Google Hummingbird Flits In
September 27, 2013
Good news, according to many sources. Google has made changes to its ad-supported, Web search system. A representative write up is “Google Unveils Search Updates for Mobile, New Page Rank Algorithm, and Knowledge Graph Comparisons.”
What could be more useful? Google wants “to help users access information quicker, including new interfaces and features for its iOS and Android apps, along with better integration with the Knowledge Graph.”
Machine-generated comparisons and “knowledge graphs” may prove to be just what searchers like me need to obtain pinpoint results lists. Give the system a whirl. Search for “bwr pwr compare” or “compare pwr bwr” or “pwr versus bwr.” Check out the results. Oh, I guess this did not work. These are nuclear reactor types. Well, maybe in a few days.
When I search for topics like “fluidic self assembly of nanoparticles”, I checked out a knowledge graphs. Oh, I guess this did not work. To see without ads or a fee a “graph”, navigate to www.cluuz.com and try the query. Yes, better. Well, maybe in a short time Google will do the relationship thing in a way that helps me.
The write up asserts:
Google Senior Vice President and software engineer Amit Singhal took the stage afterwards to talk about the company’s future in search. Fifteen years ago, you had to go to a website on a “bulky computer”, turn it on, fire up the dial-up modem, and look up the information and wait for it to be returned. Over time, retrieving answers to questions became possible on the go with the evolution of mobile devices. Singhal says that in today’s age, we’re comfortable with finding information no matter where we are, whenever we want.
Maybe?
My take on “improvements” to Google search include these observations:
- I find it more difficult to locate information today than at any other time in my online experience.
- Results are no longer tied to precision and recall. Results may be hooked to agendas such as advertising revenue. Advertisers pay. The shift to mobile means that the dear Overture approach has to be tweaked. Precision and recall are tossed from the slowing revenue Camry for me.
- Users have zero idea about the accuracy, completeness, or provenance of most search system outputs. Sorry, but I want date and time stamps, information about index freshness, access to content across index silos, and content not distorted by the happy laborers at low cost SEO services.
I could go on, but I won’t. In my lecture at the ISS conference, I told a standing room only crowd, getting online information today in which one has confidence now requires real work. Queries must be passed against multiple search systems. Results lists must be examined carefully. Items of data must be assembled by a human into a coherent fabric. Few have an appetite for this work.
Look at the bright side. Google’s new system makes it easy to find out about Miley Cyrus, rental cars, and pizza. Useful, right?
Stephen E Arnold, September 27, 2013
iFerret from Australian Company iPlatinum Improves on the WebWombat for Local Government Search
September 27, 2013
In the article on WhaTech titled Purpose Built Search Engine Helps Ferret Out The Facts To Ensure Good Corporate Governance at NSW Council, the introduction of the iFerret from iPlatinum is discussed. The iFerret was released as an improvement on the WebWombat, a purpose built search engine created for local government use. The WebWombat was found lacking in its ability to collect and collate various electronic documents found on various data sources. Randwick County in Sydney, Australia was one of the first to utilize the tool, and one upper level management staff, David Kelly, explained the uses of iFerret as follows,
“…Problems reported to any council call centres: the damaged footpath which results in someone falling and sustaining an injury or a tree in a public space that drops a large limb and damages private property. If such incidents are consequential enough they will set in train a search for information stored across numerous data repositories. That information may be required to satisfy insurance claims, assemble the facts for subpoenas in judicial proceedings… It’s information to help ensure good corporate governance.”
Another staffer spoke on the importance of iFerret when collecting the range of PDFs, JPEGs and other file types into one folder, sometimes containing upwards of a hundred files for a single insurance claim. The improvements specific to the iFerret include OCR help, synonyms, duplicate document detection and other functions that offer speedy and comprehensive search.
Chelsea Kerwin, September 27, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
SharePoint Not on the Radar
September 26, 2013
Microsoft recently updated its SharePoint Cloud services to include more options that allow more flexibility for mobile users. While the PR for this update has been well received, “AIIM Research Indicates SharePoint Has A ‘Cloudy’ Future” says PRWeb. This reminds me of something Stephen E Arnold of Arnold IT notes in many of reports about how upgrades may be good, but they do not solve the underlying problems, such as implementation and security.
AIIM conducted a survey and found that only 6% of its respondents found their deployments successful, while 43% are struggling with implementing SharePoint, and another 28% say that progress has stalled in their SharePoint projects. That only touches the shallow end of the SharePoint pool. Many companies are also running multiple versions of the software, which can only lead to compatibility issues.
And how is SharePoint Cloud security viewed?
“ ‘There are many benefits to tapping into the power of SharePoint 2013, specifically the mobile and social aspects, yet as our research indicates, many business and IT leaders are wary of security issues around cloud technology,’ said AIIM President John Mancini. ‘While using SharePoint can help companies of any size, as a collaborative platform and even a records management tool, it’s clear from our research that, based on a variety of factors, deployments and adoption of the technology has not reached its original goals.’”
SharePoint is a viable solution, but behind the shiny labels and screensaver there are many, many problems.
Whitney Grace, September 26, 2013
LucidWorks Leads Industry with Marketplace Plus Search
September 25, 2013
LucidWorks, a long-time industry leader in enterprise search, has changed the future yet again with their introduction of the Solr Marketplace. The Marketplace allows organizations to easily find and integrate pre-built add-ons into their open source infrastructure. All offerings are built on the trusted infrastructure of Apache Lucene Solr, so quality and usability are guaranteed. Read more of the exciting news in the article, “LucidWorks Creates Industry’s First Marketplace for Pre-built Application Add-ons to Enrich Solr Search.”
The piece begins:
“LucidWorks, the company transforming the way people access information, today announced the Solr Marketplace, the industry’s first marketplace for pre-built application add-ons that make it easier for organizations to integrate open source enterprise search capabilities into existing applications. The Solr apps and add-ons . . .T% allow Solr developers to extend the capabilities of their applications with ready to use and easy to deploy modules, apps and connectors . . . For a limited time, most of the app add-ons in the Solr Marketplace are available for a free download.”
An impressive list of partners contributing to the marketplace already includes Avalon Consulting, Basis Technology, Raytion, Smartlogic, and others. Stay tuned for more partners as they are added. As was mentioned, most current offerings are free for a limited time. The Marketplace had 35 apps available upon launch but keep an eye out, as that number will likely grow as well. What sets LucidWorks apart is its ability to see where the market is headed, and innovate proactively. While others are too busy playing catch up, LucidWorks is just getting started crafting the future.
Emily Rae Aldridge, September 25, 2013
Shodan and the Scary Side of Search
September 25, 2013
Search can be a lot of things, but “terrifying”? Yes, I’m afraid so. Forbes describes a thoroughly modern, search-related threat in, “The Terrifying Search Engine that Finds Internet-Connected Cameras, Traffic Lights, Medical Devices, Baby Monitors, and Power Plants.”
You may have heard the story about the hacked baby monitor, through which one truly deplorable individual viewed and harassed a sleeping two-year-old who was tucked into her own bed. In this piece, journalist Kashmir Hill examines the search engine Shodan, which she says probably facilitated that digital predator. Such a trespass is just the tip of the chill-inducing iceberg. She writes:
“Shodan crawls the Internet looking for devices, many of which are programmed to answer. It has found cars, fetal heart monitors, office building heating-control systems, water treatment facilities, power plant controls, traffic lights and glucose meters. A search for the type of baby monitor used by the Gilberts reveals that more than 40,000 other people are using the IP cam–and may be sitting ducks for creepy hackers. . . .
“Shodan’s been used to find webcams with security so low that you only needed to type an IP address into your browser to peer into people’s homes, security offices, hospital operating rooms, child care centers and drug dealer operations. Dan Tentler, a security researcher who has consulted for Twitter, built a program called Eagleeye that finds webcams via Shodan, accesses them and takes screenshots. He has documented almost a million exposed webcams.”
Scary stuff, but that is not all. The article notes that many modern buildings that house everything from apartments to businesses to government facilities have security, lighting, and HVAC systems connected to the Internet, where they could be hijacked. Even entire power grids could be usurped. The unnerving possibilities seem endless.
Like many scary things, Shodan can also be used for good. Folks working in security, academia, law enforcement, and white-hat hacking have used the tool to find susceptible devices and see that they are secured. It is also at least a bit comforting that the FTC is aware of Shodan’s capabilities and the vulnerabilities it reveals. The takeaway for consumers, of course, is to pay close attention to locking down devices from our end, with things like obscure user names (not “admin”!) and hard-to-guess passwords. Better yet, at least for now, we may wish to tune out the growing siren song that promises convenience through universal connectivity. The cost could be too high until security is significantly improved.
The programmer that developed and now runs the search engine, John Matherly, originally envisioned it being used by corporations for, let’s call it, competitor research. The sharp turn into creepy territory, though, does not seem to bother him. In fact, he seems to see this development as a good thing, shining light on inadequate security practices at companies that sell internet-connected devices. See the article for more about the man behind Shodan and the hornets’ nest that he has soundly thwacked.
Cynthia Murrell, September 25, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
New Startup Transforms the Treatment of Site Search
September 25, 2013
The recent AllThingsD article “Swiftype Raises $1.7M for Smarter Site Search” highlights a new startup that could completely transform the way that companies use SEO. According to the article, Swiftype, a company that focuses solely on site search, updates and re-ranks content based on factors like popularity, number of comments and partner relationships. It even allows users to change the order with a drag and drop feature.
Here is how it works:
“Customers pay $17 per month or more than $300 per month based on how big and complex they are. They also get access to search analytics — so, for example, customer DramaFever, which streams Korean TV and movies, decides what new content to buy, in part by ranking the most popular unsatisfied search queries.”
I don’t know about you, but I think this is incredibly interesting. Here at Beyond Search, we’re excited to see some funding go towards web site search.
Jasmine Ashton, September 25, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Artificial Intelligence: Does Search Come Up Short?
September 21, 2013
In my view, artificial intelligence continues to capture attention. In actual use—particularly in search and content processing—AI evokes from me, “Aiiiiiiii.”
I read “The Unexpected Places Where Artificial Intelligence Will Emerge.” For investors who have pumped cash into various inventions that understand meaning, the article may surprise them. The future of AI is war, Google, Netflix, Amazon, spam, surveillance, robot space explorers, and financial trading.
The only challenge for AI is its lack of consistency. Smart systems work in certain circumstances and fail miserably in others. In my ISS lectures next week, I profile a number of systems which are alleged to be incredibly smart. The reality is that the systems are often rigged to generate expected outputs. The problem of “you don’t know what you don’t know” plagues the developers of these gee-whiz systems.
Will artificial intelligence improve search? Well, AI makes search easier for those who are happy to accept system outputs. For those who need to dig deeper, AI systems often produce results which do little to provide fine-grained detail or make it easy to identify suspect results.
For a good example of AI in action, look at Google search results when you are logged in. Examine Amazon recommendations closely. Better yet, watch the TV shows and films recommended for you by Netflix.
Stephen E Arnold, September 21, 2013
LucidWorks Redesign Reflects Internal and External Success
September 18, 2013
LucidWorks has long been a leader in open source value-added enterprise solutions. One reason for their continued success is the ability to remain agile, and adjust to a changing market. LucidWorks is at it again with their latest redesign. At first glance, it is very noticeable from the outside – the LucidWorks Web site.
The design uses a slide show motif and a variation of the “card” approach to information presentation. Tasty stuff. See www.lucidworks.com
The new site looks great. Scrolling subject headings like “Big Data,” “eCommerce,” and “Knowledge Management” alert the user to the major areas where LucidWorks can make a big impact in the enterprise. Major business like Zappos and Sears are highlighted as Solr powered operations, the same open-source foundation that gives LucidWorks its abilities. User experience is front and center for the new Web layout.
However, the redesign is not just skin deep. LucidWorks Search 2.6 is the latest upgrade on the industry-standard product. The solution is built on Lucene/Solr 4.4 with REST APIs for schema definition and LucidWorks Flare to bring analytics to search results. And while LucidWorks Search and LucidWorks Big Data have been the bread and butter of the company for years, the LucidWorks Marketplace expands download ability into an app marketplace. Not only are partner products that run on Solr also available, but key components of the LucidWorks Search architecture are broken down into individualized downloads, allowing customers to obtain the specific components necessary for their customized architecture.
LucidWorks stays successful the company has been able to adapt to a changing market and giving customers what they need in a changing marketplace and information environment. The latest update by LucidWorks is just a reflection of management competence.
Emily Rae Aldridge, September 19, 2013
First, Yahoo, Now Microsoft Bing: The Logo Card
September 17, 2013
I just read “Bing Gets a New Logo and Modern Design to Take on Google.” What I find fascinating is that redesign seems to be the go-to method for making it clear that a company is really serious about revenue and value for stakeholders.
The article states:
A year in the making, Bing is dropping its curly blue logo for a modern design that closely matches the rest of Microsoft’s recently redesigned product branding.
I then learned that the color is exactly the same as the color used in “Microsoft’s corporate flag logo.”
Almost as important as color is the change in mobile search. I learned:
One of the big new changes is “Page Zero,” a method to quickly provide an answer or information before a full results page. Page Zero pops up as you type in the search bar on Bing, and if you’re searching for two similarly named people then it allows you to identify the correct subject of your search before the results are listed. For certain queries you might even get news, images, or video links, and common actions like check-in will be displayed on airline queries.
In my September/October column for Information Today (one of the for-fee write ups I still do), I point out that searching for news is getting more difficult, not easier. The flashy interfaces make it difficult to:
- Determine the date, time, and bibliographic details of some “hits”
- Spot differences in similar stories because modern design favors cards, tiles, and sizzle over a meaty results list
- Figure out why a particular “hit” appears. Results pop up which may be ads, boosted stories, or plain old false drops.
There are some other gotchas in news services as well. I am covering the problem of aliases, filtered content, and shallow back files in my upcoming ISS lecture in Washington, DC, on the 24th of September.
Without a differentiated system, I assume real journalists and many users will embrace a logo redesign. It is supposed to be working for Yahoo. Google, on the other hand, seems to be chugging along with its ad-based business model and announcing that it will bring sci-fi real time translation to the world.
One common thread unites these quite different companies: Body slam PR.
What happened to relevance?
Stephen E Arnold, September 17, 2013
Bing Offers Users a New Product Search
September 17, 2013
Microsoft’s version of search tries to remain competitive with Google, but lately it has been in the shadows compared to the new Google Glass and practically everything else the search giant does. Bing, however, had made the news again according to Search Engine Watch with the headline: “New Bing Product Search Launches.” The Bing team has decided to integrate shopping results into regular search results so users can see product features, specifications, reviews, related products, and make some more dough from those who pay to have their Web sites driven to the top.
Bing has also change the dashboard to feature three columns to display the shopping results:
· “The larger column will contain the main search results with the familiar blue links.
· The second column contains the Snapshot information complete with image, overview information, reviews related searches and paid ads.
· The third column is the Bing Social Sidebar, when users are signed in. The Social Sidebar adds information from Facebook, Klout and other social networks to help searchers make decisions based on friend or industry-leader recommendations.”
Bing denies that its new search is not pay-to-play and the results will not be skewed in favor of one Web site over another. Do we believe it? Who knows what goes on behind company doors? Paid ads will still appear in new shopping results and there is a new product ad option called Rich Captions for advertisers to add a meta description into search results. And there is the new way to make money. The new product feature has not launched yet, Bing is still tweaking the bugs.
Whitney Grace, September 17, 2013
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