Will Google "Square" Off Wolfram Alpha?

Semantic search and structured results are finally becoming reality - from re-search papers to real-search engines!

If you haven't tried Wolfram Alpha, give it a try. It is too good with some certain predetermined set of queries. Like:

• http://www78.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=microsoft+google+amazon
• http://www78.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=tan(x)

But... be ready to accept its "no results" for 90% of your queries. Yes, it would be premature to expect it to be on par with Google when it comes to the results.  We should call it a good analytical tool than a result-fetcher.

Of course, there are other semantic engines - Hakia, SenseBot, PowerSet (now part of Microsoft), DeepDyve, Cognition. But they don't seem to be very impressive (except maybe Hakia), as they are too limited in their capabilities or they have very narrow focus like Health, legal etc.  It could take few more years for them to be more useful.

Google also revealed its baby from its labs called "Google Squared".  It still may not be categorized as full-fledged semantic engine. All it does is present the results in the form of a table and you can define columns. Hmm, seems very exciting and does have very high potential. Suppose you want to get all Bollywood stars along with their personal details like DOB, whom they are going around with now - you can get it in single click. Fastest way to get gossips huh? Or if you want find all the companies in Sensex with their market cap, revenues, profit and P/E ratio, it's again, a single button away! But wait.. "Squared" is still at its infancy - For most of the queries, it does returns results, but the results are completely arbitrary. For. e.g. when you try the following query -
http://www.google.com/squared/search?q=indian+software+companies
the results ("squares" as they call it) don't make much sense at all. Again, it would take some years for Google to be synonymous with "squaring" like "searching".

Let's not become over-ambitious. One step at a time. There are existing engines like Hakia, Yahoo Glue Page and Ask which present the search results in a more engaging and useful manner than the traditional view of Google. The latest sensation, Bing, the 2nd innings of Live, the old lady with the sexier outfit, also has some marginal improvements like categorization and mouse-roll-over-summary of search results . Yes, the undisputed leader of search, Google, still needs to catch up with these new ladies.

But you know what... All these knowledge doesn't make me or most of the common people change their search preference. Google is still the King when it comes to the results, the content. Its simple, clean and fast response has been liked by everyone in the past. Will it still be the case in the age of Semantic search?

Re-Cycle

The first rain of the season. Its smell. The associated cool breeze. Yes, the rains of Mumbai have been pretending, threatening and teasing  their arrival for more than 2 weeks. Finally got some minor drizzles over the weekend. What could be a better way than to experience it by Cycling?

What was started as a small eco-friendly initiative has become a real fun weekend activity for my friend R and me. This weekend, we decided that we would cover some of the best places in Mumbai by cycle -

• Marine Drive: With its pukka road, amazing breeze and the Arabian sea to watch on your sides, this is clearly the best place to cycle in Mumbai. Ideal time to ride is Sunday early mornings (before sun, with literally no traffic, except fellow people who cycle / jog).
• Worli Sea-face: Another good place to cycle by-sea. The stretch is shorter and narrower than Marine Drive. It also gives better residential feel while cycling.
• BKC: You would wonder how such a vast commercial place in the middle of the city could still be peaceful, clean and less crowded. Yes, it was.. thanks to weekend. If you ever decide to cycle in Mumbai, don't miss BKC on a weekend.

With cycling, one gets a different feel for the city. I got present to the environment, the roads, the trees, the beauties, the sad states of the city on a scale more than I had ever done while traveling by car / bus / train. Be it the small incline / bumps in the road, or the innumerable gully cricket matches (happening simultaneously in a small ground which you would think is impossible), or the distressing living conditions of the people in slums (even in the areas considered to be upscale in Mumbai), the intensity of the experience is higher.

And even if you are not the type who goes gung-ho about the "experience" of the city, cycling is best as it burns the extra fat than the hydrocarbon. As a matter of Fact, one should give cycling a big thumbs up for multitudes of reason - Fun, Feel, Fuel and Fat. So, what F does it excite you for?

Nice Vs Nasty

Vikraman, a famous director in Tamil Cinema, known for his movies with feel good factor, makes run of the mill movies appealing to family audience in '90s. The heroes in his movies are so nice to people that you would wonder whether they have any self-respect and why such  impracticality. Being nice is ok, but being nice to a girl who ditches and humiliates him is simply atrocious.  Yes, happened to watch "portions" of his movie ('Unnai Ninaithu') starring Surya. Man, I should accept that I just couldn't appreciate what the hero did in the movie. It's title of the post - Being Nice vs Nasty. The immediate question that popped up was "Can one be nice to a nasty person and vice versa?"  The exploration continued...

Before jumping into the analysis, I feel one should be Natural and Normal before conditioning our responses. However, when we have the option, time and wisdom to think and respond, it does make sense to think which way to respond.

Someone once said "What you give is what you get back" - If not always, it's true in most occasions. Being nice may seem nice as you get back lots of niceties, but in reality, it's a little nasty for 2 reasons: (a) It may not be your "real" response (b) You might spoil the person who should have got it right the first time.  It's stupid of you to be nice to your kid who keeps making the mistake intentionally. Or if someone whips on one side of your ass, doesn't make sense to show the other side. You don't have to be nasty, but it doesn't make sense to be nice either.

The positive aspect of nastiness is that it could be very effective learning tool. It prepares us to face the real world. A kid only exposed to niceties from its parents is sure to face a shock when it enters the real world. A bit of nastiness and challenge could hit us hard - to learn, to understand and to mature as a person. The parathas won't have the yummy taste without the beatings it got, nor does the diamond shine without the abrasiveness it faced. Same story with your muscle and gold.

People always mistake whom to show their niceties and nastiness to. We have this insane habit of constantly judging people and rank them vis-a-vis us - from job, money, power and personality to family and friends. Through this comes the fictitious spectrum of superiority and inferiority in people's mind. You would have seen this in roads: Some auto driver hits a car, the rich guy from the car gets out and smashes the driver. Yes, it happens if the driver is meek and poor. Same doesn't happen for a 100 kg sardar truck driver with his muscles trying to break out of the shirt. Similarly, a drunken man slaps his wife but doesn't have the balls to resist when an employer slaps him. A teacher shouts at a student but becomes an yes-women for all the unethical activities of her higher officials. We show our power to the powerless and resist to show where and when it's required or challenged.

A true leader or a person who commands high respect from others never tries to be unnaturally nice to whom he considers his superiors. Nor does he screws the life of other category of people. He would be nice to the less fortunate group; remain confident, not sweeten the words and not lick the ass of the so called superiors.

To summarize, being natural is more important than the other two "N" cousins. What's is easy, favourable and doable may not be the best of the responses and most importantly, we might have to introspect and swap our current way of responses to people.

From the diary of Mr. Gagan

Jul 20: Today another poor soul joined our security forces. It takes the security personnel count to 5 for this apartment. For an apartment of ~125 houses with 400-500 people, I still believe it's understaffed. For providing round the clock security and maintenance, we people are paid peanuts. Yes, it's not a difficult job to do: opening & closing the gate. Still, we deserve a decent salary. Ok, forget money. At least some respect for the work we are doing!? Hmm.. these bloody residential morons treat us like dogs!

Jul 21: Yesterday was night duty and had a terrible experience with that Saale Sanjay. Rarely does any car come to the apartment after 1 am. It's unfair to expect me to be awake all night! That too, I should open the door at the sound of his car!? Hello, car makers of this world - can you please make some noisy cars than those as silent as hunting tigers? Let me come back to what happened.. He got out of the car, abused me to the core. I couldn't do anything than the apologetic reply of "Sorry saab, won't happen again." I still couldn't forget his last statement 'you sons of b****, you dogs eat like pigs and sleep like buffaloes. From tomorrow onwards, no food before night service.' Yes, I felt like a dog for being dependent on him.. and a buffalo, not for its laziness, but for its thick skin. Oh, God! I hate this job. Will I ever do more than the opening and closing of doors? And than the stupid salutes to these non-deserving people? Will I ever get a decent job?

Jul 22: I think God listened to my prayers. Tomorrow onwards, I will be shifted to Lift operations for wing B. While I am happy to be shifted to a cooler place. But I need to be a little careful, as wing B houses the arrogant auditor and the powerful politician. Our security person Ramu, who was working earlier in Wing B, got slammed every day. He even got slapped couple of times. Let me hope nothing like that happens for me.

Jul 23: I can't do this job. My happiness is very short-lived for a day! This new task, let me tell you, sucks totally. People want the lift to be in their floor the moment they press it. In the morning, every moron invariably shouts "why does it take so much time? you lazy bast***!" This city is impatient, people are impatient. Except may be my lift which is completely patient and takes its own sweet time to move from a floor to another. The universe is against me! City is ruthless full of cruel people. God, save me! Please send me back to my village.

Jul 24: After a long long time, something really nice happened today. For the first ever time, I heard the word "please". While I was stunned and remained speechless at her beauty, she entered the lift and said "Bhayya, 13th floor please". I didn't turn my face and looked at her. But the lift was filled with her brilliant fragrance and an unexplainable cheerfulness. Lift seemed to have reached 13th floor way too faster this time. She smiled and said "thank you bhayya". I replied "welkom madam". For the next 15-20 mins, I was just thinking when the lift would go back to 13th floor. And finally, it went. She entered the lift laughing with a young man. I felt a little dejected. But nevertheless, was happy for seeing her again. The lift started moving down. She asked me "Does the lift operate even during power cuts?". I replied enthusiastically "yes, madam. this is all time work. no rest lift. 24 hours work. security work 24 hours also." She had a mild giggle and said "good good. thanks a lot". I didn't understand why she was giggling, but it was good to watch her that way. For the next couple of seconds, I felt I should have told her "don't worry madam, even if the power back-up doesn't work, I will carry you all the way to floor 13 in my shoulders". She was telling to the man standing next to her, "ok bhayya, i think we should confirm this house for rent. Looks good. Nice location and amenities." I had a sigh of relief.

Sep 24: Nearly two months, since I last wrote my diary. There is a reason why I'm writing this now. Ms. Deepali, who made my heart race when she said "13th floor please", had shifted to the house in 13th floor along with her brother and mom. It's interesting how my life changed after Ms.Deepali shifted here - it has really become a Diwali. It's true that I initially perceived her as a thing of beauty. But soon realized that she's more than that. A person with a beautiful heart. Did I tell you what all she did to me? When I told my sad story to her and that I was in the edge of complete dejection about life, she didn't sympathize with me. She just said 'Who said life is fair and people would be nice to you always? Unless you make an effort, it's never going to change. What's the point in just regretting that you haven't studied? Who is stopping you from studying now? I will sponsor your education through distant learning program. You can use your free time. Will you sincerely make an attempt?' It was the day that changed my life. Still today, I'm pressing the up and down buttons of the lift. But I am doing it happily since it's just a part of my life. My bigger aspiration is to get the bachelors degree in the next 3 years. With the motivation of Ms. Deepali, I am sure to do that as well. After all, the world is not as bad as I thought it to be. There are gems of people. I just need to look around.