Watch out for word bursts
by Paul Miller
Interesting article about some new research on 'word bursts' in New Scientist. This is basically collecting data about the frequency with which words are used.
"...the method could be applied to weblogs to track new social trends. 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."
I've been thinking about adding a similar feature to the Greenhouse to give us some idea about our own linguistic trends. Any thoughts?
Click here for the full article.
i like the idea of this. it is a research tool that quantifies the qualitative. however, i don't find it that extraordinary that word like 'soviet' and 'communist' bursted at the time they did. hardly unexpected. wouldn't verbs be more interesting than nouns!
ssn ssn
At daypop they are testing this concept
http://www.daypop.com/burst/
azeem azeem
Paul,
I have an idea about how you can do this. Let me know if this is of interest to you.
best
azeem