Can the government handle big data analytics?
Just how big are big data? Not the big data hype bubble, mind you-we know that's enormous. Rather, how large do data sets have to be before we can consider them big data?
There is no one answer. Big data is a relative term. It refers to data sets, and the corresponding data challenges, so large that traditional data management and analytics approaches aren't up to the task of squeezing all the value we desire from the information we have. As a result, as our tools and techniques improve, the "bigness" threshold for big data will continue to rise.
This threshold also depends upon the context for the data, which generally aligns with the industry responsible for them. Genomics research, weather prediction and other scientific pursuits push the limit of data set size, but any business that collects information about its customers may also have big data challenges. Read more...
Google sharpening Analytics’ tracking of mobile applications
Google is readying a new set of Analytics usage reports designed specifically for mobile applications, the company plans to announce at its I/O developer conference on Friday.
So far, Google Analytics has approached mobile application tracking from a perspective that's more tailored to conventional websites, said JiaJing Wang, a Google product manager.
With these new reports, Google Analytics will provide results for iOS and Android applications that include deeper, broader and more specific metrics, he said. Read more...