SPRING 2014

Bluekai, The Long Tail, Rolf Dobelli, & Kinfolk

BlueKai

The recent acquisition of Bluekai by Oracle might suggest a new trend. To date, large tech companies have focused on marketing automation solutions.

In contrast, Bluekai is a Data Management Platform (DMP) solution. In other words, that is mostly is used to: administer cookie id and, create audience segment which is subsequently used for retargeting users with online ads. This include anonymous users and here in lies the value.

Interestingly, Bluekai is not the first DMP to be acquired (Adobe bought Demdex in 2011), and it will certainly not be the last. Ben Plomion makes a great argument as to why this is the case: Have a look, its well worth the read.

If you are curious on how BlueKai will be used by Oracle, click here.

The Long Tail

Chris Anderson popularized the idea of the long tail and even wrote a book about it:

The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More.

Indeed, the long tail problem is an ubiquitous one. Recommendation engines are common solution to remedy this situation. However, items/events with low frequency can be a problem as they score below threshold to be considered for recommendation.

Park & Tuzhhilin from NYU have proposed a solution to deal with this. They propose using the Clustered Tail (CT) Method. Look here, we don’t agree with everything but we think the main idea (CT) is clever. Should you be interested in identifying the long portion of the tail (maximal item set) using a more refined version of Apriori;. Try Max Miner.

Rolf Dobelli

For those of you who are looking for an entertaining read, we suggest: The Art of Thinking Clearly by Rolf Dobelli. The book is a quick study of fallacies in our thought process.

The reviews from the Guardian and WSJ have not been favorable but we think you should decide for yourself.

Kinfolk

If you’re looking to ease into spring, we recommend you take a look at Kinfolk which is about good food, company, and dare we say daydreaming.

The community is made up of quarterly magazine (circulation went from 500 copies in 2011 to 70,000 in 2013), a cookbook, and a website.

We think the content is definitely a reflection of the times; a movement toward “slowing down” and appreciating life at the fullest.

With the coming of spring, I am calm again.
-Gustav Mahler