What is Elastic and why is it changing the Internet?

Finding something on the Internet is one of the biggest challenges that have resulted from the formation of our current information society and although in the collective imagination the simplest answer is to use Google, there is an open-source technology behind the scenes that is changing the way we search for and retrieve information from thousands of services and specialized applications, including video systems like Netflix, transportation applications like Uber and even dating networks like Tinder.

This is Elastic, a search server based on a technology called Apache Lucene, which provides a multidimensional, distributed and adaptive search engine, known in the computer underworld as Elasticsearch, which provides efficient and adaptive searches to the needs of each user through a Java-based technology.

Why is Elasticsearch changing the way people search the Internet?

Until now, information searches on the Internet have been associated with metadata, that is, a set of data that describes the informational content of a resource, file or information. In other words, it is a type of information that describes another type of information.

When someone uploads a website or an image to Instagram or a video to YouTube, they include metadata or keywords, references, concepts or even hashtags associated with the item they have posted at the time of uploading the information, so that a search engine such as Google or Bing associates those words with the content, and when a person performs a search equal or similar to this metadata, search engines display the content that has been posted.

Search engine algorithms such as those of Google have been improved over time, learning systematically with each search that users perform, creating patterns of behavior, identifying priorities and interests, and making searches more efficient. However, there has always been a common element: searches require the user to enter the sentence, concept, word or key image they need.

Even More than Just Words

In an interview granted by Elastic’s founder, Sahy Banon, to the BBC in the UK, he stated that

“In the past, searching involved typing in a text. This is not the case today. Searches can involve sliding to the right, moving a map with your fingers or talking directly to an app”.

Thanks to the technology developed by Banon, applications such as Tinder learn through the fingers of their users, who, by sliding a photo to the right or to the left, are delivering indispensable information to the social environment in order to determine the type of interests and tastes of the user, and in this way, the quality of the results obtained in the next searches is improved with each photo.

But Tinder is not the only company that is transforming the way of searching information on the Internet, since Netflix has completely changed the experience of video searches by means of a sophisticated algorithm that constantly offers the user contents to be visualized without the need of entering any keyword or additional information, learning from each selection that the user makes, from the time that he/she dedicates to each content, among many other variables.

Thanks to the technology developed by Banon, applications such as Tinder learn through the fingers of their users, who, by sliding a photo to the right or to the left, are delivering indispensable information to the social environment in order to determine the type of interests and tastes of the user, and in this way, the quality of the results obtained in the next searches is improved with each photo.

However, Tinder is not the only company that is transforming the way of searching information on the Internet, since Netflix has completely changed the experience of video searches by means of a sophisticated algorithm that constantly offers contents for the user to watch them without the need of entering any keyword or additional information, learning from each selection that the user makes, from the time that he/she spends on each content, among many other variables.

In the case of Uber, Elastic’s technology has allowed drivers to connect with users based on georeferencing, historical and statistical traffic information, thus achieving drivers to provide the service to the user who requires it, with the statistical probability of the shortest distance, while other aspects such as qualification, experience, destination route, among many other variables, are evaluated in parallel.

Experiences Rather Than Words

The technology developed by Elastic is allowing to take the searches to a new level, where the information provided by the user is not necessarily intentional and conceptual; in other words, the user receives what he/she wants without necessarily being aware of it or asking for it expressly, something that will be enhanced in the coming years as new technologies emerge and develop, such as facial recognition systems that will have the ability to interpret the face of consumers through the cameras integrated into the Smartphones and know if the results are satisfactory or on the contrary frustrating, allowing the algorithms to learn constantly.

Smartphones: an inexhaustible source of data

As smartphones have been improved, they have incorporated new technologies that allow other ways of capturing information different from the keyboard. One example is GPS, which allows users to determine their georeferencing, the places they frequent, the routes they take and the times they take. The gyroscope is another device incorporated in modern cell phones that allows the capture of information about the movements made by its owner, as well as the time spent with the device in hand, while the microphone allows the capture of voices and sounds, or the cameras capture images and video. But undoubtedly, the most valuable thing is the information crossing that can be obtained when all these data are analyzed through the technology that Elastic offers, offering new search experiences unimaginable until now.

Privacy: The Great Challenge

While technologies like Elastic’s are taking shape and consolidating as trends within the industry for many civil organizations and Internet privacy advocates, the big challenge remains how to guarantee the privacy of users, especially if this information is used for commercial or advertising purposes, since the amount of data that may be collected becomes a real gold mine for any person or company.

At the moment, it is difficult to regulate this type of technology that is in germinal stages, however, as it becomes more popular, it will be necessary for governments, developers and companies to define the limits to this type of technological tools.

By:

Gabriel E. Levy B.

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