Today it is necessary, at least in general terms, to have an idea about the world of big data. We have selected publications in which it is easy to explain what big data is and how it is used. Articles are designed, rather, for beginners, but also people who are knowledgeable in the subject will be able to find interesting (or just funny) cases for themselves.

What it is?

First, read the excellent publications here on the "Habré":

What is big data, part 1
What is big data, part 2
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Even shorter: in an article on “PostNauk”, University of Naples researcher Stanislav Protasov explains why big data analysis is an important part of our life:

What is Big Data?

Understand the terms

In any articles about big data for professionals, you will certainly encounter phrases like “machine learning” and “data lake”. Therefore, it is worth spending a few minutes to study the terminology using the publication on Rusbase:

» Big data world in 8 terms

Big data in advertising

Working with big data helped Barack Obama win the 2012 elections. In the pre-election race, the headquarters of the President of the United States actively used the possibilities of advertising targeting. Advertising targeting is based on data about previous activity and user preferences. But this is only a small part of how modern advertisers use big data:

» How is big data useful for advertising business?

The good old CPM time, when advertisers paid per thousand impressions, is known to be running out. Just selling a banner to someone every year is becoming more difficult. Now advertisers are focusing on Programmatic, Real-timeBidding, DSP. What this means is explained on MediaToolbox.ru:

» Everything you wanted to know about Programmatic advertising

“A key feature of the programmatic is the operation of multifactor algorithms when selling and buying advertising equipment (advertising spaces, simply speaking). All this happens on huge data arrays, in terms of analyzing the audience, sites, prices.

Only robots in a fraction of seconds can process such big data: analyze the site on the audience composition, correlate this data with the client's targeting, choose the appropriate advertising format and keep within the stated price, which is governed by the auction principle. ”

To sell advertising without analyzing big data in the modern world is so difficult that publishers around the world began to combine information about their readers in order to get large enough and high-quality databases. Analysis of the case with German publishers:

» How big data changes the media advertising market

“Data is critical,” says project manager Pangea, director of revenue for Guardian News & Media, Tim Gentry. According to him, exchanging primary information about their users, media companies create "unique and attractive audience segments." For example, subscription information from one publisher may be combined with behavioral information received from another. As a result, a detailed user profile is created for which advertisers are willing to pay. ”

From theory to practice

Data needs to be collected, stored and able to use. How to do it - in the publication Mebius.io:

How difficult is it to work with big data?

“Suppose we have collected all the necessary information in the data lake, but how to put it all together? Transform and harmonize data, ensure consistency of all sources, check the quality of data in reality and is the most difficult part in the process of working with big data. "

What information is collected using big data? Where does it come from and how is it processed? How to effectively use big data for site development? Talk about this on Cossa.ru:

» How big data helps boost sales from the site

About who to go for "iron", algorithms, advice and ready-made solutions in Russia, is described here:

» How the big data market in Russia works

As a bonus, we recommend reading about how big data and targeting are used in the porn industry .