Google to Determine Sentiment
Google is always getting smarter. Expect them to know the sentiment of a company, product, and you soon. “Sentiment is generally measured as being positive, negative, or neutral.” Knowledge of sentiment is valuable data, especially to a CMO and Wall Street analysts. But how can a machine determine sentiment? One good way is Google’s patent application 11/844,222.
Today, sentiment is calculated based on identifying positive and negative words expressed in a document about a particular entity. This however doesn’t capture the full story. For example, while “low power” may be a negative word for electric cars, it would be a positive word for laptops. And that same “low power” might mean little to nothing if the entity were a restaurant.
Google’s answer is to produce a “domain-specific sentiment classifier for classifying sentiment expressed by documents in a specified domain.” By doing so, Google can more intelligently generate a sentiment score. If Google can get this right, it will be a golden tool for good PR companies and a thorn in the side for bad PR companies.
