Big data analytics involves examining huge amounts of data from a variety of different sources, including Web server logs and clickstream data, social media activity reports, mobile, among others things. This analysis lets users discover hidden patterns, correlations and other information that would otherwise be lost. Numerous experts have discussed the increasing importance for this kind of technology, as companies will need more and more help analyzing the now massive volumes of data they have access to. There is evidence that this is coming to fruition.
Recently, Google unveiled a public version of BigQuery, which, in the company’s own words: “Lets you take advantage of Google’s massive compute power, store as much data as needed and pay only for what you use. Your data is protected with multiple layers of security, replicated across multiple data centers and can be easily exported.” BigQuery is accessible via a simple UI or REST interface, and will allow developers query up to 100GB of data per month for free, or up to 2TB of data stored.
Check out the video of Google’s initial announcement of BigQuery:
Not to be outdone, Yahoo has now launched a new tool for online advertisers. Called Genome, the tool will help target ads and campaigns by letting advertisers analyze large amounts of behavioural and advertising-related data from the Yahoo and interclick (which Yahoo acquired in December) networks. It is scheduled for release in July.
“Marketers have asked us for a solution that capitalizes on our vast data and our answer to that is Genome,” Rich Riley, EVP, Americas Region, Yahoo! said in a press release. “With Genome, we can help marketers transform consumer information and insights into actionable online media executions that enable them to attain the right context and audiences.”
Since its focus is on marketers, Genome differs significantly from BigQuery, which is geared toward enterprises looking to upload and analyze massive amounts of data. Clearly, however, there is going to be some overlap between the two in the future, which may add another interesting layer to the ongoing search engine war…
What are your thoughts on BigQuery and Genome?
