A recent article reports, “There’s an urgency among many organizations to create mobile applications that will engage customers, keep brands top of mind, and improve retention. In the rush to deliver a compelling application, too many of those same firms are launching apps built from the company perspective, without considering the user experience. As applications and services become more and more complex, for example, customers are often at a loss when trying to find what they need in a maze of menus and keywords.”

The article continues, “Understanding the intention of customers—what is known as semantic search—is becoming an increasingly important aspect of the evolution of mobile devices, services, and applications. Read more

Semantic Tech & Business Conference Returns to San Francisco

Semantic Tech & Business Conference returns to San Francisco in June! Join us from June 3-7 for complete coverage of Big Data, Linked Data, Extreme Information Management, and Semantic Web. From breakthrough approaches to solving business problems to the big data implications of fast–evolving technologies, SemTechBiz provides you with an unparalleled interactive experience and delivers tangible business value. We're offering a special early rate when you register by February 17. Sign up now!

A recent article discusses the emergence of shopping 3.0: “If you knew which customers were making decisions right at the store shelf, or on a showroom floor, would you talk to them differently than someone doing research from home? Of course. Increasingly marketers are reaching shoppers through mobile devices as they make retail choices in stores. There’s a huge opportunity for digital marketing to come “inside the store” to provide realtime air support to help win sales.” Read more

A couple of weeks ago Yahoo debuted a beta version of its Search Direct technology, which was seen as a competitor to Google Instant in that it shows search options as users begin typing in a query. There were also questions raised among those in the industry about how this relates to Yahoo’s search deal with Microsoft.  There was less chatter about its semantic footprint, but that’s a question worth addressing as well.

So the Semantic Web Blog took these questions to Raghu Ramakrishnan, chief scientist for Yahoo Search, whose background includes expertise in data management and mining, the cloud, and, of course, the semantic aspects of search. As Ramakrishnan sees it, Search Direct exemplifies Yahoo’s search slogan of providing answers, not links. Meaningful answers, whatever form they take, are the new direction in search, he says, and Yahoo wants compete “at the next level where technology is young and there is room for differentiation and market opportunities in being the best.”

Read more

Room for Debate: A Running Commentary on the News New York Times Can or should government enforce net neutrality in a Web 3.0 world where more content is accessed through mobile devices like the iPad? … and more »

Date: May 13, 2010, 11:00AM (1 hour)
Register: View the Recorded Webcast
Attachment: fourpillars.pdf (13.59 MB)

Presenters:

Matt Fisher
Progeny Systems

Matt Fisher is a Principal Systems Engineer at Progeny Systems who enjoys discussing the Semantic Web to the point that his wife hopes he gets a new hobby. 

John Hebeler