Drip a Little Sarcasm, Change the World

I’ve been a little curious about a company called Biz360 since I saw them listed on my feed subscriber list. Since the kids are happily playing next door with friends I decided to caste aside my cleaning supplies and check them out. Anything is better than housework huh?

Biz360 has a product called Market360 BlogView. Here’s a little bit of what it’s for:

BlogView is a measurement and market intelligence solution that enables you to keep track of what’s being said in the Blogosphere about your company, its products and competitors, and the trends that impact your business.

You can read the rest here

Sounds cool to me. If I had a company I would like to know what people think. A little bit of reliable information is good thing. I question the reliability of a blog post. But, it certainly wouldn’t hurt would it?

Well, unless it’s used to make important business decisions based on anonymous speculation. I guess it usually works out.

I have one main question. How accurate is it? Does the software used to index the posts know the difference between genuine sentiment and sarcasm? Many times, even humans have a hard time telling the difference.

For example, suppose I typed:

I stopped by Wal-Mart today and my daughter had to go potty. Don’t you just love how those Wal-Mart bathrooms smell? It was a pleasant experience. You know how much I love Wal-Mart.

Now, would that be counted as a +1 for WAL-MART? Would the WAL-MART people think I really like how their bathroom smells? My overactive brain can see commercials with happy people exiting the restrooms and big yellow dots bouncing around. Kinda scary isn’t it?
I think most people would realize that a reference to a public bathroom is usually negative, but does the software know that?

Ok, let’s try another:

The pricing on the Method cleaner is a little high, but that OK with me. I just have to clean less.

Would Method think that I really like it when they overprice a cleaner because I’m lazy and appreciate having a reason not to clean? Would they think I actually clean less because of the price? I clean less because I like my blog! And quite a few others.

I’m curious about this stuff. I’m curious about how human beings use their past experiences and social views to interpret writing. I am way more curious about how you can get a bunch of if-then statements and word associations to do it. I’m sure with a huge quantity of data you can make educated guesses but I don’t think you can really get in touch with a market this way. If the people at Biz360 can give me a little insight I would appreciate it. I would definitely give you a +1. Right now you are a neutral.

So how about it, do you think a computer can effectively analyze the content of a blog post and get a true reading on popular sentiment? Ok, that’s a little too nerdy. Feel free to answer anyway. I’m rather fond of nerds. How about, can you make a statement, dripping with sarcasm, which might confuse those bots indexing what we type? Come on, give it a try. Me likes well-written sarcasm. :)