Information Retrieval Gupf

One of my interests in the information retrieval arena is the relationship between search and advertising.  Over on the FXPAL blog I posted a thought, and a quick experiment, related to this topic.  Here is an excerpt:
The search engine summarily ignored that user request and served the advertiser page anyway.  So even though ad result [...]

..I’ve changed my domain.  I liked Jeff Dalton’s suggestions, to switch from wiakli.net to irgupf.com.  So if you’ve got me in your feed reader, please make the switch, and apologies for the sudden change.  wiakli.net as a domain should remain active for a few more days, until I figure out how to set up 301 [...]

A couple of days ago I made reference to a KQED Forum show on the 40th anniversary of the Personal Computer.  In listening closer to that program, a couple of the guests made comments about the “empty calories” applications and devices that we in the computer field like to create.  The following is a transcript [...]

One of my early, longstanding information retrieval passions is Music Information Retrieval — especially content-based music IR.  I began research in MIR back in 1998 as a graduate student at UMass Amherst.  In 2000, we organized the very first ISMIR conference, in Plymouth Massachusetts.
Music IR hits a sweet spot between information retrieval, information seeking, pattern [...]

The title of this blog is “Information Retrieval Gupf”.  I’ll wager that more than a few of you are wondering what a Gupf is.
Gupf is an Austrian slang/dialect form of the high German word “Gipfel”, which means “peak” or “summit”, as on a mountain.  My idea for naming the blog “Information Retrieval Gupf” was to [...]

Daniel Tunkelang pointed me to a NYT article on the growing power, and therefore growing public unwariness, of Google.  The article makes a number of points, but what struck me most was the pseudo-repartee between Google’s chief economist, Hal Varian, and long-time search watcher Danny Sullivan:

Over the next few weeks I would like to begin laying out the theme of this blog. I’ve been thinking about exactly what it is I would like to say, and what would be of value to discuss with the online community. At its core, this blog is about information retrieval in its [...]

Over the years, Greg Linden, Jeff Dalton, and Daniel Tunkelang have asked me to stop reduce commenting on their blogs, get out there and start one myself. While I am still not convinced that the world needs yet another blog, I hope this can contribute to the ongoing discussion in even a small way. Consider [...]