Thursday, May 14. 2009
There’s always an urge to declare a major new player in search as a “Google killer” because of its unique approach to the space, its celebrated founding team, or copious amounts of industry hype.
Wolfram Alpha has a bit of all of these elements working for it, though it’s significantly different than other recent attempts to dethrone Google, such as Cuil, which fell flat on its face on launch day, or Powerset, which was acquired by Microsoft before ever really getting a chance to prove itself as a commercially viable product.
The first key thing to be aware of with Wolfram Alpha – the project of Stephen Wolfram, a noted physicist and mathematician – is that it’s not a search engine in the traditional sense. Its goal isn’t to index the Web and direct you to Web pages quickly, but rather, to make computations based on a rich database of historical knowledge.
What It Does
In checking out the private preview this week (the site is expected to launch later this month), the first question to come to mind was when exactly would I use this as opposed to Google? Most of my searches are navigational – I’m either looking for a specific type of website (travel, tickets, etc.), or researching a story that I’m working on for Mashable.
To answer this question, Wolfram Alpha has an “examples” section with about two dozen different sample uses of its technology. Some of these examples are really heady, academic stuff – like the calculus you probably don’t remember from college.
Others are more practical, like entering in “San Francisco to Tokyo” and getting data on how many miles apart they are, the projected flight path, and current local times. Meanwhile, if you ever wanted to know what time the sun rose and set on the day you were born, type in your birthday and Wolfram Alpha will tell you (and also let me know that I’m approaching my 10,000th day on earth!).
What It Doesn’t Do
While that is pretty cool, it’s not exactly something I’d need to use every day, nor something I could easily explain to typical Web users. Additionally, when trying more Google-like searches, like trying to find a Las Vegas hotel room, there doesn’t seem to be much that Wolfram Alpha can do to help. But, that also doesn’t really seem to be the point of Wolfram Alpha – at least for now.
Where It Fits
The real strength and power of Wolfram Alpha does seem to be for the academic and research community, where the company’s founder has been innovating for more than two decades. How well it works will ultimately come down to its ability to interpret user inputs (i.e. - the examples are impressive, but how well will it respond to the queries of real users?), and its ability to grow its database to perform more everyday tasks.
Ultimately, it’s hard to see how Wolfram Alpha could be called either the next Google or the next Cuil. Rather, it seems to have the ambition of making accessible a whole different type of information, that could be quite useful to a significant subset of Internet users. And eventually, that might make it a good compliment, but not a replacement, for today’s leading search engines.
Personal comment:
Un nouveau moteur de recherche autour duquel beaucoup de "hype" se développe. Et l'"adverstising" est fait pour que de la hype se développe.
En dehors de ça, le nouveau site semble promettre d'autres types de recherches, ou le moteur "calcule des résultats" basé sur une vaste db de "connaissances". L'objectif ne semble donc pas d'entrer en compétition avec Google... éventuellement coimplémentaire et ça paraît être une approche assez intéressante.
Wednesday, May 13. 2009
It may not be a moon landing, or a giant leap for mankind, but the first human tweet from space has just made its way over the microblogging platform to Earth. Due to the extraordinary nature of the tweet, this very first one is likely to go down in the annals of Twitter history.
The tweet in question comes courtesy of NASA’s Mike Massimino, a.k.a Astro_Mike, whose status update reads, “From orbit: Launch was awesome!! I am feeling great, working hard, & enjoying the magnificent views, the adventure of a lifetime has begun!”
Astro_Mike is part of a seven person crew that left Cape Canaveral on a final maintenance mission to keep the Hubble Space Telescope in service until 2014. With the blessing of NASA, Massimino’s tweets will serve to enlighten his 234,240 followers and add a layer of transparency that we’ve yet to behold.
Sure, we had to expect that Twitter savvy NASA would eventually use their 140 characters to take us outside the confines of Earth, but now that there’s a Twitter space mission in progress, we’re anxious to follow along and see what Astro_Mike tweets next. Who knows, maybe we’ll even get a Twitpic or two?
See also: 10 Most Extraordinary Twitter Updates
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Via Mashable
Personal comment:
It's a small tweet for man, but a big tweet for manking?
Dans un temps pas si éloigné, nous suivions tous ça à la télévision... signe que les médias changent. A quand le premier spam de l'espace!? ;)
Tuesday, May 12. 2009
There's been a lot of debate lately about the growing amount of energy needed to power the Internet, and we wanted to weigh in on the discussion. A few months ago, I first blogged about the about amount of energy used in one Google search. Our engineers crunched the numbers and found that an average query uses about 1 kJ of energy and emits about 0.2 grams of carbon dioxide. But those raw numbers don't really put the environmental impact of searching the Internet into perspective. To add some context, below is data about the C02 impact of some everyday activities and items compared to Google searching:
We work hard to provide our users with the fastest products using the least amount of energy. We have a team of dedicated engineers focused on designing and building the most efficient data centers in the world. In fact, through efficiency innovations, we have managed to cut energy usage in our data centers by over 50 percent, so we're using less than half the energy to run our data centers as the industry average. This efficiency means that in the time it takes to do a Google search, your own personal computer will likely use more energy than we will use to answer your query.
And the energy used by computers is growing; people are more plugged-in today than ever before in history. There are more than one billion PCs and laptops currently in use, and that number is expected to grow to four billion by 2020. We've got cell phones, PDAs, iPods, and GPS devices — not to mention the data centers that store all of our digital information "in the cloud." The electricity needed to run all of our computers, gadgets, and gizmos is growing and now accounts for half of all ICT emissions. (ICT stands for "information and communications technology.")
Although the amount of energy used to power ICT is growing, it's important to measure all of the ways information technology helps us save energy too. A study by The Climate Group, in fact, shows that ICT emissions pay for themselves (PDF) (and then some) by enabling significant reductions in emissions by other sectors of the economy. After all, it's much more efficient to move electrons than to move atoms. "Virtual" tools like email, video-conferencing, and search engines replace more carbon-intensive activities like snail mail, business travel, and driving.
We can still make progress at improving computing efficiency across the industry, however, and Google is committed to doing so. In 2007 we co-founded the Climate Savers Computing Initiative, a non-profit organization committed to reducing global CO2 emissions from the operation of computers by 54 million tons a year by 2010. Check out their website for more information on how you can reduce the environmental impact of your own computer use.
Posted by Urs Hölzle, Senior Vice President, Operations
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Via The Official Google Blog
Personal comment:
Des données comparatives par rapport à la polémique qui était née autour de la consommation énergétique d'une recherche sur Google.
Bien entendu et une fois encore (comme il est d'ailleurs fait mention dans l'article de Google), il faudrait également mettre dans la balance ce qui est éventuellement économisé par une (partie des) recherche(s) (déplacements vers des biblothèques par exemple, achat de journaux, etc.) et l'"information" produite par le résultat de cette recherche (création d'objets, d'information , etc.) qui en eux-mêmes peuvent être une forme de dépense énergétique utile ("néguentropie", valeur ajoutée, etc.)
Monday, May 11. 2009
It’s clear that the Web has altered how we as a society consume information. Not only has Internet communication made information more accessible, but social media has made it easier to organize, filter, and most of all, create. Yet with innovations like Twitter and microblogging, we’re reaching a point where the flow of information has become so heavy that the only way to really keep track of it is via real-time web tools.
With FriendFeed recently switching over to a real-time interface and demand for faster information, is real-time the future of the web? Can we as a society keep up with an ever-increasing amount of information? Or will we have to find better alternatives to filter out the information so only the most important stuff reaches us first?
The real-time evolution
Information’s growth and absorption has grown at an exponential rate. 500 years ago, information didn’t travel across the world in a single lifetime, more or less half a second. Just two decades ago, the primary way we received news was via television and newspapers. Today, the newspaper is in danger of becoming obsolete in favor of digital media which can break stories in a matter of minutes.
But minutes are not fast enough for our information-hungry society anymore. If it takes you several minutes to break a story, you may be out of luck - Twitter probably has already broken the story and thousands of people are already discussing its ramifications.
But there are some major disadvantages to the real-time evolution. With faster information, we have less filters and checks to be sure it’s correct. Rumors about swine flu or any other noteworthy story, can be spread and retweeted without a proper fact check. And some deeper stories require research and dedication that only journalists and other professionals can provide.
Social media is even moving toward’s real-time information. Facebook’s redesign is meant to bring the information stream into focus. Friendfeed now updates in real-time. And there are several Twitter applications that auto-update as well.
Is real-time a sustainable phenomenon?
This trend brings up two very important questions. First, is the Web going to become more and more of a real-time phenomenon, where speed matters most of all? Secondly, is it sustainable? And finally, can we filter the information so that it does not overwhelm?
On the first question: the trend seems to be towards real-time. As long as demand for information exceeds supply, faster information will be valued by our society. Faster social tools and new innovations make real-time Internet possible.
The answer to the second question is the most difficult one to answer. We can only read and listen to so much at a time. There may very well be a tipping point where we have to find a way to quell the information flow, but as long as the Web technology exists, real-time will continue to move forward.
And on whether or not there are ways we can filter the information, the answer is a definitive yes. There are already technologies and measures for filtering information, as well as choice. On Twitter, you can choose to follow as few or as many as you want, helping you control the flow. On FriendFeed, there are lists for diving up your subscriptions. We can choose to see information by just experts or from recommendations given to us by our friends.
We should expect faster information, faster technology, and more filters to help us control it. How much real-time Web we can handle is another question entirely.
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Via Mashable
Personal comment:
On évoquait cette question du temps réel ou du temps différé dans un post précédent (voir Social computing beyond Facebook & Twitter). Voici cette question développée succintement par Mashable.
Friday, May 08. 2009
There has been quite some attention on the concept of "Energy Dashboards" lately, in particular with the recent announcement of Google PowerMeter. The idea here is that online widgets show consumers their electricity consumption in near real-time, offering a more useful and actionable feedback than complicated monthly paper bills that provide little detail on consumption or how to save energy. In addition, putting such widgets on a personal website or online profile page makes one's efforts more apparent, adds subtle forms of social pressure and solicits potential positive encouragements.
While the PowerMeter project is still in "private beta", other online energy dashboards can already be admired.
. The Energy Detective project merged the actual energy output of an everyday family with a Google Visualization API Timeline visualization, which itself is based on a Twitter-based feed from the smart metering device. Remarkable events or peaks are regularly annotated, and one can easily make out when typical household activities have taken place.
. The flashy Radisson Hotel Building Dashboard seems to offer near real-time statistics about water, electricity and natural gas usage, and the weather. As a hotel, it should really try to consider offering some real data behind those ambivalent "Please use our towels multiple times, for the sake of nature" signs.
Other recent websites focus on using group pressure and social encouragement by publishing one's efforts in more sustainable living within the framework of an online social network.
- Make Me Sustainable allows users to calculate and reduce their carbon footprint, which is then represented as a simple history bar graph or translated in the metaphor of "trees saved" or "cars taken off the road".
- Carbon Rally focuses on reducing one's carbon footprint impact by proposing group challenges, and aggregating the efforts of all its members on a large CO2 Impact Map.
Finally, the Carbon Monitoring for Action portal is a massive database containing information on the carbon emissions of over 50,000 power plants and 4,000 power companies worldwide, visualized on a world map. By providing complete information for both "clean" and "dirty" power producers, CARMA hopes to influence the opinions and decisions from consumers to policy makers.
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Via Information aesthetics
Personal comment:
Quelques ressource en ligne pour essayer de réduire son impact "carbonique" ou simplement des interfaces qui vont dans le sens d'un monitoring personnel et quotidien de son empreinte. Intéressant que Google s'y mette également. A suivre mais il faudrait également engager de lourdes rénovations au niveau du parc immobilier pour rendre tout ceci "intelligent" ou tout au moins "pilotable".
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