Monday, January 11, 2010
Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI)
Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) is the indexing and retrieval method, the mathematical technique called singular value decomposition (SVD) to identify the relationships between the terms and concepts contained in an unstructured content. LSI is the word used in that environment based on the principles usually has a similar meaning. If you find an LSI - indexed databases, search engines look at the value of the content are calculated for each word, and returns document, considers the most appropriate investigation. Since the two documents can be semantically very close, even if they disagree with certain keywords, LSI is not necessary an exact match to return useful results. If a simple keyword search will fail and there is no exact match, LSI will often return relevant documents do not contain all of the keywords.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
The World is Not Flat It’s Vertical - Vipin Jain,CEO, Retrevo
I recently had the opportunity to talk about verticalization . I described what verticalization means, why it happens, where it succeeds, where it fails and how it intersects with search. The focus of my talk was on verticalization of needs, rather than segmentation of users even though the two overlap. I am particularly interested in verticalization when it comes to the web and searching the web.
Verticalization is Everywhere
Look around you and you can see examples of verticalization everywhere. From the cars we drive to the sneakers we buy, to the television channels we watch. When the first automobiles came to market, many years ago, everyone drove a model T 100 Ford. Now we drive sedans for general purpose use, SUVs or mini-vans to carry our families around, or a truck if we have to move household goods. We have moved away from watching only CBS, ABC and NBC to watching one of the hundreds of channels available with a specific focus on science, news, history, travel and food. You can find similar examples all around you, if you pay attention.
What makes this verticalization possible? Most paradigm shifts or basic innovations center on building a single product and a simple product that the mass market can adopt. I use products to also represent pure web centric innovations. Yes, we go through the adoption curve where early adopters pick up our product first. We then go through the learning and fine tuning so the product is ready for the early majority, ultimately finding its way to the late majority and such. However, in this process, we are trying to build a single product that serves the needs of the mass market.
At this point three things happen in the marketplace:
* As customers go through a learning curve and become comfortable with the product, they become more sophisticated and more demanding. In other words, they expect more from a product.
* A market develops for the product from the users perspective, usage perspective and a revenue perspective.
* Suppliers become more sophisticated and armed with the knowledge about customer usage and developing market, they move into position to introduce more vertical, more specialized, products that are economically viable because the market is now large enough
. In summary, the three ingredients for verticalization are:
1. User sophistication
2. A developed market
3. Supplier sophistication
The New Search Economy
How does verticalization apply to web search? No doubt, web search has come a long way in last fourteen years. WebCrawler and Lycos were two of the first full text crawlers but they were used by a limited number of people. Today, more than 125M Americans use search engines. Search touches every facet of our lives whether it is commerce, entertainment or education. We have all become very comfortable using search engines. As we have come to expect more from them, we have become more demanding. We use search engines and we get frustrated because too often, we don’t get what we need. This is an example of the first ingredient for verticalization; user sophistication.
Now take a look at the market opportunity: search generates more than $10 billion in revenue every year and that is expanding at the rate of more than 20 percent year over year. You can call it a developing market or a developed market depending on your perspective. I prefer to call it a developed market or the second ingredient for verticalization which furthermore offers a fantastic opportunity to grow further.
What about the third ingredient, supplier sophistication? Retrevo, for example, has developed a good understanding of consumers’ online shopping behavior. We know what their needs are on one hand, and have built a monetization model that is very lucrative on the other hand.
Vertical search has the potential to be even more lucrative than horizontal search. Verticalization around product search results in a perfect blend of ingredients; user sophistication or demand, a developed market and supplier sophistication. This environment creates tremendous business opportunity.
The Verticalization of Search
How do you go about verticalizing web search? First you look at a segment of consumer need that has deep pain or deep emotion associated with it, has enough usage to make verticalization interesting and has a good economic model behind it. You can identify these opportunities across commerce, entertainment and education. Then you build a product that offers tremendous value to consumers, a value that’s compelling enough for consumers to break away from their comfort zone and try your product.
When we started Retrevo, we wanted to make buying and using technology products simple and fun for everyday consumers. We wanted to break two barriers that prevented a horizontal search engine from delivering such an experience. We knew that breaking these two barriers would unleash such a tremendous value to consumers that they would want to use our alternative.
Our first challenge was to understand the syntax and semantics of unstructured data that would allow us to summarize and simplify what was ordinarily complex information. We knew this simplification was needed to make buying and using electronics products simple and fun for everyday consumers.
The Retrevo Value Map, is a visual representation of analysis performed by Artificial Intelligence to make it easy for consumers to spot the best values in products. (this an explanation for Map)
Next we knew we needed to break away from the current user interface paradigm that offered a flat list of raw search results. We knew that in order to remove the complexity associated with technology buying and using, information had to be presented in a way that allowed consumers to search, discover, and personalize product information, visually and naturally. This recipe has worked well.
A search for “Canon SD1200 IS review,” on a vertical search engine such as ours, returns product information including our “Real Time Review.” We processes millions of data points to create a real time review and provide simplified buying advice like whether or not a product is “in it’s prime,” or “over the hill.”
By contrast, the same search on Google’s “horizontal,” search returns a flat list of links to articles about the Canon SD1200 on other sites.
Further simplifying the advice is a single thumbs up or down recommendation by us.
Verticalization is Here to Stay
Verticalization is a fact of life. It has happened before in many industries and it will happen in the web economy. In order to take advantage of verticalization opportunities, you need to pay attention to basic triggers, identify a need that requires a specialized product and go after it.
Verticalization is Everywhere
Look around you and you can see examples of verticalization everywhere. From the cars we drive to the sneakers we buy, to the television channels we watch. When the first automobiles came to market, many years ago, everyone drove a model T 100 Ford. Now we drive sedans for general purpose use, SUVs or mini-vans to carry our families around, or a truck if we have to move household goods. We have moved away from watching only CBS, ABC and NBC to watching one of the hundreds of channels available with a specific focus on science, news, history, travel and food. You can find similar examples all around you, if you pay attention.
What makes this verticalization possible? Most paradigm shifts or basic innovations center on building a single product and a simple product that the mass market can adopt. I use products to also represent pure web centric innovations. Yes, we go through the adoption curve where early adopters pick up our product first. We then go through the learning and fine tuning so the product is ready for the early majority, ultimately finding its way to the late majority and such. However, in this process, we are trying to build a single product that serves the needs of the mass market.
At this point three things happen in the marketplace:
* As customers go through a learning curve and become comfortable with the product, they become more sophisticated and more demanding. In other words, they expect more from a product.
* A market develops for the product from the users perspective, usage perspective and a revenue perspective.
* Suppliers become more sophisticated and armed with the knowledge about customer usage and developing market, they move into position to introduce more vertical, more specialized, products that are economically viable because the market is now large enough
. In summary, the three ingredients for verticalization are:
1. User sophistication
2. A developed market
3. Supplier sophistication
The New Search Economy
How does verticalization apply to web search? No doubt, web search has come a long way in last fourteen years. WebCrawler and Lycos were two of the first full text crawlers but they were used by a limited number of people. Today, more than 125M Americans use search engines. Search touches every facet of our lives whether it is commerce, entertainment or education. We have all become very comfortable using search engines. As we have come to expect more from them, we have become more demanding. We use search engines and we get frustrated because too often, we don’t get what we need. This is an example of the first ingredient for verticalization; user sophistication.
Now take a look at the market opportunity: search generates more than $10 billion in revenue every year and that is expanding at the rate of more than 20 percent year over year. You can call it a developing market or a developed market depending on your perspective. I prefer to call it a developed market or the second ingredient for verticalization which furthermore offers a fantastic opportunity to grow further.
What about the third ingredient, supplier sophistication? Retrevo, for example, has developed a good understanding of consumers’ online shopping behavior. We know what their needs are on one hand, and have built a monetization model that is very lucrative on the other hand.
Vertical search has the potential to be even more lucrative than horizontal search. Verticalization around product search results in a perfect blend of ingredients; user sophistication or demand, a developed market and supplier sophistication. This environment creates tremendous business opportunity.
The Verticalization of Search
How do you go about verticalizing web search? First you look at a segment of consumer need that has deep pain or deep emotion associated with it, has enough usage to make verticalization interesting and has a good economic model behind it. You can identify these opportunities across commerce, entertainment and education. Then you build a product that offers tremendous value to consumers, a value that’s compelling enough for consumers to break away from their comfort zone and try your product.
When we started Retrevo, we wanted to make buying and using technology products simple and fun for everyday consumers. We wanted to break two barriers that prevented a horizontal search engine from delivering such an experience. We knew that breaking these two barriers would unleash such a tremendous value to consumers that they would want to use our alternative.
Our first challenge was to understand the syntax and semantics of unstructured data that would allow us to summarize and simplify what was ordinarily complex information. We knew this simplification was needed to make buying and using electronics products simple and fun for everyday consumers.
The Retrevo Value Map, is a visual representation of analysis performed by Artificial Intelligence to make it easy for consumers to spot the best values in products. (this an explanation for Map)
Next we knew we needed to break away from the current user interface paradigm that offered a flat list of raw search results. We knew that in order to remove the complexity associated with technology buying and using, information had to be presented in a way that allowed consumers to search, discover, and personalize product information, visually and naturally. This recipe has worked well.
A search for “Canon SD1200 IS review,” on a vertical search engine such as ours, returns product information including our “Real Time Review.” We processes millions of data points to create a real time review and provide simplified buying advice like whether or not a product is “in it’s prime,” or “over the hill.”
By contrast, the same search on Google’s “horizontal,” search returns a flat list of links to articles about the Canon SD1200 on other sites.
Further simplifying the advice is a single thumbs up or down recommendation by us.
Verticalization is Here to Stay
Verticalization is a fact of life. It has happened before in many industries and it will happen in the web economy. In order to take advantage of verticalization opportunities, you need to pay attention to basic triggers, identify a need that requires a specialized product and go after it.
Techie builds air-car! Refuses commercialization
Kanak Gogoi, a 12th passed entrepreneur from Guwahati, has over a dozen innovations, from gravity-operated bicycle to a car which can run on air. But he regrets the government's negligence towards scientific innovations, and refuses to commercialize any of his creations.Gogoi said, "Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) offered to build a fully furnished lab for me in Guwahati. The Chief Minister had granted me about 1.6 acres of land in 2007, but the file is still lying untouched at the local administrative office."
Talking about slow moving files, another of Gogoi's invention is the speed breaker that can generate electricity simply when vehicles pass over it. Gogoi explains that a ramp under the speed breaker would absorb the static energy produced by the sheer mass of the vehicle and convert it into kinetic energy. This is, in turn, transferred into electricity and stored in a battery cell. A vehicle weighing one tonne can create electricity equivalent to one kilowatt.
When Gogoi started the journey, he had two options; pay up his children's school fees or spend the money for his scientific innovations. He opted for the latter. In the past 13 years, he has spent Rs.1.5 crore (Rs.15 million) of his own money to satisfy his scientific and engineering curiosities, but steadfastly refuses to commercialize any of them and blames the government for not promoting scientific innovations, although only a few years ago he was making a hand-to-mouth existence.Felicitated by the President of India last week for his achievements, 47-year old Gogoi is a celebrity in Guwahati's scientific and engineering circles. He has developed his penchant for creating extraordinary things from ordinary materials used for day-to-day activities during his younger days.
Among his innovations are a solar hybrid car, whose 320 watt battery is charged by solar panels and is powered by a 100cc engine. Another car that Gogoi made from integration of motorcycle and Maruti 800 engines, runs on air energy powered by a hand glider and can reach a maximum speed of 120 km per hour.
Gogoi, however, has not bothered to apply for intellectual property rights (IPR) for any of his innovations, although they have cost Rs.1.5 crore of his own money. "When anybody talks about things like IPR or patents, it is generally assumed that the person must be a Ph.D or DLitt. Who will think of an undergraduate as a genuine and worthy innovator? Besides, paperwork of the kind that is required for patent filing has always been an anathema for me," said Gogoi.
In fact it is the National Innovation Foundation, headed by noted scientist Raghunath A Mashelkar that applied for a patent on Gogoi's behalf for his gravity operated cycle, which converts gravitational force released by pedaling of the cycle into kinetic energy.
"I have a successful real estate business, which affords me the luxury of having enough spare money and spare time to concentrate on my engineering activities. I don't expect and nor do I wish for any monetary returns," said Gogoi, who had refused an invitation from a North Carolina-based organization to shift to their campus with a daily stipend of $1,000.
Talking about slow moving files, another of Gogoi's invention is the speed breaker that can generate electricity simply when vehicles pass over it. Gogoi explains that a ramp under the speed breaker would absorb the static energy produced by the sheer mass of the vehicle and convert it into kinetic energy. This is, in turn, transferred into electricity and stored in a battery cell. A vehicle weighing one tonne can create electricity equivalent to one kilowatt.
When Gogoi started the journey, he had two options; pay up his children's school fees or spend the money for his scientific innovations. He opted for the latter. In the past 13 years, he has spent Rs.1.5 crore (Rs.15 million) of his own money to satisfy his scientific and engineering curiosities, but steadfastly refuses to commercialize any of them and blames the government for not promoting scientific innovations, although only a few years ago he was making a hand-to-mouth existence.Felicitated by the President of India last week for his achievements, 47-year old Gogoi is a celebrity in Guwahati's scientific and engineering circles. He has developed his penchant for creating extraordinary things from ordinary materials used for day-to-day activities during his younger days.
Among his innovations are a solar hybrid car, whose 320 watt battery is charged by solar panels and is powered by a 100cc engine. Another car that Gogoi made from integration of motorcycle and Maruti 800 engines, runs on air energy powered by a hand glider and can reach a maximum speed of 120 km per hour.
Gogoi, however, has not bothered to apply for intellectual property rights (IPR) for any of his innovations, although they have cost Rs.1.5 crore of his own money. "When anybody talks about things like IPR or patents, it is generally assumed that the person must be a Ph.D or DLitt. Who will think of an undergraduate as a genuine and worthy innovator? Besides, paperwork of the kind that is required for patent filing has always been an anathema for me," said Gogoi.
In fact it is the National Innovation Foundation, headed by noted scientist Raghunath A Mashelkar that applied for a patent on Gogoi's behalf for his gravity operated cycle, which converts gravitational force released by pedaling of the cycle into kinetic energy.
"I have a successful real estate business, which affords me the luxury of having enough spare money and spare time to concentrate on my engineering activities. I don't expect and nor do I wish for any monetary returns," said Gogoi, who had refused an invitation from a North Carolina-based organization to shift to their campus with a daily stipend of $1,000.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Companies plan retention bonuses for employees
Since the habit of hiring is making a return, companies across the spectrum such as chemicals business player SRF, auto ancillaries major Sona Koyo Steering, engineering firm Samsung Engineering, IT firm Perot Systems, Adobe, Nitco Tiles and a Mumbai-based finance company, have planned surprise packages for their employees including retention bonuses to check attrition.
MD of $200 Million firm steals Blackberry
Managing Director of a $208 million firm was arrested at the IGI Airport for stealing the Blackberry phone of another passenger on November 2nd. Sanjay Somany, the Managing Director of Hindustan National Glass and Industries allegedly picked up the phone of N K Puri at the security check point and carried it with him to Chennai. According to Times of India, he was identified by the CISF using CCTV footage after Puri lodged complaint with them.
Puri, who was to catch IC 688 to Mumbai, registered a complaint with the CISF that his phone was missing. After searching for it, the security agency decided to check the CCTV footage of the area, through which they identified a man wearing overalls and coat, picking up Puri's phone from the tray at the security check point and proceeding to board a flight to Chennai IC 429.
They then got in touch with the airline and managed to get phone numbers of as many passengers as possible who were on that flight. Initially, the crew confirmed that a man with such a description was on their flight and based on his seat number, were able to identify him as Somany, said an official.
In the evening, during the exercise of calling up passengers to confirm the identity of the accused, CISF chanced to talk to a passenger, who said that not only did he recognize the accused, but that he was also sitting with him at the Chennai airport at that time, waiting to board their flight IC 539 back to Delhi. The CISF at Chennai airport were immediately informed who kept a tight watch on Somany. However, probably getting a hint that he was being watched, just before their flight landed in Delhi, he chucked the phone in the aircraft's toilet.Somany was nabbed as soon as he disembarked, and on interrogation denied having picked up the phone. Only when he was confronted with the CCTV evidence, did he confess his act and reveal the location of the phone.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
India's Financial Crisis Has Ended - RBI
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has in effect called the end of the financial crisis in India, and is the third central bank to do so, after Australia and Israel.
The Australian Central Bank on 6 October 2009 became the first G7 monetary authority to raise its interest rates, which was a positive sign for both Australia and the world. It raised its rates to 3.25%, with the possibility of a further 50 bps raise next week. Back in August, Israel raised rates from 0.5% to 0.75%, and there are signs Norway and South Korea are set to do the same.
The RBI has not raised interest rates. Since it has kept rates higher than any other developed economy (the key lending rate or repo rate currently stands at 4.75%) it doesn't need to make a drastic change there. The consensus is that it definitely will by April next year, with a 50% chance of a move this year, according to an economist survey.
Instead what the RBI is doing is tightening some of the extraordinary measures it had put in place in response to the credit crunch. A special facility to provide liquidity (ie money) to financial firms is being withdrawn, as private funds move back and inflows of FDI and FII into the market. It has raised commerical real estate rates, worried that a new bubble is building up.
Significantly the RBI also tightening some of the capital requirements it has for Indian banks. It is raising the 'statutory liquidity ratio', the amount of money that a bank needs to keep in cash, gold or government bonds, to 25%, up from 24%.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Wasim Akram’s wife dies in Chennai
Wasim Akram’s wife,Huma Akram dies in Chennai...
She was in the intensive care unit (ICU) since then and died Sunday without regaining consciousness. With her the chopper left from India around 1pm to lahore...
Dr P B Salim takes charge as Kannur Collector
Dr P B Salim, Collector of Kozhikode, took additional charge as the Collector of Kannur on Saturday following the directive of the Central Election Commission to shift the incumbent V K Balakrishnan from the post.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
കമ്മ്യൂണിസ്റ്റ് പാര്ട്ടിയുടെ മനുഷ്യ ചങ്ങല
കമ്മ്യൂണിസ്റ്റ് പാര്ട്ടിയുടെ മനുഷ്യ ചങ്ങല കണ്ടായിരുന്നോ ? നമ്മള് പൊതു ജനങ്ങള് കാണേണ്ട ഒരു കാഴ്ച തന്നെ ആയിരുന്നു അത്റെ.
എത്രപേരുടെ സമയം നഷ്ടപെടിതികൊണ്ടേ റോഡ് ബ്ലോക്ക് ചെയ്തെ ആണേ ഈ അട്ടഹാസം എന്നേ നമ്മള് ഓര്ക്കണം.ഇതിനേ നമുക്കേ പ്രതികരിക്കനവുമോ ?
എത്രപേരുടെ സമയം നഷ്ടപെടിതികൊണ്ടേ റോഡ് ബ്ലോക്ക് ചെയ്തെ ആണേ ഈ അട്ടഹാസം എന്നേ നമ്മള് ഓര്ക്കണം.ഇതിനേ നമുക്കേ പ്രതികരിക്കനവുമോ ?
Monday, September 28, 2009
Jobs,Salary hikes are back again
After months of an economic slowdown, corporate India has started hiring again. While layoffs and salary cuts may not be the order of the day anymore, employers continue to be cautious.
The latest data with job portal naukri.com shows that hiring activity has picked up 13 per cent in the first half of September and it is in double digits for the first time since last year. While some sectors like FMCG and healthcare are hiring in big numbers, others like IT,real estate, retail, media, advertising and exports still need to catch up.
The latest data with job portal naukri.com shows that hiring activity has picked up 13 per cent in the first half of September and it is in double digits for the first time since last year. While some sectors like FMCG and healthcare are hiring in big numbers, others like IT,real estate, retail, media, advertising and exports still need to catch up.
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