Naked Conversations -- Looks like a great book

Lots of bloggers post a list of books that they've read. Well, la de da. I think they're just showing off the fact that they have time to read. I'm not quite sure how to do that and still: work, have a life, spend time with my family, volunteer, blog, etc. Hate to say it, but reading, seems to pull up in that race with a lame leg.

However, if I had time to read, here's a book I'd be reading: Naked Conversations, How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers, by Shel Israel & Robert Scoble.

KD Paine Comments on New Media Measurement Proposal

An interesting discussion is starting over at KDPaine's PR Measurement Blog related to a new measurment standard the Canadian Public Relations Society is proffering. I've looked at it briefly and it seems logical and as good as any other "standard" out there. But this stuff is always harder than it looks because it's so hard to normalize disparate content in such a way that you can compare accurately.

For now, it seems like the discussion around media measurement will continue to be: 1) We have to do it; 2) We don't think there is a reliable way of doing it accurately; 3) See #1.

Factiva presents at Search Engine Meeting in Boston

Peter Cipollone, director of text mining and visualization at Factiva, spoke about text mining as a way to solve a business problem (in this case HR recruiting). His was one of the few presentations to get away from the science of search and text mining and talk more about the specifics as it applies to business.

It was a great presentation (Pete's my boss).

Endeca Still Pitching Guided Search to Solve 'Long Tail' Problem

Steve Papa, founder of Endeca, is still pitching guided navigation as a solution to the "long-tail" problem (at this years' Search Engine Meeting). You know, Google's 1-100 of about 72 million inherently buries good stuff down at hit number 71,567,567. "Google's great, don't get me wrong," Papa predictably said. "but..." there's something better, he implied.

He's not really convincing me how their guided navigation can be used as a general search tool. I'm convinced it works well within a (relatively) small database such as a Netflix-type library of DVDs.

I think I agree that it CAN be used in general search, however, it seems you need structured metadata across the documents to do it well.

Google's Enterprise Search Redux

Dave Girouard, general manager of Google's enterprise business, was the opening speaker at the 2006 Search Engine Meeting in Boston. He was pitching the new Google enterprise search appliance. (Girouard didn't impress me with what's new and different about the next version of the yellow Google blade. )

I would agree with him when he said: To date, enterprise search is hardly used. Because of this it is very costly, per use, to implement and run. His back-of-the-envelope calculations say each search at a typical large company can cost about $0.25; and enterprise search won't be successful until its orders of magnitude cheaper.

The goal, he said, is to move the search box from the corner of the home page of the corporate intranet to the the center and have it be the main entry point into the enterprise information.

The Corporate Assassins might have you in their crosshairs

I really like the term "corporate assassins" to describe the people who are hell-bent on attacking the reputation of any given company via blog postings and the like. I also feel that many of us have considered starting such an attack after waiting on hold few minutes too long or getting attitude from some copy-machine employee at Staples. (my personal gripe, not withstanding)

Reputation managment storyline starts getting picked up by MSM

The Beeb has picked up the long percolating story that blogs can impact business. We in the information industry have all been watching this story grow on the Blogosphere and in the industry trades. It's now becoming a story in the mainstream media.

Dennis Cahill on Agile Information Intelligence

Factiva's vice president of product, Dennis Cahill, talks to Dan Keldsen on Factiva's Agile Information Intelligence Solutions. It's all very exciting stuff and Dennis is really passionate about it.

New York Times - taps into text mining

I love the crisp new look of nytimes.com. And I just want to point out the text mining connection. The Most Popular section features users' most search words and phrases. NYT does a good job of grouping together similar searches under keywords, too. Select "France" for example, and you can then select from france, france labor, france protest, france riots etc.
Very nice.