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Web Log 'Word Bursts' Could Identify New Crazes
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.
Could this be what Google wants with Blogger?
They have the capacity to do this, I don't see why they wouldnt.
Pain lasts, kid. Its how you know you're alive. Sometimes I think this growing up thing is just pain management-TheMaxx
Theres another "what's popular on blogs" webpage at Blogdex. It tracks links, showing which pages are most linked to.
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In a simple historical test of the technique, Kleinberg analysed all the annual State of the Union addresses given by US Presidents since 1790. He found that particular word "bursts" could indeed be linked to important events at the time the speeches were delivered.
Has an important increase of the use of the word "nukular" been reported in the last few weeks then?
..Now we're going to see Pepsi add's slinging "in soviet russia, you drink pepsi' , and Nike yelling about "all your sports belong to us..."...
I lost my concept of community when my community lost all concept of me.
By my definition "cool" is that which most people have not yet discovered. Example: that... ah, but I'm not going to tell you. Perhaps this method can tell you what just became cool, but it's hard to track something that is by definition under the radar. Otherwise, just track Google searches. You'll soon see what's popular.
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I wonder how long before this can be done real time enough to really make this useful.
Yes, I bet the spammers can't wait until they can use it...
There are fewer illiterates than people who can't read.
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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Of course, since there is only a very specific socioeconomic subset of the world population weblogging, what real usefulness does this give us? Honestly, even if you did ranking based on the most popular weblogs, that wouldn't help you very much.
:P. Unless this thing actually can find out the things that people are excited about that aren't well-known, it's pretty much just another search tool limited to blogs.
Furthermore, this thing isn't telling me anything I don't know. So it finds the word "Vietnam" during the Vietnam years. Hooray. I bet it finds the word Iraq today, or the phrase "Bin Ladin" last year.
Whoopdie-do. I'm impressed
Seriously, just read /. if you want to know the important stuff of the day. :)
Twice usually.
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.
The analysis only works if your tool doesn't start modifying the data you are analyzing. If this thing ever caught on, it would quickly become meaningless, because everybody wants to be part of whatever craze is going on. Every morning you check which words are hip, you put them on your website... etc. etc.
You are right about feedback: the buzz would become a terrible din. That said, it is a cool idea.
Congratulations! Now we are the Evil Empire
.... one more time why don't you. And I quote,
"For example, identifying word bursts in the hundreds of thousands of personal diaries now on the web could help advertisers quickly spot an emerging craze."
Gonfonit!!! Why does cool new social technology have to be related to ways to help people sell things to Americans! Why is it okay for us to be considered a nation of consumers, otherwise basically useless biological skinsacks?!
I'll just strap my wallet to my chest with duct tape now and write my social security number in huge numbers on the back of my t-shirt for fast credit checks.
they'll think that goatse.cx is now considered cool.
Which begs the observation: once poeple know the rules that determine what a "word burst" is and when it's happening, then tools will be developed to artificially inflate desired word burts
Create a few hundred shill accounts across thousands of blogs, then each accounts on each blob will make a couple posts with the pre-determined phrase, and you have a manufactured word burst.
Like a few years ago, when poeple sold the ability to seed search engines so your site is in the top of the results list based on certain keywords.
Google makes that harder now, but it's always a contest between those who develop the rules (or algorithm) and those who seek to manipulate the data or the rules of the game.
A manufactured word burst I can remember from before the 2000 election was 'gravitas'. That word came out of nowhere, and was suddenly all over the media, used to describe a quality that Dubya was lacking. There was a talking points memo somewhere that was very widely distributed -- which is the analog version of what I am describing.
Look it up.
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