Search Me

A review from the Wall Street Journal:
online.wsj.com/article/SB120648944687663981.html
One of the company sites in the review:
http://www.searchme.com/wsj
Company news:
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9890911-7.html?tag=nefd.top

My initial reaction to this article was that the author must have a lot of time on her hands - I mean, who cares about a better search engine any more? Google wins, end of story.

But, because I have spent so much time with Google in the past few months, I read on.

The article chronicles the experience the author had with the products of two new companies: SearchMe and SpaceTime. I was reworded with an interesting introduction to a new take on the Graphical User Interface.

SearchMe, is a startup that is trying to innovate in a space dominated by Google and coveted by Microsoft. What can a company with 35 employees do in the land of giants?

Well, as it turns out, a lot. It can change the way you view searches. We are all very used to the list view that pumps our of searches - "enhanced" by ads on the side and lots of related links, maps, and pictures, the result is still a list. SearchMe returns a collection of screen shots of related sites that float across the page. This is a lot like the album art that Apple uses with iTunes.

Search results as floating pages? I think this is one of those things that must be tried to be understood. So I did. And, I do. It is amazing to learn how much you can grasp from seeing a page, even in a small, distorted fashion. I found myself flipping though the results and clicking away - in a fashion that I never would in my old friend Google.

In truth, the search results are not very good (hopefully this is because of the early nature of the technology, but the presentation is very refreshing. And, the refreshment has been sufficient to raise $62m in venture funding over the last couple of years.

Weekly Recommender Log

This science project is over - I can say with little fear of rebuttal that iGoogle's Recommender tab is severally broken. Somebody needs to turn out the lights.

After 200 reviews, and a month to think it over, any recommender that has a CPU should be able to do something.

Alas, iGoogle's Recommender tab does practically nothing. When I login this week, I was presented with the same sad list of items from last week, including my overwhelmingly negative ratings.

In disbelief, I restarted and with some relief, found that I once again had recommendations in only 1 of 6 categories. And, in that one category - "Pages", I had another set of 50 sad recommendations.

Once again, I paged though, hoping to find some merit in this service. Alas, there is none.

What I have learned is that given a random set of 50 url's I will probably like 1 or 2.

I will need a new plan for next week.

Personalized Recommendations in the Wall Street Journal

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120647589356663209.html

I always find it noteworthy when leading edge technology is written up in the popular press. This week the Wall Street Journal published a good article about Personalization and Recommendation technology.

The reporter focused third party suppliers that can help sites boost profits - sometimes by working together.

Four providers of recommender technology were highlighted. Here are the links:

http://www.ratepoint.com/

http://www.aggregateknowledge.com/about.html

http://www.optitex.com/index.php

http://www.webcominc.com/

Weekly Recommender Log

Well, it's another week of disappointments with the iGoogle Recommendations tab. Or should I say, just more of the same.

Once again I have 50 sad "Recommended Pages" which shows no relationship to my preferences or persona. Once, again (and the last time if results are not improved) I tried and rated all 50 pages. Here's a bad sign - I have always rated new items as negative, but more than 1/3 recommended pages are news items. At the same time, the box where I am supposed to get news recommendations is always empty.

And, just like last week, I have yet to receive any recommendations in the boxes labeled "Recommended Videos", ""Recommended News", ""Recommended Searches", or ""Recommended Groups". Somebody is asleep at the wheel.

So, here's my new plan. In the coming week I a considerable amount of Google searches on all things automotive. Let's see if the Recommendations tab takes notice.

Weekly Recommender Log

iGoogle continues to mystify me. After last week's rating spree - 50 ratings in the "Recommended Pages" box of the "Recommendations" tab of iGoogle - I login today and find 50 more sad recommendations.

Sad, is a conservative descriptor. After everything that I have told iGoogle about me, they can't even come close to matching me up with web content! As evidence of my plight, I rated all 50 of the new "Recommended Pages", only 6 got a thumbs up and I was generous.

On a positive note, I finally have a "Recommended Gadget". On the down side, it is "Google News". I guess it's ok, if a bit short sighted, for Google to recommend Google. I tried to rate it but the box didn't let me register a rating. Sad.

To round out my experience, I have yet to receive any recommendations in the boxes labeled "Recommended Videos", ""Recommended News", ""Recommended Searches", or ""Recommended Groups". Somebody is asleep at the wheel.

What's Missing From Pandora - Mood

This week I thought I would offer up an unconventional resource to the class - a conversation with an expert.

Last week in class we had a very interesting discussion about the music recommender, Pandora. I was motivated to contact one of my old friends who is an expert in music, radio, and computing.

Me:

"Some members of my class have had some happiness using a music recommender that you might have some fun with; it's called Pandora. It started out life as a project to develop a DNA for music. It is pretty well described at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandora_(music_service) but the stuff I thought you might find interesting is the list of attributes that Pandora employees assign to each piece of music. The list is at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Music_Genome_Project_attributes."

Friend, Initial Response:
"Well, I played with Pandora some.

As a former DJ and musician, I think I have a pretty good idea of how this should work.

It seems to match eras more than sounds. It put Tired of Waiting by the Kinks with The Who. Its a VERY different sound and style. I don't get that. Also put 19th nervous breakdown with the Who. No again. It also put Tom Petty in here. Close but not really.

Also put Bos Skaggs with Steely Dan. NO. Steely Dan is jazz. Bos Skaggs has horns but he is not jazz. Reggae?

It did better on Miles Davis. Art Blakely and the Jazz Messengers, etc.

I'll play with it some more. This is a massive undertaking, creating formats on the fly. Certainly interesting."

Friend, Insights Begin:
"I think that I have some insight into what I think is missing from Pandora. They are arranging these songs by objective measurements (male vocal/reggae beat, etc.) but do not have anything subjective in them.

It would be possible for them to group a song with revolutionary content (Street Fighting Man, Volunteers, etc.) with a pacifists song (Bargain, Revolution (Beatles)) based on these measurements.

I think of music in more subjective terms: what feelings, thoughts, and other experiential dimensions does the song evoke? What state changes occur within the listener? What is the objective of listening to this song (calming, introspection, resolution, seduction, whatever.) and the type of artistic treatment. What is the INTENSITY? Joni Mitchell is emotionally INTENSE but she is folk/jazz/rock. This measurement is very important in this category and is probably important in others.

These other attributes may get you in the neighborhood but they don't really achieve the objective for me at least, of meaningful picks. I spent many years selecting music. In broadcasting, you try to achieve a flow or transitions up and back down. Too much of one type fatigues listeners so the music moves up and down in waves.

I designed a computer program to chose music based on some of these criteria once. It was based on what I thought mattered overlaid onto what was being done in radio at top stations at the time. Radio since then has gone backwards instead of advancing, with the exception of what is going on in satellite radio......"

Me:
"Most interesting. One member of our class has used Pandora as part of her class work but, is not very impressed. She said things that showed that she was more concerned about the emotional side of music. She often used the word 'mood' in her descriptions."

Friend, The Magic Word - Mood:
"MOOD is very important in radio.

I was lucky to have gotten to work with one of the best program directors in the history of radio. The whole thing is about mood and subconscious/unconscious messages.

We were sensitive to things you wouldn't believe and have exact phrases that we followed. Some songs are allowed only in the evenings, some are banned from the mornings. It is all about matching and leading moods."

On the Web, Signs of a Click Recession

Google has been in the new a lot recently, first of all:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120406885089594779.html

The Wall Street Journal reports that "Internet advertising may be showing itself more vulnerable to a consumer slowdown than many in the industry had hoped". This is based on a new report from comScore, a research company - their report was not available, at least without a fee.

ComScore reports a "7% decline in the number of times U.S. consumers clicked on ads appearing alongside Google's search results in January compared with December; clicks were 0.3% lower compared with January 2007. That follows a 7% decline from November to December." Others, including Google, see these numbers as being very way to negative. Regardless, the Google stock price was reported in the same article as "trading 38% lower than its 52-week intraday high".


Other recent articles:

Google Closes DoubleClick Deal After EU Approves
online.wsj.com/article/SB120524277833327159.html

Google to Unveil A New Ad Service For Web Publishers
online.wsj.com/article/SB120537498814032575.html

Pleasing Google's Tech-Savvy Staff
online.wsj.com/article/SB120578961450043169.html