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Wanna try semantic search yourself?

Most of you know that my job focuses on IBM’s OmniFind enterprise search and text analytics products. And I’ve written before about semantic search—I’ve even written about what semantic search isn’t. I keep talking about it because semantic search is probably the easiest to understand application of text analytics. But maybe you need to stop hearing about it and actually see it for yourself.


If you’ve never seen semantic search in action, check out a free facility to search your e-mail—OmniFind Personal E-Mail Search. Maybe you already use a desktop search product, but using this one will give you a clue as to how semantic search is better.
Try to find the PowerPoint file that Rob sent you with your desktop search engine. Then type “PPT from Rob” into our e-mail search and see the difference.
Can’t find a phone number that you know someone e-mailed to you? Try ” Pat phone” and find all the phone numbers for people named “Pat.”
No matter how good your desktop search engine is, it finds only keywords. So it will find that PowerPoint file only if the e-mail has the words “PPT from Rob” and it will find the phone number only if the e-mail literally says “Pat phone” in it. But usually they don’t. Usually they don’t have the words “PPT” or “phone” in them. They just have the PPT attached. And they say “Call Pat at 332-456-5624.”
I could talk about this until the cows come home. (I’m not sure when that is, but trust me that it’s a long time from now.) It’s better that you try it yourself. Go ahead. It’s free. Download it and try it out—and let me know what you think.

Mike Moran

Mike Moran is a Converseon, an AI powered consumer intelligence technology and consulting firm. He is also a senior strategist for SoloSegment, a marketing automation software solutions and services firm. Mike also served as a member of the Board of Directors of SEMPO. Mike spent 30 years at IBM, rising to Distinguished Engineer, an executive-level technical position. Mike held various roles in his IBM career, including eight years at IBM’s customer-facing website, ibm.com, most recently as the Manager of ibm.com Web Experience, where he led 65 information architects, web designers, webmasters, programmers, and technical architects around the world. Mike's newest book is Outside-In Marketing with world-renowned author James Mathewson. He is co-author of the best-selling Search Engine Marketing, Inc. (with fellow search marketing expert Bill Hunt), now in its Third Edition. Mike is also the author of the acclaimed internet marketing book, Do It Wrong Quickly: How the Web Changes the Old Marketing Rules, named one of best business books of 2007 by the Miami Herald. Mike founded and writes for Biznology® and writes regularly for other blogs. In addition to Mike’s broad technical background, he holds an Advanced Certificate in Market Management Practice from the Royal UK Charter Institute of Marketing and is a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. He also teaches at Rutgers Business School. He was a Senior Fellow at the Society for New Communications Research and is now a Senior Fellow of The Conference Board. A Certified Speaking Professional, Mike regularly makes speaking appearances. Mike’s previous appearances include keynote speaking appearances worldwide

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