Technology Review: Google Offers Cloud-Based Learning Engine: the smartest Web services around rely on machine learning--algorithms that enable software to learn how to respond with a degree of intelligence to new information or events...... Google-hosted algorithms could be trained to sort e-mails into categories for "complaints" and "praise" using a dataset that provides many examples of both kinds .... extracting emergency information from Twitter ...... machine-learning black box--data goes in one end, and predictions come out the other ...... "This API could be a way to get a capability cheaply that would cost a huge amount through a traditional route." ... Prediction API .... has the potential to be a leveler between established companies and smaller startups
We went from big, ugly computers - mainframes - to PCs. PCs were simpler. And over time they became pretty powerful. And then the cloud emerged. The internet itself was the cloud. So I agree with Larry Ellison when he claims he has always done the cloud thing.
We went from servers to data farms. And these data farms run by big companies like Google and Facebook are huge, big enough that the electricity costs are a major headache even for these rich companies.
When Larry bought Sun, I threw a challenge in his direction. Can you build data centers that are the size of servers? Or at least small data centers? That might be nano territory. But I figured what the heck? There is never too much drama in Larry's life. What is one more challenge?
One common denominator with these disruptive technologies is they have been democratizing forces. It has always been about making it possible for more and more people, more and more businesses. We basically want everybody to be able to go online.
Google's Prediction API is a step in that same direction, and I am glad. Suddenly even small businesses will be able to make sense of large quantities of data they might end up collecting.
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