Communications of the ACM
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How the “Frontier” Became the Slogan of Uncontrolled AI
Artificial intelligence (AI) has been billed as the next frontier of humanity: the newly available expanse whose exploration …
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Enabling Exploratory Search with Dhiti
Last August, I wrote “Exploring Nuggetize“, in which I described an interface that
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Two Changes
I just wanted to let regular readers know that I’ve made two changes to this blog. The first is that I’ve eliminated the use of categories on posts. I found that...
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So You Like Big Data
The increasing volume of data that we generate as a species is a story so overplayed as to have become trite. Indeed, a vast amount of this data is in the public...
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Reflecting on 2010: Searching for Answers
Yes, it’s that time of year when we take a moment to reflect on the past year’s accomplishments and muse about what the next year will bring. Other than milder...
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The Secret May Be To Keep Fewer Secrets
In light of the recent WikiLeaks saga and the various leaks that have plagued my former employer, I was musing the other day about whether leaks are inevitable...
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CIKM 2011 Industry Event
CIKM 2011 is nearly a year away, but I wanted to give folks a heads up about the Industry Event there that I am organizing with Tony Russell-Rose. These events...
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First Week
It’s hardly surprising, at least in retrospect, that location-based social networking company Foursquare was founded (twice!) in New York City. Where else (at least...
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Follow The Data
Today is my last day at Google. I have enjoyed an incredible year there, during which I’ve had the privilege to work with some of the smartest engineers on the...
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Giving Thanks as an Information Scientist
As a first-generation American who is married to a card-carrying Native American, I celebrate Thanksgiving the traditional way: a day of gluttony followed by yummy...
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An Information Cascade
I’ve been reading Networks, Crowds, and Markets, a great textbook by David Easley and Jon Kleinberg. I’m very grateful to Cambridge University Press for surprising...
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The Element of Surprise
Surprise is not a word that user interface designers typically like to hear. Indeed, the principle of least surprise (also called the principle of least astonishment)...
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A Question of User Expectations
Ideally, a search engine would read the user’s mind. Shy of that, a search engine should provide the user with an efficient process for expressing an information...
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Pluralistic Ignorance and Bayesian Truth Serum
Last week, I had the pleasure of talking with CMU professor George Loewenstein, one of the top researchers in the area of behavioral economics. I mentioned my idea...
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LinkedIn Signal = Exploratory Search for Twitter
I like Twitter. Yes, I know that a lot of its content is
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An Open Letter to the USPTO
Following the Supreme Court’s decision in Bilski v. Kappos, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) plans to release new guidance as to which patent...
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Search at the Speed of Thought
A guiding principle in information technology has been to enable people to perform tasks at the “speed of thought”. The goal is not just to make people more efficient...
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New Web Site for HCIR Workshop
In 2007, I persuaded MIT graduate students Michael Bernstein and Robin Stewart (who was interning at
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David Petrou Presents Google Goggles at NY Tech Meetup
Image recognition is one of those problems that has presented long-standing challenges to computer scientists, despite being taken for granted by science fiction...
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Slouching Toward Creepiness
One of the perks of blogging is that publishers sometimes send me review copies of new books. I couldn’t help but be curious about a book entitled “The Man Who...
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