

Analyzing Big Data Is Returning an Edge to Microsoft  - sew
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/30/technology/microsoft-renews-relevance-with-machine-learning-technology.html?hpw&_r=0

======
hooande
What bothers me is the triviality of the examples in the article:

 _Next year’s version of the Excel spreadsheet program, part of the Office
suite of software, will be able to comb very large amounts of data. For
example, it could scan 12 million Twitter posts and create charts to show
which Oscar nominee was getting the most buzz._

 _A new version of Outlook, the e-mail program, is being tested that employs
Mr. Horvitz’s machine-learning specialty to review users’ e-mail habits. It
could be able to suggest whether a user wants to read each message that comes
in._

Google is building _cars that drive themselves_. Microsoft is still analyzing
real time data and improving email.

I was hoping to hear about sweeping changes and products that would affect all
of our daily lives. I still believe that the OS itself could use a lot of
optimization and personalization. A truly adaptive information management
system could be a real edge for any company in the OS space.

It could be that the author cherry picked examples that were easy for the
average reader to understand. If not, another example of companies that are
really big thinking really small.

~~~
nivla
> Google is building cars that drive themselves. Microsoft is still analyzing
> real time data and improving email.

What makes you think one is important but not the other? Google is building
cars that drive themselves but they are also analyzing real time data and
subsequently improving their email. It will be stupid for Google to ditch
Gmail and direct those engineers to work on cars.

>It could be that the author cherry picked examples that were easy for the
average reader to understand.

Well since NYTimes has a broader demographic than just IT professionals I
think the examples do fit perfectly in.

~~~
rbanffy
> What makes you think one is important but not the other?

Because Google already did that and is doing other, more radical, things?

------
rjurney
I wrote about this here: [http://hortonworks.com/blog/dinosaurs-are-real-
microsoft-wow...](http://hortonworks.com/blog/dinosaurs-are-real-microsoft-
wows-audience-with-hdinsight-at-strata-nyc-hortonworks-inside/)

It includes raptors.

~~~
skrebbel
Well, that's a damn entertaining blog post, and interesting too. Do you know
whether the screencast is online?

~~~
rjurney
Working on it!

