Google tool tracks user sentiment

Google and Wharton University have recently launched their educational channel ‘Fast Forward‘. The youtube channel contains videos from leading academics and experts on the changing landscape of marketing, as well as handy tools (the majority of them owned by Google) and event listings.

One of the things that seems to be missing from the channel is the ‘engage’ aspect, despite the tagline ‘Watch. Engage. Debate’. At present, the only platform for debate seems to be through the comment field – I’d imagine a forum or Google chat function won’t be too far off.

There’s one tool on the site that shows just how much intelligence Google has into user behaviour. The trends tool allows you to track user sentiment based on Google searches and (rather vaguely) ‘other public data sources’. You can then compare this sentiment against their list of economic and social indices, including unemployment rate, consumer price index and mortgage rate.

I find the fact that Google has the intelligence to assess consumer sentiment over a period of time (quite how this is done is unknown) slightly unsettling and surprising. I am slightly dubious about the ability to automatically analyse sentiment, but this tool is no doubt an eye opener into just how much Google knows about us. As with any sentiment analysis the tool is slightly simplistic – with a gauge on the left hovering between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ . It is an impressive tool nonetheless and a reminder of Google’s access to vast amounts of information online.