Attention Bloggers: We Are Being Watched!

It seems to be a recent trend that I quote from the Gazette. Oh well, how can I help it that I keep finding interesting, relevant stuff in it? Anyhow, I found this one yesterday... I'll let you form your own opinion. Oh yeah, and I took out a few paragraphs but you'll get the jist.

Net searcher has its ears to the blog
Faster information on trends promised by prototype tool

US researchers claim to have invented the first Internet search engine tuned to uncover scandal as it unfolds, gossip as it's being dished, and able to monitor the prickly views of an increasingly prominent tribe of 'instapundits' - the bloggers.
Online Search, the working title for a prototype tool by Accentre Technology Labs in Palo Alto Calif., goes beyond mere keyword lookups about products, public figures or trends.
Instead, the search focuses on several thousnd influential sources of online news and gossip that have traditionally been less accessible to search algorithms - from chat rooms and bulletin boards, to Usenet groups, fan sites and blogs written by amateur scribes. From those, it identifies hot topics and monitors people's positive or negative reaction to the next new thing.
Record executives who want to track the 'buzz' their artists' new releases are getting online, politicians looking for instant feedback about a policy announcement or stump speech, companies seeking speedier, cheaper ways to conduct post-marketing surveillance after a product launch, are among those expected to benefit from the more tailored search...
With their numbers conservatively estimated at anywhere from six to 10 million, swelling by at least 23,000 new online diaries a day, bloggers - scribes filtering the news through a uniquely personalized lens - are becoming critical influencers of public opinion.
Apple's decision to offer replacement batteries for the iPod came, coincidentally after rumours spread through the Blogosphere that the batteries 'only last 18 months'.
Lock manufacturer Kryptonite tacity acknowledged the impact of bloggers when it agreed to spend millions to placate customers whose U-shaped bicycle locks, an Internet billboard found, could be picked in seconds using a ballpoint pen...
During the US Presidential election, Accenture's engine trolled political news sites and blogs, plotting shifts in voter sentiment between George W. Bush and John Kerry, and acurately gauged the negative impact of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth on Kerry's campaign, he said.
In the demonstration engine searches are refreshed daily; but the system could easily be tweaked to capture near-instant monitoring of stocks, Boone said..
The technology can deduce roughly what a conversation is about, even flag musings about the competition...

That's basically it. I thought it sounded like a pretty interesting new technology. And to think that our opinions could actually make a difference! And so, fellow bloggers, let your opinions be known! Why else are we talking about ourselves over the internet, anyhow?

Article retrieved from the Montreal Gazette, Monday, February 28 2005. p. A17.