Everywhere I go in Silicon Valley, people are talking about social media and big data, but rarely do I hear real-world success stories about social media data in a business-to-business context. We all know about the innovations of the consumer Web over the past ten years, including the amazing experiences that companies like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Yahoo and others have created by crunching massive amounts of consumer data for personalization. But how are companies in other industries leveraging the big data that’s erupting from social media services?

Social media presents an opportunity to make customer service organizations more responsive and proactive. It gives product development organizations an immediate feedback loop regarding product issues or key features that customers want. With 74 percent of consumers relying on social networks to guide purchase decisions (according to Gartner), marketers drool over the chance to target influencers in social media channels, and to gain a more holistic 360-degree view of each customer. Finally, analyzing social media conversations can be a powerful tool for corporate strategists to uncover market opportunities and other new types of competitive and business intelligence.

While much has been said about these opportunities, few have acknowledged that for this data to be most valuable, it must be integrated with relevant enterprise data from companies’ sales, financial, marketing, customer support, or e-commerce systems (just to name a few).  Say a company correlated social media data with e-commerce sales records, for example.  Looking at this information together, it could learn which social media conversations or reviews correlated most to increases in product sales, and start triggering marketing offers to further capitalize on these types of social media activities as they’re happening.

The roadblocks

Few companies have successfully integrated social media data into their business applications or analysis like this because it’s just not easy.  I’ve been in the integration space for nearly 20 years, and the roadblocks to an effective enterprise data ecosystem have never been greater. As I see it, the five most prominent hurdles to integrating social media data into your business are:

• Current systems are overwhelmed by constant streams
  The majority of applications in enterprises still run in batch mode, quite different from the real-time stream of the Twitter fire hose.  Even companies that are used to processing frequent batches of data aren’t necessarily prepared for the performance hit they might get to their corporate networks from merging those waves of information with rip tides of data from the ocean of social media.
• Social media data requires more structure
  Most IT organizations are great at managing structured, relational data in SQL or Oracle databases. However, even the largest consumer Web players are still mastering the semi-structured, non-relational data that exists in the wild Web.  Social media data may not have a well defined data model or schema that defines field names or field types, so it typically requires extra steps when being integrated with traditional relational data.
• New access methods can be difficult to grasp
  Many companies are using Web APIs for the first time as they reach outside the walls of their enterprise to grab social data.  This requires a whole different knowledge set than the expertise gained from work with on-premise databases – to be successful, all IT departments must have some understanding of Web standards like REST and HTTPS.
• Data quality is imperative
  With more diverse data ecosystems comes more work in cleansing and parsing “messy” data, which often exists in social media.  These efforts include data matching, de-duplication, standardization, enrichment, etc.  It’s more crucial than ever for companies to address data quality right at the earliest point of entry into the enterprise, and prevent bad data from polluting downstream business applications.
• Big data crunching is no easy task
  It’s no secret that all the social media sources out there generate massive volumes of data.  For companies to crunch this information, they need to know which data to pull in and which to ignore.  But even after filtering out the noise, we’re talking about data volumes that would have been unimaginable in the 90s.  Now businesses need the power of complex solutions like Hadoop – which are not easy for your average IT person to use.

How to get around those roadblocks

So now that I’ve laid out the roadblocks, let me just say that I still believe there’s a huge untapped potential in connecting social media data with enterprise applications, and it can be done – even if you’re an emerging company without big brain data scientists on staff.  Here are three simple steps I recommend for any business getting started with social media integration:

•  Prioritize the social media sites
  Consider the popular or up-and-coming social media sites, and think about where your customers and competitors are most likely to be hanging out – Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter, Yelp?  Sit down with your marketing team to sort through the characteristics of social media influencers in your ecosystem of customers, partners, suppliers, etc., and compile a list of keywords or phrases you want to track across social media conversations.
•  Choose your connections
  Identify opportunities for connecting these data sources with other valuable information in your enterprise. Will social media activity be most valuable in the context of your CRM or marketing solutions, when it’s combined with your sales or Web analytics tools, within your business intelligence or master data management systems – or all of the above?
  
•  Pick a connection strategy
  Carefully weigh the pros and cons of various connection approaches. You could allocate IT resources to laboriously hand-code each connection in your IT portfolio, you could retrofit a traditional data integration or enterprise application integration tool to accommodate your changing integration needs, or you could evaluate new cloud-based connection technologies that were built with today’s data environment in mind.

Has your company taken any steps to integrate social media into your business operations and systems yet?  If so, how are you tackling this challenge, and do you feel you are achieving the full value of social media data in the enterprise?

An early investor in SnapLogic, Gaurav Dhillon joined as CEO in 2009 when he saw the tremendous potential for the company’s cloud and on-premise integration products, strategy, and unique business model. Gaurav has spearheaded the rapid growth of the company and manages its financing, products, strategic relationships, and operations.

Image courtesy of Flickr user buddawiggi.

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Plenty of questions have been repeatedly asked about the ways in which you can find people without payment and only several of them have been asked on the methods of locating individual free of payment.. As a result I have resolved to dedicate some time and address this question about the resources you can use.

Sources you can use

A couple of years ago the best sources were telephone directories – mostly the printed ones. Electronic and printed directories were introduced with the invention of internet.There are numerous telephone directories that can be used online. You can get Absolutely Free People Search Results.

The best thing about them is that they are both locally and internationally. By this I mean that you can find those that concentrate on a specific area and also those that cover a variety of countries. Never before has there been an international telephone directory because it was almost impossible to print such a huge directory. One of the reliable sources online to use would be the whitepages.

Use people search engines

As the years advanced search engines took centre stage and offered the best of the web at a glance. To aid you find the outcomes that you are looking for engines like Google, Yahoo, Live have access to some search finders. Without any difficulty you can key in particulars like the name, email address, place of residence or ant details you know about the individual and find him/her. You can also check people finder sites like Zabasearch.Get tips on how to use yahoo profile search by name.

Use social networks

Should you be bothered about locating people, it easier because of social networking sites.Just to mention some of the renowned ones, you can try Facebook, Bibo, Twitter, Hi5, Linkedin and MySpace. Make use of Free white pages.

Mobile operators may be making some progress in their attempts to share the cost of network build out with Internet companies. France Telecom said it is in talks with Google about offering segmented services for users, so those who want faster or more stable service can pay more with the two sharing the revenue. It’s part of a larger push by FT to come to some agreement with Silicon Valley companies. France Telecom CEO Stephane Richard told investors Tuesday that FT would have an announcement along those lines in the coming weeks.

A separate report in Telecompaper said that Internet companies aren’t ready to invest in network capacity building but are willing to collaborate on ways to better use networks and educate customers. Richard told Telecompaper that Google was looking at including data monitoring and management tools in Android apps and has agreed to set up a joint study group with FT to examine how it can reduce the amount of data Google services consume in the future.

As we’ve reported before, operators like France Telecom, Vodafone and Telecom Italia have been pushing web giants like Google, Facebook, Yahoo and Apple to help pay for their share of the traffic they put on the networks. It’s an old wireline move that is being attempted again by wireless operators. But it appears that it might be working to some extent, at least in Europe.

I have my reservations about a segmented service plan for Google services that creates two tiers of service. There is a danger that the lower tier could become neglected by operators trying to up-sell people on higher cost service. And we’ve seen that Google is willing to partner with carriers in ways that are not always beneficial for consumers and developers.

But talks could be prudent if Interent companies and the carriers can hash out some creative solutions. We’ve talked about the need for congestion or dynamic pricing in which users are charged more for using the network at peak times or offered incentives to avoid use during those periods. There are other ways that carriers can work with consumers to create flexible and personalized data plans. This all speaks to the reality of wireless networks. There are limits on the amount of spectrum and bandwidth available, and with the explosion of mobile data usage, new solutions need to emerge.

I don’t think many Internet players will fork over cash to network operators for network build outs. But if they can optimize their apps and websites for mobile use as well as educate their users about how much data they’re using, it can be a help in reducing network traffic. And platform makers like Apple and Google can also play a part in helping push for more efficient apps. Google in particular should be leading the charge because Android users consume the most data among smartphone owners. It might not forestall the mobile data tsunami but it could help create a more collaborative environment where the players are working together to manage data usage rather than carriers reflexively hitting up Internet companies, developers and consumers for more cash.

Post and thumbnail photos courtesy of Flickr user popofatticus

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You need to track how well you and your competitors rank in search engines, in order to succeed in the online marketplace. You need tools and/or services that are up to date and don’t rely on just one search engine. All the top search engines have their own ran tracking tools and are available to everyone, whatever the expertise. If you are willing to invest the time, you can settle for free methods to compile the results you need.

Doing things the free way is always an option especially for the beginner. Some seo training courses are really useful, and it all matters how far you want to learn these to make the most of them. The paid-for options offer a little more, such as suggestions for improving your rankings, based on your current ranking in search engines, and while this may be a little more expensive, this information is incredibly valuable.

No matter what other tools you use Google rankings is always useful if for nothing else than a checkpoint and for the fact that Google at the moment is still number one in search engines. Page ranking, search engine ranking, and plenty of tips to improve page optimization are amongst the main things provided by Google tracking.

Some browsers also offer free seo training course that you can add to your toolbar. Add-ons in the Firefox browser can detail your rankings in Google, Yahoo and Microsoft Large. This can be a useful tool especially if you are aiming for consistency within the different search engines. Benefits of this include being able to read off the toolbar in an instant.

Site Report Card is a free tool that finds results on Google, Yahoo and MSN. A useful tip this one gives you is that you can get different results depending on whether you include the ‘www’ in your URL.

Offering rankings with a trial period (free), and many options to choose from, SEO Elite is worthy of consideration. Pay more to get more information. Huge promises are even made, stating successful returns on the 8 most prominent search engines.

If you are not used to free or paid tools, professional SEO services is another option. Make use of reviews and do some research so you are happy they can offer you value for money. It is up to you to ensure that the firm you retain are reilable, and have a credibility that you can count on.

Jonathan Heiliger, Vice President of Technical Operations at Facebook has been a longtime proponent of shaking up the web infrastructure establishment. From storage to chips to servers, he has been a vocal champion for infrastructure hardware that is made to the specifications of large Internet companies like Facebook.

That is why he is super excited about the formation of the Open Networking Foundation (ONF), a not-for-profit industry group that has been established to promote software-defined networks. ONF is being established with the backing of Internet giants Google, Yahoo and Facebook, along with Microsoft, Verizon and Deutsche Telekom. The foundation also has the backing of numerous hardware makers such as Broadcom, Cisco, Dell, HP, IBM, Juniper Networks, Marvell, NEC, Netgear and VMware.

The first task of ONF will be to adopt and then lead the ongoing development of the OpenFlow standard (www.openflow.org) and encourage its adoption by freely licensing it to all member companies. ONF will then begin the process of defining global management interfaces. (ONF Press Release)

At the core of the ONF is a piece of software, Open Flow, that was result of a joint research project between Stanford University and University of Berkeley. In her article earlier this year, Stacey Higginbotham thus described the Open Flow effort:

The idea behind the OpenFlow effort is that today’s network needs to be smarter and more flexible in order to handle and efficiently deliver more information. To do that, the fundamental idea is to separate the packet switching mechanisms and control functions. Users can freely develop and operate control middleware independently of the switching mechanism.

One of ONF’s big proponents, Nick McKeown, ONF Board member and professor at Stanford University when speaking at our Structure conference in June 2010 outlined his vision of software defined networks as becoming core to the future of the Internet.

McKeown pointed out that from big Internet companies to telecoms and data center operators, many are already experimenting with the idea of software-defined networking, and that is why it made perfect sense for various parties to come together and put all the momentum behind Open Flow.

In a phone conversation earlier today, McKeown explained that at its crudest, Open Flow is akin to the BIOS inside a personal computer, which is firmware software that talks to all hardware elements and then helps boot up the operating system (OS). On top of the BIOS sits the OS and upon the OS sit the applications. So Open Flow can view all the network elements (switches for instance) and then work with the a network operating system which in turn be used to build optimized applications.

Unlike the past when enterprises were often the cutting edge customers, today it is giants like Google and Facebook, who are often the purveyor’s of cutting edge technology and techniques. Their needs are very different from the hardware that is made and sold by companies like Cisco or Force 10, mostly because those companies cannot make hardware optimized for the needs for a specific web-organization. In addition, the gear supports a whole range of standards, which adds overhead and slows down the performance for a web company.

While networking technologies have also evolved in this time, the ONF believes that more rapid innovation is needed. SDN fulfills this need by enabling innovation in all kinds of networks through relatively simple software changes. SDN thus gives owners and operators of networks better control over their networks, allowing them to optimize network behavior to best serve their and their customers’ needs. (ONF Press Release)

Now, you can unleash the power of creative software writers at the network layer and use the networking infrastructure more effectively, said Facebook’s Heiliger. So for instance, Facebook could write its own network OS – and they are thinking about it – and write software applications to take advantage of the network.

For instance, a Hadoop-based application could use the network in the wee-hours of the morning to crunch data at a certain data center, depending on its geographical location and workload. During the day, the data center’s network is optimized for an all-together different application. “This opens up a Pandora’s box of creativity,” said Heiliger.

ONF has found favor amongst the academic communities for a long time, but with the establishment of ONF, it seems we are looking at a bright, commercial future for Open Flow, which is one of the more disruptive developments in the world of networking technology.

Today, theoretically speaking, a giant Internet company like Google can buy networking silicon from Broadcom, and build its own commodity switches and create its own network topography using Open Flow.  What cost millions of dollars could be built for tens of thousands of dollars – and that is going to change the economics of the data centers.

An apt analogy to me would be the arrival of x86 servers and their impact on Sun’s E10K super servers. In time, the minnows ate away at the whale. I wouldn’t be surprised if the same happens to the switching business first, and then to other elements of the networking ecosystem. An engineer familiar with the Open Flow technology joked that Open Flow frees you from the tyranny of the firmware providers. That is networking speak for Cisco, Juniper and Force 10 Networks.

Urs Hoelzle, Google’s Senior Vice President of Engineering at Google and ONF President and Chairman of the Board predicted that by end of this year we are going to see first of the Open Flow capable hardware come to market. In addition, he expects to see Open Flow 1.1-based controllers for data centers to come to market as well. Martin Casado who was one of the primary researchers on Open Flow has co-founded Nicira, which is building the Open Flow controller for the data centers, while Big Switch Networks, a stealth mode company is currently working on an Open Flow controller for the enterprise market.

Hoelzle cautioned that I shouldn’t get too ahead of myself, because it will be a couple of years before the technology starts to make its way through different elements of the networking hardware stack. When I asked him if we could one day see Open Flow make its way into our home networking gear – our home networks are getting inherently complex after all – Hoelzle said that is won’t be anytime soon, but it is within realm of possibility.

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Search Gala (also named Gala Search) is a parasitic browser hijacker. This program will redirect your search results from any of your browser (like IE, Chrome or Firefox) to some web pages by modifying your Windows DNS settings once this threat has infected a PC. If your computer becomes infected by this application, you will be redirected (when using Bing, Yahoo, Google, and so on) from your search results to the Search Gala website. This site will promote various products. Something else you should know is that Search Gala will block the user from getting access to security websites. Here Gala Search you will learn more about how to remove Search Gala.

You should know that this browser hijacker will force you to visit some specific websites to it can generate traffic for those sites, or promote various products/services, or even use your visits to earn money from the “pay-per-click” feature. Check here Remote PC Repair : it is a great online remote computer service that will help you delete this threat from your system.

There are lots of ways this threat (Search Gala) can compromise your computer. It can exploit various flaws part of Internet Explorer. Your PC system can also become compromised by this threat the moment you’ll visit unsafe websites full of pop-up ads. When you’re going to click on such pop-ups, it is fully possible that this virus, Search Gala, will start installing itself on your computer: you won’t even know it.

This threat, Search Gala, can also affect the performance of your system, making it very difficult to surf the Web. Besides, it can download more threats unto your system. Your PC will thus become even more compromised.

So if you see you’re being redirected to one of those Search Gala websites if you click on a link from Bing, Google, Yahoo or any similar search result, and you’re not going to the location needed. You have to do the right measures to fix this problem.

You will find out that there are many nice malware removal program out there that can effectively help you delete this threat from your PC. You can either go for an online virus removal service or run a legitimate antivirus software for the removal of Search Gala or can use a manual removal guide to get the job done all by yourself.