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Web Log 'Word Bursts' Could Identify New Crazes

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the bursting-at-the-seams dept.

Zorgatron writes "New Scientist reports that a researcher from Cornell University has come up with clever method of identifying what's cool by automatically searching weblogs. Sudden increases or "bursts" in the usage of particular words may reflect a new craze, according to Jon Kleinberg. He has demonstrated the technique by searching through state of the union addresses given since 1790." I wonder how long before this can be done real time enough to really make this useful.

3 of 239 comments (clear)

  1. Blogdex by nob · · Score: 4, Informative

    Theres another "what's popular on blogs" webpage at Blogdex. It tracks links, showing which pages are most linked to.

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    daed si luap
  2. Daypop by Apreche · · Score: 4, Informative

    http://www.daypop.com

    Its got the top 40 every day. Doing it some other way would only catch memes sooner. And if the system doesn't catch it until its popular, it really doesn't help. What we need is a large and complete database of all meme type things.

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    The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
  3. Re:Google by ccweigle · · Score: 4, Informative
    Google can do much the same thing, on a real-time basis, by examining what phrases are searched for.

    And they do that much already ... on their Zeitgeist page: http://google.com/zeitgeist

    But this is different. The article is about monitoring the blogs, not the searches. As suggested in another comment, this may be related to Google's acquisition of Blogger.