A brief introduction to search engine optimization techniques and open source intelligence

1. Search Engine Optimization
and OSINT
What is it all about?
And how can it help me?

2. Data, Data, Data Resulting in nearly 8 years of
content uploaded every day!
5,000 years ago  People started to write
600 years ago  People started to publish
43 years ago  The internet was born
17 years ago  The World Wide Web was invented
Over 10 million web pages are added to the internet everyday!
The current Indexed Web contains at least 7.46 billion pages!

3. Open Source:
Data, Information & Intelligence
• OSD: Data
• OSI: Information
• OSINT: Intelligence

4. Publicly Available Material
Internet
Traditional Mass Media
- TV - Radio,
Geospatial Information - Newspapers
- Maps - Magazines, etc…
- Commercial Imagery Products
- Conferences
- Specialized Journals
- Think Tank Studies

5. Open Source Data (OSD)
Data is the raw print, broadcast, oral debriefing, or other
form of information from a primary source.
It can be a photograph, a tape recording, a commercial
satellite image, or a personal letter from an individual.
ex: reporter embedded with forces in Afghanistan or Iraq.
Taking pictures, talking to soldiers, recording conversations
and firefights, and taking notes with a pen or pencil.
This is considered raw data until it goes through a
conversion process to create a coherent product.

6. Open Source Information (OSI)
OSI is comprised of the raw data that can be put together, generally by an
editorial process that provides some filtering and validation as well as
presentation management.
OSI is generic information that is usually widely disseminated.
Newspapers, books, broadcasts, and general daily reports are part of the OSI
world.
Ex: a reporter embedded with forces who takes the raw data and converts it into
a meaningful article that is printed in newspapers, magazines or broadcasted
over the air waves. OSI is what a Soldier would purchase at the bookstore inside
the Post Exchange in the form of USA Today or Newsweek.

7. Open Source Intelligence (OSINT)
OSINT is information that has been deliberately discovered, discriminated,
distilled, and disseminated to a select audience, generally the commander and
his/her immediate staff, in order to address a specific question.
In the case of a battlefield commander, it would more than likely be answering the
priority intelligence requirements (PIR) or specific orders or requests (SOR).
OSINT, in other words, applies the proven process of intelligence to the broad
diversity of open sources of information, and creates intelligence.
Example: The meaningful article above (OSI) that was created from raw data is
used to support an operation. It’s quite possible that a photo accompanying the
article may be of a house known to harbor insurgents. The photo in the article
identifies the location and now can be used to support a tailored operation to
attack the insurgents.

9. Don’t Let Limit You
Pre-existing research/analysis limitations
Hyper-Personalization
Language Barrier
Lack of Cultural Knowledge
creates the
Cultural Intelligence “Filter Bubble”
Data
Unsearchable
Unavailable
Problem: Unsolicited Search Filter
Algorithmic Limitations
Based on 57 signals
Ex: • Location
• Language
• Sign-In
• Computer Model
• Browser
Eli Pariser – “The Filter Bubble”

10. Moving Beyond: Academic Journal Search Engines/Databases
Carnegie Endowment
Jstor Brookings Institution
EBSCOHost EIU
ProQuest RAND
LexisNexis International Crisis Group
Academic Search Premier International Institute for Strategic Studies
German Institute for International Politics
Japan Institute of International Affairs
Recommended: Search Engine Optimization Extensions
ext:pdf
site:www.THINKTANK.com
Dates: 2000..2010
-Minus and/or +Plus things in or out

11. Alternatives to the Google Search Engine:
Cluster Based Searches
Over 85% of everyday searches return different results
when you use different search engines such as
Google, Yahoo, Bing and Ask.
DogPile Performs multiple searches
and then aggregates the results into
one quality set of results.
Goal: to give universal results instead
of what one engine thinks may be best
suited for you.
www.dogpile.com
* Has advanced search

12. Alternatives to the Google Search Engine:
Cluster Based Searches
Yippy (formerly known as Clusty)
Ex: Searching for articles and material relating to OSINT.
Instead of doing many different searches, just search for
OSNT and Yippy will gather them into aggregated cluster
groups based on the results; and also show results in
the traditional format - descending in order of relevance.
Goal: Organize search results into clustered themes, www.yippy.com
topics and sources.
* Has advanced search
Quintura Redefines how search results should be
displayed using a tag cloud as well as the traditional
descending in order of relevance results. Hovering your
mouse over the cloud will show alternative options.
[method is used to display results for web, images and
videos.]
Goal: Quicker alternative display using cloud of themed
key words
www.quintura.com

13. Happy Searching!