Making news these days is everyone’s job, so there is more content the Web than anyone can keep pace reading. Understanding? That’s over-rated. We could even outsource the job to text analytics – Faster than a speeding cursor, more powerful than a filtered RSS feed. But maybe even THAT superhero of business intelligence could use some back-up.
Sifting through the ever-changing Web demands that we find real value often hidden in comments, blog posts and short messages – not just in mainstream news. That takes a deep analytical engine that does more than match words and phrases. News items have to be tallied and evaluated, especially in fast-moving, trend-making fields like politics, fashion or gossip. ReadWriteWeb profiled one nifty tool, News Patterns, which CEO James Andrus calls “a better communications platform with faster reaction” to the issues and subjects that matter. Read more and decide for yourself . We human readers have what Andrus calls ‘confirmation bias’ –tending to look at information that supports what we already know or believe. But News Patterns operates like a giant radar sweep identifying not just the number of Web citations but analyzing them for positive/negative comments and trends that indicate if the popularity is growing or declining. That added context makes all the difference when you’re being flooded by material and looking for relevance.
And when opinions change because of new information, often that isn’t made public in the same way. Another unique feature is the predictive ability to see what items, ideas, memes or names are emerging – moving toward the center of a bullseye, if you will. Recognizing patterns and important details more easily is a key aspect of analytics and it’s about time everyone had some help doing their homework.
David Wallace
Spotfire Blogging Team
Image Credit: Microsoft Office Clip Art