Google Hummingbird - the Beginning of Latent Search

Most of us have had a chance to experiment with Siri on an iPhone or some of the Voice Assistants on an Android mobile device. You may not have experimented with something Google rolled over the past few weeks code named Humingbird though. It's a major new core algorithm for Google that allows users to use conversational speech for searching. I'm amazed at how under the radar this has been. Different terms are being tossed around for this including "latent", "conversational" and "abstract" - here's a quick 2 minute video I recorded demonstrating how it works.


We're so used to searching on keywords it's second nature. Larry Kim from Wordstream refers to keyword searches as "Caveman English".  Hummingbird is probably the biggest change in Google's search technology since 2001. It's similar to Facebook's Graph Search, allowing users to use more abstract or latent language when searching - the same kinds of things we do when having a conversation with another person.

It's also something Google has to do to stay competitive. Both Facebook and Siri use Microsoft's Bing for searching with Apple just switching from Google to Bing with iOS7. Current estimates put Google's search market share at around 70% with many referring to the company as a search business that also does experiments.

If Apple gets Siri fixed up and Facebook also fixes up Graph Search, Google could pretty rapidly lose search market share. Facebook has to be a huge concern right now - recent comScore reports that analyze Americans’ surfing patterns found people are spending more time on Facebook than Google. If Facebook can get their search act together (it's pretty bad right now) lookout.

Right now, Google's Voice Search sure feels pretty natural to me - grab the latest version of the Chrome browser and give it a try.

References on Resumes

It's that time of year again where students in their last year of college start looking pretty seriously for jobs. If you are someone updating your resume be sure you keep it real. A recent Business Week article titled Imaginary Friends listed some interesting stats:

• CareerBuilder recently surveyed 2,500 hiring managers and discovered that 30 percent regularly find false or misleading references on applicants’ CVs.
• CareerBuilder estimates 80 percent of employers check reference, often before they call someone in for an interview.
• The most common mistake applicants make is listing someone as a reference because they’ve got an impressive title—even though they barely know that person. 

Keep it real. keep it honest. Be sure to contact people you list and give them a heads up. Tell them what you are looking for and why. You can also give them some hints on what you would like them to say.

Greplin - Search All Your Data In One Place Immediately

I recently started using a new search utility called Greplin. Greplin, co-founded by 20 year old Israeli Daniel Gross, lets users enter credentials  to their Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, LinkedIn, etc accounts and then builds a custom search engine that will search through content in each allowed application. 

Most of us have got information coming at us from multiple sources (email, Facebook, Twitter, etc) and it's often difficult to remember where an important piece of information came from and is located. That's exactly what happened to Goss a few years ago - he was on his way to a party and was trying to find the address. He could not remember what app the invitation came in on and spent a while flipping through different apps on his smartphone before he found it. Instead of just complaining about it, Goss decided it was time to build a search engine that could be customized to search individual user content across apps.

Greplin has a “freemium” or free service along with an enhanced version that will search business apps like Salesforce for $5 per month or $50 per year. There are smartphone versions and a very nice plugin for the Chrome browser. Check it out.

How Do Twitter, Google And Facebook Compare?

This video from Rocketboom provides an interesting perspective.

My 2008 Top 12 Prediction List

2007 was a busy year and things do not look like they will slow down in 2008. Here's my personal top 12 predictions for the year in no particular order:

1. Apple announces new 3G iPhone at MacWorld. 3G service will be switchable to conserve battery. New iPhone will also have at least internal storage with SD Card slot.
2. First generation Google Phone will be OK but just OK as the bugs get worked out. However.......... just wait for the second generation!
3. Patriots go undefeated and win Super Bowl - how can I resist this one?!
4. Verizon northern states (Maine, Vermont and New Hamshire) sale to Fairpoint Communications is halted by one of the 3 states.
5. Google wins 700 MHz spectrum auction. First Google "telephone" trucks appear on Bay area highways.
6. Celtics win NBA championship - this one is a stretch!
7. Verizon offers 100 Mbps symmetrical data service to FiOS customers
8. Google Docs, Spreadsheet and Presenter webware become available offline.
9. Microsoft goes on buying and marketing spree in an effort to keep up with Google's webware applications.
10. Red Sox win American League pennant but are upset in the World Series.
11. Comcast launches DOCSIS 3.0 100 Mbps data service to compete with Verizon's 100 Mbps FiOS service.
12. Video and image search will go mainstream..... watch for my video podcast interview with Atalasoft President Bill Bither coming soon - it's been shot and is being edited now!

As much as I love hockey I'll skip the Bruins this year....... Looking at these 12 - minus the Sox, Patriots and the Celtics - the web has become the development platform of choice with high bandwidth access and availability required on any connected device......... You ain't developin' if it won't run in a web browser!

Happy New Year!