The hidden algorithms that control your view of the web

Posted on by John Helmer
A great TED talk by Eli Pariser about the dangers of living in a ‘filter bubble’. We found this via Scholarly Kitchen. Pariser has written a book about how filters applied to internet searches by Facebook, Google et al are moving us towards a situation where our view of the web tends to reflect what we already know and like, rather than what is really out there. Since search is a fundamental technology in digital publishing this is something all publishers need to be aware of. Continue reading →

With one bound, the publisher was free: social media to the rescue?

Posted on by John Helmer
Satirical cartoon about Google, Apple, Twitter, Facebook leaders A major irritant for publishers in recent times has been the emergence of new gatekeepers in their supply chain, principally Google, Amazon and Apple. Now help in derailing these tech behemoths seems at hand, albeit help from an unlikely quarter. Many forward thinkers in publishing see social media (e.g. Facebook, Twitter) as a way of bypassing the Glamazons of this world – offering an opportunity for publishers to forge a more direct relationship with the customer. However, are publishers really ready to embrace this challenge? Do they possess the requisite skills, knowledge and abilities to grasp the opportunity offered by social networks such as Facebook? Continue reading →

Integrating taxonomies with search

Posted on by Richard Padley
We’re all familiar with the difficulty of finding relevant information inside huge sets of search results. The sheer scale of many information resources forces us to iteratively refine and adapt our search queries until either we find the information we need or we abandon our search. Using taxonomies, thesauri or ontologies to tag our information resources allows us to help users find information more quickly. This in turn leads to increased usage, driving renewals and additional sales of information at the point of discovery. Abandoned searches are clearly a failure in this context! Here are the four most important techniques for improving search by leveraging taxonomies, thesauri and ontologies. Continue reading →

Searchability, Findability, Discoverability … and Robot Waiters

Posted on by Andrew Grimes
robot waiter to illustrate searchability findability discoverabilityImplementing cutting edge search functionality is central to what we do here at Semantico. We talk about delivering Searchability, Findability and Discoverability. But what are these? Are they just made up new-media-type words or are they useful and tangible concepts? How do they differ from each other? Continue reading →

Improving search using controlled vocabularies, taxonomies, thesauri and ontologies

Posted on by Richard Padley
Publishers and information providers are building ever larger silos of content. Unless this growth is matched with improved search and discovery, users will be faced with retrieving ever larger numbers of search results and spending increasingly more time looking for the content they need. Intelligent use of taxonomies can help with this problem by providing better search including faceted navigation and filtering of search results. In this series of posts I’ll be examining the steps publishers and information providers need to take to develop and implement taxonomies. Understanding the differences between controlled vocabularies, taxonomies, thesauri and ontologies is an important first step in the process. Continue reading →