SRCH2 | Search Forward

SRCH2's 'Pay It Forward' Lends Helping Hand to Non-Profits

noreply@blogger.com (Dev Bhatia) — Fri, 28 Jun 2013 22:52:00 +0000

This week, SRCH2 went out on a limb. We announced that we would happily give our software away, if it could be used for the right purpose. Yes, give it away. Or at least, deeply discount it. That’s the offer. Want to find out if your group qualifies? Click here for more.

What’s going on here? Giving is in our roots. This company’s founding stories are about using tech to solve real problems. It’s not just research here. When Chen and his early team saw that their research could have a real impact, they acted.

On January 10, 2010, a powerful 7.0 Mw earthquake struck Haiti. The results were catastrophic. It affected 3,000,000 people and killed more than 230,000.

In the aftereffects of the devastating earthquake, it was difficult for people in the U.S., and elsewhere, to quickly learn the status of their friends and loved ones in Haiti. Cell and phone networks were down. Communication was spotty and information was not readily available. Another major issue stemmed from holes in the data, such as partial names, married names, middle names, or misspellings. Records were often incomplete.

A few sites became repositories of this data. Google created a site that centralized all available data and kept it updated. In the hours that followed, Chen and his team took on the challenge of providing a powerful search on this data and created a search tool for newspapers and other sites. The tool was powered by SRCH2 software and ran on Google’s central victim database, which had information on 55,300 people. Major sites, including The Miami Herald, used it to relay information to people in the days after the earthquake. That implementation is still running and can be found on the Miami Herald website.

“In the face of such devastation, it’s hard to see how one can help,” said Chen. “We were encouraged by the Miami Herald’s use of our family reunification tools, and the many people working on the People Finder project who gave us positive feedback. We played a small role, at a crucial time, when access to incomplete information was so vital. It is a pertinent reminder that we have to be ready to act, and to give back to the community when we can.”

In complex and fast-moving situations such as the Haiti earthquake, there becomes an inherent need for simple tools, implemented quickly to offer full-text search with error correction. Search can quickly become mission-critical.

For more on the SRCH2 Pay It Forward plan, click here.

Stephen E. Arnold Weighs in on SRCH2 (Gulp!)

noreply@blogger.com (Dev Bhatia) — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 21:59:00 +0000

Good things come to those who wait.

Stephen E. Arnold:"SRCH2 Poised to Take Industry by Storm"

Stephen E. Arnold just posted a review of SRCH2. In it, he says: “SRCH2’s technology does bring many Google-like features to enterprise and mobile search. The company’s approach sharply reduces deployment time. Instead of talking about a one-day installation, the SRCH2 approach delivers on quick and painless rollout and integration. The system’s response time and its time-saving features such as auto-suggest make the experience seamless and fluid.”

Fantastic stuff, right? Mr. Arnold goes on to comment about the full interview and add that SRCH2 “is a thoroughbred in the Search Derby.” Kind words. As the search community already knows, getting Stephen E. Arnold to say nice things is no easy feat.

What’s particularly exciting about Mr. Arnold’s take is that he has focused on ways to simplify the complexity of search projects. He has long expressed an opinion that there is little true software innovation left in search, and that the next steps would be about good integration. The reason? The cost and time to deployment for many search implementations has only risen. People are increasingly discovering that free is NOT FREE. That just because a software is openly available doesn’t mean that it solves business needs, in anywhere near a timely fashion. Next comes the long and arduous customization. Want forward search? Error tolerance? You can get it, but it will be months from now, and it will be kludgy, brittle, and slow.

One of the messages we hear, from resellers, search consultants, and direct users, is that SRCH2’s full text, geo-aware, compressed index in memory has been remarkably simple to deploy. What we want is for deployment to be focused on configuration, not customization. The difference means that developers can take what we’ve got, and adjust to their needs. They can start 3 steps ahead, with instant search delivered from scratch, waiting to be configured. They can configure result rankings, or error tolerance. They can determine creative new uses, which incorporate great forward search as the driver of the UX.

Start with a simpler engine, get a simpler implementation. Hopefully it’s clear now: software innovation might help solve integration issues as well!

Greatest Ever? Check Out Our New Video: "SRCH2 Makes Smiles!"

noreply@blogger.com (Dev Bhatia) — Sun, 02 Jun 2013 01:00:00 +0000

SRCH2 Makes Smiles. Because Speed (this kind of speed) is the Killer App.

What’s the best video of all time? We all know Kanye thought it was Beyonce's (not Taylor's), but many people I know think the best video of all time belonged to Dollar Shave Club. That thing was hilarious! Not only hilarious, but effective. In the weeks that followed release of that single video, DSC raised a boatload of financing, sold thousands of razor subscriptions, and generated tons of free press. A win by any standard.

We've been thinking about videos quite a bit here at SRCH2. What makes a great corporate video? In our minds, a great video isn't just a viral sharing phenom. For us, and maybe for others in enterprise software, a great is one that conveys a complex idea, simply. Video is inherently not a place for complex ideas. The strength of the medium is its ability to evoke, to communicate a sense of purpose. In particular for enterprise software, where there’s a long educational phase prior to acceptance, a video can shape an idea, or a movement.

For us business video aficionados, some of the great ones include Amazon DynamoDB, and this one from Google Adwords. Conveying complex ideas, simply. Conveying how this little bit of tech is, actually, transformational.

It’s with that thinking in mind that we set out to create our own corporate video. A two-minute elevator pitch, that describes not just what we do, but how we feel. It’s about the place of search in the overall tech landscape. Search is not a commodity, but rather, a fundamental value-driver of the UI, that if done correctly, can transform an app and delight users, across devices and platforms. We’re on a mission, and I hope you agree that our video, launched today, conveys it. This is the future of search. Search Forward!

Quora Launches Full Text Search for Mobile

noreply@blogger.com (Dev Bhatia) — Wed, 29 May 2013 20:19:00 +0000

Quora, the self-described “best source of knowledge,” just introduced full text mobile search for Android and iOS.

There’s no question that great full text search on Quora’s mobile apps is a good step forward. The site can be real resource. One thing we’ve been seeing among social and directory clients is that good search is a key differentiator and value proposition. If done well, it integrates seamlessly into the UX, to create an experience which is core to their mission.

Type Forward Search on Quora

Quora’s full text search does a good job, using open source as its back end. But Quora could have gone a lot further. Instead of getting its mobile search to be “as good as” its desktop searches, Quora could have profoundly improved both, with a “rich” search experience including instant type forward, error correction, and even geo-aware search results. Take a look at the screen capture on the right.

Notice what’s not there? Relevant forward recommendations. Equally importantly, no change of the body of the page to reflect search results. One of the features that has proven so powerful for SRCH2 users has been configurable type forward, and integration of forward results INTO THE UX ITSELF. There’s no difference between SRCH2’s search recommendations and the completed search results that occupy the body of a search result set. It’s the same process. This means there’s an opportunity to integrate search directly into the UX in a way that was previously limited to the box, and the area below the box.

They could have freed themselves of the box!

Finally, that same freedom takes on more expression when combined with the opportunities available in a mobile app. The downloadable Quora is great. It could have been a fantastic UX opportunity, with integrated search. Baby steps.

What’s on Your Business Card?

noreply@blogger.com (Dev Bhatia) — Tue, 14 May 2013 19:40:00 +0000

The back of a regulation SRCH2 business card. It don't fit.

We’re getting all gussied up for Enterprise Search Summit next week in New York City. By that, we mean we’re ordering new cards! We had a lot to say, and decided to say it in typical unconventional fashion. Here’s the copy on that card:

SRCH2 is |
SRCH2 is different.
SRCH2 is Google-like search for my site.
SRCH2 is magic.
SRCH2 is search that doesn’t fit in the box. Instead, it makes smiles. It makes every interaction a happy one. Visitors find what they want. Relevant type forward results, in a flash. Instead of “did you mean?”, how about “here’s what you meant.” A search box that tolerates typos, because we all make them, especially on mobile an alternate devices. A search box that spits out geo-located results in record speed, because a cached full-text forward index is cool. And oh yes, let’s not forget the smiles on the faces of developers, as they take a project from roadmap purgatory to launch in one single afternoon. SRCH2 does all this, and more, in an elegant, slim code base, taking advantage of the big data stack to deliver speed, efficiency, and smiles. It’s search reimagined as a true feature, not a pain point. Try it, and get out of the box.

This reminds me of a story (as everything does). When I graduated from stodgy Business School, everyone else wanted to be a banker or consultant. Right after graduation, I went to a party, and handed my shiny new Web startup business card to a friend. The card was a classic from Yoyodyne (later acquired by Yahoo!, for smiles). The friend looked down at my card, and said with derision: “Did you make this?”

Yes, Rob. I did.

Chen Li Casts A Giant Shadow

noreply@blogger.com (Dev Bhatia) — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 22:53:00 +0000

Chen Li Casts A Giant Shadow

The jet-set life of a data science playa is never dull. Here’s Chen Li, casting a giant shadow today in Wuhan, China, where DASFAA (Database Systems for Advanced Applications) unloaded on him today its coveted 10-Year Best Award. Boom.

According to DASFAA, work Chen and his co-researchers published 10 years ago “has had the most impact (research, products, methodology) over the intervening decade.”

That research, titled “Efficient Record Linkage in Large Data Sets” forms a direct link in a chain that ends with SRCH2’s launch this week. It’s all connected, from the root to the fruit.

Onward, to the epic symbolism! Here’s a man in black, receiving congratulations from peers. He’s got words, words, words projected on him, and he casts a giant shadow.

SRCH2 Launches: Now What?

noreply@blogger.com (Dev Bhatia) — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 19:58:00 +0000

SRCH2's humble beginnings were just like this.

SRCH2 launched today. You may have seen the news, here, here, here, here, and elsewhere. It’s a curious thing to “launch” SRCH2. After all, here’s a software with billion-dollar clients, deep into its second generation of product releases, built on a decade of advanced, award-winning research which traces its roots back to Stanford and Google. What does it mean to launch, anyway?

One way to think of our launch is to look at it as a data point. This company has raised funding from some fantastic, high-profile investors. People who know what they’re doing. The investment is premised on the notion not only that there’s a great asset here, but that this company is going places. And that’s exactly how we think of our launch. It’s the starting point to where we’re going.

Where’s that? SRCH2’s software is going to disrupt the enterprise search market with capabilities that vastly outperform existing products on many dimensions: speed, thoroughness, typo-tolerance, configurability. These search features transform advanced search on corporate data into a differentiator and competitive edge. Better search boxes mean more profits.

Here’s one example. Using SRCH2 to configure type forward recommendations, an e-commerce retailer can provide product recommendations as you type. These recommendations will be more relevant for you than any other possible set of recommendations. And the recommendations can be configured for whatever data they have in their database. Imagine the forward recommendations displayed based on inventory in stock, or price, or profitability. Imagine forward search based on user profiles and purchases.

Now imagine this great, configurable forward search on any device or platform. It’s not just about desktop sites. Hell, desktop is easy. Now let’s see it in mobile, on GPS, on cable set top boxes. Places where typos happen way too often, where SRCH2 can instantly correct them.

Cached type forward results can do that, and will. The opportunity is massive.

SRCH2 is going places. So today, we launched.

SRCH2 = Espresso, a Drama in Real Life

noreply@blogger.com (Dev Bhatia) — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 21:46:00 +0000

Isn't it obvious? SRCH2 = Espresso.

I’m sitting here with my daily double espresso, from nearby Java City, and a co-worker asks me what it is. Interesting. Doesn’t he know that this is one of the great modern inventions? The thick, warm, luxurious liquid? The froth on top. Hell, even the little mini paper cup shot glass. Damn fine stuff.

The way you drink it indicates your personal style. Forefinger a bit off the top of the glass? Sophisticated. All fingers on the glass? A bit crude, but effective. Maybe cautious. Pinkie extended? Hi class.

Just downed the bottom inch, real fast. That’s the ticket. Feel it go down the neck. One thing to keep in mind. Espresso is a lot like SRCH2. Maximum power in minimal form. Concentrated wallop. A small package that delivers. Hella strong.

Things Chen Said: "That is Orthogonal"

noreply@blogger.com (Dev Bhatia) — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 00:40:00 +0000

When talking to Chen, make sure your point is not orthogonal.

One of the great advantages of working at SRCH2 is the proximity to Chen Li. (Mental note: Keep this as a talking point when negotiating with new recruits, and possibly clients.)

Why is this proximity so valuable? Here's a thing Chen said today. When suggesting that we should support a multi-billion dollar client by buying their products, Chen said: "That is orthogonal." I don't think I had ever heard this in spoken vocabulary. Do people say "that is orthogonal?" This could be the kind of thing only data scientists say.

To answer this question, I reached out to Ben Zimmer, American linguist, lexicographer, and language commentator. He is the executive producer of the Visual Thesaurus and Vocabulary.com, is a language columnist for The Boston Globe, and was previously the "On Language" columnist for The New York Times.

Ben said: "I've known a few academic types who drop "orthogonal" into conversation -- they might say something like "That's orthogonal to the issue at hand" (in order to dismiss a point as irrelevant). But academics can forget it's not in most people's active vocabulary -- not even Supreme Court justices." He then referred me to a recent documented use of the word in Supreme Court arguments. Timely indeed.

So there you have it. Orthogonal. Good enough for Supreme Court Justices. Good enough for SRCH2.

Why Good Search is Suddenly All the Rage

noreply@blogger.com (Dev Bhatia) — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 18:07:00 +0000

It’s not just about LinkedIn and Facebook. Many large and mid-sized sites are focused on search right now. A few trends are driving this. Engineers have more tools, in the form of better software to drive search capabilities. They have the demand pull created by what regular users are getting used to on Google. (And the smart engineers are discovering a new appreciation of “Instant Search” as they discover how hard it is to do it, with relevance.) Couple all this with the fact that enterprises have access to raw data as never before. That data is, quite often, very unstructured.

The other way to think about search is that it’s not just a “nice-to-have” feature add-on tacked into a development roadmap. It is central to the core use of many sites, and an ROI driver at every e-commerce, social, and mobile site. Lump that in with the remaining obstacles to great search, particularly in mobile and emerging platforms, and you can see why search is suddenly all over the tech news. It’s no coincidence that this long-term trend is suddenly getting covered everywhere. (More on the search trend here.)

SRCH2 Selects New Logo, Prepares Peacefully for Battle

noreply@blogger.com (Dev Bhatia) — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 00:36:00 +0000

Thanks for voting for the SRCH2 logo!

Well, sir. We have a winner. For those paying attention, this won't come as much of a surprise. We had ~100 votes, from far and wide. Globally, really.

One thing which you might not have picked up was the subtle color shift. It's still red, but a bit warmer, as our talented star designer puts it.

Now we will stare at it for days, knowing that it will be with us a long time. Knowing that it will be spread far and wide. Knowing that its delicate insertion of yin-yang into your consciousness will happen gently, over time. We can wait, peacefully.

SRCH2. Is this Logo The One? You Decide.

noreply@blogger.com (Dev Bhatia) — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 20:47:00 +0000

Pick one. Do you like A or B?

I once had a hellova logo. Fourteen years ago, I was a new CEO at a fantastic internet startup. We had a smart guy help us out, by hand-drawing a logo. It was cool. It was clever. It was hand-drawn.

That logo had everything. Smart industrial design. Graphics so good it popped out, as if in 3D. That logo had animation.

There came a moment in the great events that followed when that logo was printed onto the back of a tee-shirt, alongside some Fortune 100 companies. Pfizer, American Express. Twenty or so other big time logos. I remember looking at ours, and wondering whether it held up. That's the test, isn't it? Does your logo command attention in a sea of other logos? Is it built to last, cut from stone? Is it big time?

With that test in mind, I'm happy to offer you two great logos for SRCH2. Either one is a good choice. We are lucky to be working with a strong designer, who does really beautiful work. Now we need your help to get the job done.

Take a look. Squint with one eye closed. Blur your vision a bit. Look at it from far away. Which of these two represents a company which is built to last, cut from stone, and big time?

He Is The SRCH2 Man

noreply@blogger.com (Dev Bhatia) — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 17:37:00 +0000

Rich texture for rich search.

He’s not just lying on a table. He’s got his arm in motion. Even in the most improbable of circumstances, he’s on the go. The SRCH2 man is hunting. He’s got his eye on you, and he’s comin' for ya'.

What’s in his eye, you wonder? Well, it’s impossible to see, really. Invisible. Incalculable. Overarching, overreaching, unfathomable.

What we do know about the SRCH2 man is that he’s wearing a gorgeous shade of blue. The richest shade, to go with rich search, I’m sure.

Is that even blue? Or is it teal, or cerulean, or blue-green, or sapphire. Does it match his eyes? We know more about the SRCH2 man than you think. He is mysterious, yes. He likes pine wood. He loves to take action poses. Perhaps he likes to dance. He has texture. He is into being warm, with chill-stopping L.L. Bean fleece to do the trick. He likes to keep his hands and possessions warm, with zippered pockets.

He rarely wears logos. But when he does, he knows how to wear one right.

He’s the SRCH2 man, and he’s comin’ for ya’.

SRCH2's Version 2.07 Offers Enhanced Geo-Search Tools

noreply@blogger.com (Dev Bhatia) — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 04:12:00 +0000

Yoda says good is pie.

SRCH2 announces release of version 2.07, enabling richer geo search capabilities, and more. Download a free trial at: http://srch2.com. In recent head-to-head trials, SRCH2’s rapid geo search, combined with instant recommendations and error correction, lapped the most widely used alternative by 31x: http://srch2.com/files/SRCH2_vs_Lucene-Feb2013.pdf.

Since our 2.0 release in Q4, 2012, we’ve put out seven updates. These updates get onto our feature roadmap when we talk to live clients and resellers, and we’re thrilled to deliver for these partners on a rapid development cycle. Each update puts more tools into the hands of clients. Today’s update enables quick configuration of point and radius search (rather than search in a geographical rectangle). (Quick sidebar: What’s the area of a circle? If you answered “Pi*r^2,” keep reading. If you answered: “round shapes frighten me,” then we are done here. If you answered: “I like Pi,” you win. You will be richly rewarded in life.)

In addition to the new geo search capabilities, the new release allows a user to specify how many results to return in a GetAllResults query, and also enables a user to get a query’s meta data in its returned JSON message, such as whether the query was a fuzzy query. Previously, we announced an upgrade to enable clients to save a search index to disk while the SRCH2 engine is running. Another feature allowed a user to get all the results of a query, and optionally specify an attribute based on which results should be sorted.

We have a robust roadmap of features yet to come, so stay tuned!

BREAKING: SRCH2 is 31x faster than Lucene 4.1

noreply@blogger.com (Dev Bhatia) — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 08:26:00 +0000

BIG NEWS: SRCH² is 31.3x faster than Lucene 4.1 in benchmark tests. Performance gaps vs. the industry standard across rich search features: instant type-forward + error correction + geo search. Complete report here: (pdf: http://srch2.com/files/SRCH2_vs_Lucene-Feb2013.pdf)

What is the significance of these numbers? How does a split second even matter?

Glad you asked. The benchmark numbers illustrate dramatic differences between SRCH² and Lucene 4.1 in key areas. Primarily, SRCH²’s advantage is in doing several rich search features simultaneously, in scale. We know we are able to do these things not because we are smarter than the great coders working on Lucene, but rather, because our tool was built from the ground up with modern data-driven uses and the new big data stack in mind. SRCH²’s patented framework is fundamentally different algorithmically, as well as programmatically.

So how does this matter? The rich feature set that SRCH²enables addresses key needs of our target market segments: mobile, social, and e-commerce. In mobile, each key stroke is expensive. Geo-search, combined with error correction and instant type forward, helps solve big problems in the industry. These problems drive development not just for data-driven mobile apps and sites, but also for the handset manufacturers and carriers. In social, error correction and geo are the focus. In e-commerce, instant type forward is the key. Studies show that 100 ms is an upper limit for instant type forward to be effective. Let’s put this another way, and underline it. If your “instant” search is not instant, then it is useless.

Add on top of this 100 ms upper limit the fact that most end-user applications have other latency built in (like wireless network speeds, or server latency) and you really have only a few milliseconds left for your search.

Finally, here’s another way to look at search speed: cost. A search function that is using up 200 milliseconds for each query puts an enormous demand on servers. In type-ahead, where each keystroke creates a new search query for those servers, this load quickly becomes overwhelming. A large enterprise, with massive simultaneous queries, would have to spend a small fortune on servers just to support inefficient search capabilities.

So let’s cut to the chase, shall we? When milliseconds matter—and when cost matters too—SRCH² wins. Period.

The Most Impactful Paper of the Last Decade

noreply@blogger.com (Dev Bhatia) — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 23:31:00 +0000

CAPTION: Not Chen, collecting something that is Not the
DASFAA award. Figuratively, the award is equally massive.

Ten years ago, Chen Li, along with two fellow data scientists, presented a paper at the annual international conference on Database Systems for Advanced Applications (DASFAA). That paper, entitled “Efficient Record Linkage in Large Data Sets,” has just been selected as the DASFAA 10-year Best Paper Award winner for the year 2013!

What does this mean? According to Rao Kotagiri, Chair of the DASFAA Steering Committee and member of the Awards selection committee, “The DASFAA 10-year Best Paper Award recognizes the best paper from the DASFAA proceedings 10 years prior based on the criterion that the paper has had the biggest impact (research, products, methodology) over the last decade.”

This is a high honor, and high praise. Chen’s work has had a lasting impact. His groundbreaking thinking can be found in the patented SRCH² technology, which is now in its second generation, and delivering advanced search capabilities to major clients in mobile, social, and e-commerce. As Chen put it, “This was my first paper in this area. Ever since then I started working on data cleaning, fuzzy search, and search. For that reason, it's indeed a good recognition related to our company.”

As a special bonus, the original site for the conference is still up, here. Go take a look, and see what Web surfing was like back in the day.

In a World Filled with Data, What's missing?

noreply@blogger.com (Dev Bhatia) — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 19:03:00 +0000

Your lack of centering disturbs me.

We live in a data-driven world. New apps, devices and platforms — from social to mobile — have enabled end-users to connect, interact and share. We are building new businesses, and creating new ideas, which would not have been possible even five years ago.

All of this has been enabled by a technology revolution, which has happened largely outside the purview of the average person. In the last five years, the traditional data stack has been revised, piece by piece. Enterprises are tapping unstructured and semi-structured data, in robust environments at ever lower costs, and the benefits have been endless.

Not just technologies, but everyday activities have been upended. Buying a car is not what it used to be. Or dating, or dining, or banking, or watching a movie or basketball game. Data is everywhere.

Read the whole article in Silicon India: "In a World Filled with Data, What's missing?"

New Year's Greetings from SRCH2

noreply@blogger.com (Dev Bhatia) — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 17:53:00 +0000

I sit perched at the outdoor patio of a favorite local taco joint. From here, I get a peek-a-boo view of the sun-dappled sea. More importantly, I contemplate at my table a splendid bottle of something called “Gringo Bandito' hot sauce. Gringo Bandito is the “perfect combination of pepper and spices.” On the label, its founder, Mr. Dexter Holland, declares: “I hope you enjoy the adventurous flavor and tingling tantalization of my not-so-famous pepper sauce.”

It occurs to me that life does, in fact, go better with a bit of spice. SRCH² is much like this hot sauce, I think, practically out loud. We too are a “not-so-famous” solution, which makes just about everything it touches better. Not every web site or application requires advanced search software, but those in mobile, social, and e-commerce certainly benefit from having it. For those in the know, advanced search, built from the ground up, is a bit like a dazzling new spice from the East, introduced to a discerning palate at just the right time. Food was prepared without it, but will be better with it.

And that’s not all. SRCH² wasn’t created in isolation. It was created during a time of explosive creativity in the data world. New platforms, big data, and mobility shift the landscape. A new search software is required to make it go. Slow solutions, built on top of old ideas, are not enough. Am I talking about spices, or SRCH²? You decide.

In the past quarter, SRCH² has zoomed. Here are some highlights:

SRCH² 2.0 released! Our latest version features revolutionary rapid geo-search, instant type forward, error correction, real-time updates, plus a whole lot more. (Ask me for a trial download, and see for yourself.)

SRCH² was licensed by one of the world’s largest handset manufacturers, to be ported to the kernel in their core operating system. It’s safe to say this is a banner event for us. We’re delighted, and can’t wait to see smart phones using SRCH² features, far and wide!
Nominated as one of the Top 2012 Startups by the National Council of Entrepreneurial Tech Transfer.
Granted 1 patent by the U.S. Patent Office, applied for 3 more.
Added an array of clients in our 3 killer categories: E-Commerce, Social and Mobile.
Hired strong team members and core contributors, who share in and help foster the culture of excellence we’re trying to build.
Engaged Cooley, a preeminent Silicon Valley law firm.
Officially moved into larger office space on the 4^th floor of TechPortal, UCI’s tech incubator filled with innovative early startups.
New site, video, Facebook, LinkedIn, blog.

I’m sure I've missed a few highlights. To be sure, we are pleased with the progress, but know we are just getting started. We look forward to 2013 with sparkle in our eyes, wind at our backs, and fire in our bellies.

Warm Regards and Happy New Year!
-Dev

P.S.- I'd love to hear from you. Please send me a reply or connect this year. And if you're daring, ask for a demo or download of SRCH²!

Xiang Delivers!

noreply@blogger.com (Dev Bhatia) — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 03:27:00 +0000

Here's our Xiang An, mugging for the cameras, having just clicked the "Send" button to deliver a major package to a big platform partner. Good work, Xiang!

The Great Debate: "Two" or "Square?" You Decide.

noreply@blogger.com (Dev Bhatia) — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 00:06:00 +0000

This is the great debate: “two” or “squared”? (and the subset debate: “squared” or “square.”)

Not since the heady days of Lincoln and Douglas has there been a more well-articulated debate. I speak, of course, of the choice we have to make at our young startup. Some day in the future, you will know our name well. You will even know how to pronounce it. Just as you learned to put an exclamation point after Yahoo! and half remembered a “2” in EMC, you will remember how to say our name too. In the meantime, you have to guess. How do we pronounce our name? Is it “search two”, or “search squared,” or even, “search square.”

So many choices. Where to begin?

Here’s the email I received recently from a scholar on the subject:

I've been doing "square" (instead of "squared", or "two") in pronunciation, although I am aware that we never came to a consensus. Between "square" and "squared", it is a matter of formality. "Squared" is more academic, while "square" is more colloquial. I think "square" is not only easier to pronounce, but also a better fit for a company name than the academically accurate "squared". A slight degree of grammatical offset (inaccuracy) is actually a good thing in a name, because it is less likely to be interpreted as a praise instead of a name.

However, if you all like "squared" better, there's nothing wrong with that.

Between "square" and "two", it's a tough choice. As far as the pronunciation goes, I actually like "two" better. In terms of meaning, "two" is about a trend, while "square" is power; "two" is a label, while "square" is depth. "Search squared" can be considered to encompass search 2.0, while the opposite cannot be said. So I prefer "square". It is also consistent with the visual styling of the company name which suggests "square".

That's my vote. But I would have no problem if you all like "two" instead.

An important viewpoint, to be sure. We will be counting votes this week. Anyone else want to chime in?

Who Feels for Rich Founders?

noreply@blogger.com (Dev Bhatia) — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 20:14:00 +0000

It's clear that people do not understand the motivations of founders. Too often, those motivations are reduced to money, and desire to obtain it. Anyone who thinks that founders are motivated by only money doesn't understand most of them.

A recent article about the founder of Interclick really brought this home. Here's Michael Katz, founder of Interclick. He built a company from seed to IPO to acquisition by Yahoo. Well, he just said goodbye, with a heartfelt letter. It's worth reading. Michael Katz went through a tough ending, and came out with his humanity and grace intact. Really, a beautiful and intelligent farewell letter.

I'll say it again. Money is not the only motivator for a founder. People either get that or they don’t.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/yahoo-cans-top-ad-exec-days-before-a-sizeable-bonus-2012-12#ixzz2FLDYnuf1

“What are your data management problems?”: Solving Big Problems with Search

noreply@blogger.com (Dev Bhatia) — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 14:09:00 +0000

It started when I talked to people at the UCI Medical School and asked the question: “What are your data management problems?”. One of the challenges they were facing was record linkage, i.e., identifying that two records from different data sources represent the same real-world entity. An important problem in this context is approximate string search, which is supporting queries with fuzzy matching predicates. While looking into the details, I realized that the problem was not solved on large data sets, so I started leading a research team to work on it. After several years, we developed several novel techniques, and released an open-source C++ package called Flamingo (http://flamingo.ics.uci.edu/), which received a lot of attention from academia and industry. I also took a leave from UCI to work as a visiting scientist at Google. In 2008, when pushing our research to the UCI community, we identified one “killer app” domain: people search.... [For the rest of this post, go to the ACM SIGMOD Blog.]

How can E-Commerce sites improve search?

noreply@blogger.com (Dev Bhatia) — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 18:22:00 +0000

[A version of this post first appeared on Quora.]

The question is not whether E-Commerce sites learn, but whether they can DISPLAY that learning back to the visitor, in the form of great forward recommendations, suggestions, etc., from the search box itself. To improve the search experience itself.

To answer this question, we have to look at how the best type-forward search recommendations are created. The world-beater is Google, of course. Their type-forward recommendations are based on query logs. They throw massive resources at the problem, and, through brute strength, a massive database, and huge memory, are able to do what others cannot.

The other way to do it is to index the full text, and algorithmically enable type-forward recommendations. The advantage of this approach is that all the rich features that you see on Google, and more, are available right out of the chute: excellent type-forward recommendations, fuzzy search (so the your search box can correct for typos) and full-text search (so visitors can enter a category like “paint products” on Homedepot.com and still see good forward recommendations). See pic on the right for an example.

Full-featured search is an important ROI driver for e-commerce sites. Search is the first thing that visitors do when they come to an online retailer. If your search can recommend products well, you help visitors find what they need, faster, and with less clicks. Profits soar!

National Council Nominates SRCH2 for University Startups Showcase

noreply@blogger.com (Dev Bhatia) — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 17:12:00 +0000

National Council Nominates SRCH2 for University Startups Showcase

by Anna Lynn Spitzer

Team members (from left) Xiang An, Vijay Rajakumar,
CEO Dev Bhatia, and founder Chen Li joined other company
associates last weekend for a teambuidling dinner.

“Each year U.S. universities create approximately 600 new companies. SRCH², a UC Irvine startup headquartered at Calit2’s TechPortal incubator, has been nominated as one of the best in the country.”

“The National Council for Entrepreneurial Tech Transfer this month announced the 195 companies nominated by their home universities for the University Startups Showcase; SRCH² was the only UCI startup on the list. The USS competition is organized by NCET2, as part of its 7th annual University Startups Conference, March 20-22, 2013 in Washington, D.C. It is supported by the National Venture Capital Association, University-Industry Demonstration Project, Strategic Investors Forum, Mid-Atlantic Venture Association, International Business Forum, and Global Corporate Venturing Group.”

For the complete writeup for the Calit2 Newsroom, click here.

Good Search Helps you Get to the Airport

noreply@blogger.com (Dev Bhatia) — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 18:12:00 +0000

With good search, you can make it to the airport on time! To elaborate, here’s a story from Zeming.

I was in the Bay Area. After the meeting, I needed to drive to the San Francisco airport. At first, I tried the "point of interests" feature, but for some reason it didn't work. Then I started to do a search. Because I was in a hurry, I wanted to be short. So I entered "airport" in the search field, thinking that multiple choices might come up, and one of them surely will be San Francisco airport, as I was quite close to it.

But I was wrong. In fact, nothing came up. Obviously, the search engine and the database were structured in a way that you needed to enter the whole name, not just keywords.
So I tried "San Francisco airport." Still nothing.

Then I suddenly felt smart because I remembered that it must be "San Francisco International Airport." So I entered that exact phrase with high confidence. Knowing that the search engine on that unit was not error tolerant, I painstakingly entered every letter slowly to make sure that I did not make any spelling error.

Well, still nothing. At that point, I was at a point of exasperation.

Guess what, only later did I find that in order for the GPS unit to be able to find the airport, you've got to enter the following exact phrase: "San Francisco Int'l Airport", not a single letter was allowed to be missing or wrong.

I know exactly why that's the case. It is because the database itself contains that address in exactly that way. The company which entered the name of the airport happened to use that abbreviation form, and that's what the search engine is supposed to find.

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Team members (from left) Xiang An, Vijay Rajakumar, CEO Dev Bhatia, and founder Chen Li joined other companyassociates last weekend for a teambuidling dinner.

Good Search Helps you Get to the Airport

Team members (from left) Xiang An, Vijay Rajakumar,
CEO Dev Bhatia, and founder Chen Li joined other company
associates last weekend for a teambuidling dinner.