the hardware, Autonomy’s unique software allows enterprises to provide insight and structure to electronic data, including unstructured information, such as text, email, web pages, voice, or video.
Now, six months after the acquisition, word has broken and Business Insider’s Julie Bort has written “HP Finally Explains Its Big Plans for its $10 Billion Purchase, Autonomy” which shares some of the new products that HP has planned for Autonomy.
According to the article, HP is working on several hardware appliances that will power enterprise search and ideally out compete Google’s Search Appliance. HP also unveiled a new Autonomy video application.
In addition to this, Bort writes:
“HP is working on mobile Autonomy applications that will let you view images of physical world objects such as a movie poster and interact with them online. That’s nothing special, as lots of companies are working on similar technology, known as “augmented reality.” But this type of thing hasn’t gone mainstream yet, so there’s plenty of room for a big player like HP to own it if it ever does.”
While HP many not be using Autonomy to create the most innovative products right off the bat, HP’s extensive resources and purchasing power paired with Autonomy’s software make a duo that will be difficult to compete with.
Jasmine Ashton, February 17, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Nestoria Abandons Google Maps
January 27, 2012
With Google Maps dominating the online map market since its creation last decade the unthinkable (that Google should be replaced) is in the process of happening. Nestoria, an online real estate listings company with growing ranks in Europe, Australia and India, recently announced their departure from Google Maps for OpenStreetMap in a blog post titled, Why (and How) We Switched Away from Google Maps.
Nestoria listed four primary reasons for their switch each with equal merit. First, OpenStreetMap provides maps at the same quality as Google Maps. That was not always the case. For a long time (up until very recently) Google Maps dominated because they were the best.
Next, the tools necessary to switch away from Google Maps were not available making the process difficult at best. That is not the case anymore. A good chunk of the blog post is devoted to explaining how the transition was technically done.
Third in the reasons, and perhaps the key motivator, is that Google has begun charging for the use of Google Maps. As the blog post points out the price to use the maps would bankrupt Nestoria making OpenStreetMap even more appealing.
Lastly, Nestoria lists a dedication to all things open source as a motivating factor in the switch:
Our service does nothing more (and nothing less!) than aggregate data from many different sources and present it in an easy to use format. We benefit greatly from open data, and as such we want to do our part (within the limited resources of a start-up) to help the open data movement.
The reasons considered seem to add up to a compelling case against Google Maps. For years Google was untouchable and the idea that a start-up could steal users away from the mighty Google giant was unthinkable. Time for a rethink?
Catherine Lamsfuss, January 27, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
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