We caught up with the nice people over at Web Pro News to chat with co-founders John and Eric.  Check it out below!

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Apple’s buzz machine has been working overtime for past few months to create awareness, intrigue, a bit of mystique, and ultimate anticipation-in-awe surrounding the inevitable announcement of its tablet computer at a Steve Job event in Silicon Valley.  If you’re just coming out from under a rock today, just type in “Apple tablet” in Google news to muse through a few thousand articles about the product that hasn’t even been confirmed yet. Sites like Mashable have gone so far as to dedicate sections to this holy day that’s now upon us.

So over at review’d we’re always interested in what people are really saying by trying to put some numbers to some of the feelings we’re sensing.  Is it good/bad, how much of it is going on, and how strongly do people feel?

Apple was one of the first companies we started to track during early development of review’d. Recognizing the potential for confusion with, say, your granny smiths or macouns, based on what we’ve observed, it’s pretty safe to assume most of tweets with “Apple” in it are related to the company in Cupertino.

So with that, here’s a sense of what people have been saying:

Twitter Sentiment analytics of Apple Computer on tablet launch day

One thing that Apple is notorious for is having a base of über enthusiasts and brand haters. The result is typically a constant stream of polarizing comments from both camps. Just think about how passionate some Windows people still are today and don’t hesitate getting into an argument with black-attire sporting creatives with funky shoes and square-framed glasses any day of the week. But we digress… A look at the above shows a significant quantity of tweets expressing opinions (remember, review’d only tracks tweets that hint at either a positive or negative opinion, not all). The swell is evident and hints at mainstream involvement are present.

Chattiness
Chattiness is a new feature we’ve added on the development site of review’d and we thought that with a rockin’ high rating of 100% today, there’d be no better time to introduce it.  Chattiness is based on the quantity of tweets being expressed in the last 24 hours versus the previous 30 day period. Anything to the right shows you things are heating up. To the left, they’re dying down.  The confirmation is here, yes, people are jazzed up (albeit in both directions) about today’s announcement.

Here are some examples of tweets tracked by review’d in the last 24 hours to give you a sense of the playing field.

Thanks to darcyhooper and i_Karu.

On the other side, DrewsDictionary and SusanVJ.

Whether you agree that this piece of hardware has the potential to save the publishing industry and will live up to its anointed ”Jesus tablet,” that’s for time to play out. For now, the buzz is there, people are talking, and there’s not much better than your brand than that. Now, to pop some popcorn and see what happens today.

We’ve been tracking all things Tiger since early in the PGA season and recently took a look at how things are fairing for the golfer given the explosion of interest by the world’s media and general public alike.

Here is probably the most compelling insight, a line graph showing the positive and negative tweets about Tiger over time.

What’s interesting about what you can see above is how closely the sentiment is tied to what has been unfolding in the news.  Right as people learned about the accident, there was a lot of positive remarks made in support of Tiger.  Fast forward a bit as more came out about his alleged infidelity and negatives spike to Alpine-like heights never before seen since we’ve been tracking.

There’s a lot of decisions that are going on behind the scenes as Tiger weighs pulling out of further competitions, shedding more light on why he got into an accident, and saying more about the accuracy of alleged affairs.  A visit over to his official site shows little-to-no response to the daily allegations or message to his fans.  The absence of such leads to assumptions of truth through rumor and assessments such as those by colleague Dr. Grohol over at PsychCentral to help us take something away from what’s swirling around us.

Think about Tiger Woods as the brand.  It’s manifested through logos on apparel, balls, bags, travel mugs, posters and video games worldwide.  What’s today’s value of that brand?  How important is it for major sponsors such as Gillette, Nike, Buick, and others to know what it’s worth?  review’d helps to do that by taking in to consideration the data behind those graphs over time to calculate a review’d score.  As of today, Tiger’s is at 39…and yes, that’s sub-par.  With that, we’ll leave you with this gem of an inevitability to enjoy the rest of your Friday.

——-

Evening update: Tiger to take indefinite hiatus from golf. This statement was posted to Tiger Woods’ official site:

I am deeply aware of the disappointment and hurt that my infidelity has caused to so many people, most of all my wife and children. I want to say again to everyone that I am profoundly sorry and that I ask forgiveness. It may not be possible to repair the damage I’ve done, but I want to do my best to try.

I would like to ask everyone, including my fans, the good people at my foundation, business partners, the PGA Tour, and my fellow competitors, for their understanding. What’s most important now is that my family has the time, privacy, and safe haven we will need for personal healing.

After much soul searching, I have decided to take an indefinite break from professional golf. I need to focus my attention on being a better husband, father, and person.

Again, I ask for privacy for my family and I am especially grateful for all those who have offered compassion and concern during this difficult period.

As you know, we’ve been tracking the sentiment toward Windows 7 for some time. Launched on Oct. 22 it has now had a little over a month to marinate in the marketplace. Reports abound about how well sales have been of the new Microsoft OS, but what are people really saying?

Well, the biggest takeaway is that they’re saying less. It’s the morning after as far as product launches are concerned and the conversation is dwindling. Check out this graph that shows the relationship between positive and negative tweets toward Windows 7.

30-day line graph of Windows 7 positive and negative tweets

Even while the excitement level may be dwindling, there’s some good news buried within this little graph. Overall, there’s more positive activity going on than negative.

Here’s a few more examples of the tweets that people are making:

Oh my goodness. I LOVE Windows 7!!! (So far) – by @andireid

Windows 7 is awesome. Im stoked to use it tomorrow. – by @bassplayer2008

and from the other camp:

Time to downgrade my Windows 7 from Ultimate to Professional. Fail. – by @gearvosh

Apparently to upgrade to Windows 7 from XP you first need to upgrade to Vista. Holy fail. Ridiculous. – by @samelaanderson

Warranted or not, it’s what people are saying.

Too much data can get overwhelming though, which is why a central part of review’d is the review’d score. As we mentioned briefly once before, the review’d score is our own little gauge at how well things are going over time. If people are being more positive, up it goes. More negative? Down it falls. You get the jist. So with that, we’ll let you know that the latest review’d score for past week puts Windows 7 at a 63. How does that fair? Well, to put it in perspective, Twitter darling Zappos is cruising at a 92 while State Farm is at a whopping 6.

If Windows 7 comes up over the bird this Thanksgiving, you’re now armed with a little more perspective. Does it trump all the cool offerings from Apple? That’s for you do decide.

Recognizing that teeing-up perception of the new OS is critical to its initial success, Microsoft itself decided to stoke the fires on Twitter as a part of its marketing effort.  There was the #winwin7 campaign and other attempts by Microsoft as part of its multi-faceted campaign. @rupalparekh over at AdvertisingAge (@adage) covered the moves pretty thoroughly.  So we’ve been tracking sentiment against Windows 7 for several months now.  After all we’re interested in what people are really thinking (and saying on Twitter).

So it’s with a little surprise (and reaffirmation of the importance of what we’re doing here at review’d) to see what we Microsoft has up as its home page today for launch.  Check it out:

Microsoft's home page on Oct. 22, 2009

Cheers to Microsoft for bringing users statements to the forefront!  But are they?  A couple of searches on featured tweets yielded no results in Twitter’s own search engine.  That doesn’t mean they didn’t exist (tweets are purged out of search over time unless you indicate the specific date range).  Still, if Microsoft is featuring “real-time” reviews for marketing efforts, the tweets better be fresh.  Jury is still out on whether or not this one is a little too stale:

Windows 7 tweet citation fail

Seriously though, what are people really saying about Windows 7?  Dare we believe the editors behind this revolving feed of rainbows, unicorns and 100% positive reviews? Here’s the latest from review’d:

Oct. 21-22, 2009

The numbers on the above graph are as follows: 226 tweets total (131 positive and 95 negative for a 58% positive hurrah on launch day so far). I’d say reviews are a little more skeptical than Microsoft would lead you to believe.  Still, people can be pretty harsh out there on the interwebs, shrouded in anonymity and separated by screens and input devices.  Here are some verbatims we collected from the two camps.

First on the positive side:

Positive tweets as tracked by review'd

Thanks to @mattymax, @Ducky11, and @troymccabe for the above tweets.

And on the other side of the fence:

Negative tweets as tracked by review'd

Credit to @tweeetosaurus, @djDeficit, and @jimtac for their words of wisdom.

Fact of the matter is that an aggregate of these messages helps to create an aura about a product.  It’s intensified by the consumption quantity (followers receiving) and authority level of the originator – something that Microsoft has reduced down to “Twitter User” in its questionable citations.

In this little journey through Microsoft’s marketing today, we also found this fun little feed to help visitors understand “What people are saying about Windows 7.”  It pulls in reviews and discussions from all the fun sources such as Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, and an RSS blog feed.  To join the conversation, you tag your message or content with #win7, #windows and the like.  So we sat and watched the stream for a good bit of time waiting for anything negative to come through…zilch.

Microsoft, if you want to play fair in social media, censoring (if that indeed is what you’re doing) is off-limits.  For the rest of us, the best piece of advice today might be to just take a peek at the same hash tags within Twitter’s search or set up a column in TweetDeck to get the unfiltered truth.

We were able to track close to 800 tweets yesterday expressing an opinion about Miley.  The verdict is in: while yes there was support for Miley, the shift was definitely in the negative direction.  In general, from those who expressed an opinion that review’d was able to track, people are not that upset to see her go.  Some even went so far to kick her on the way out…but out of respect we will save you the cross-link to examples (even though this is all based off of our activity on “a lame gossip site”).

Worry not; however.  There’s still Ashton Kutcher, Oprah, John Mayer, and Britney Spears to fill your soul with whatever it is they fill people’s souls with…in 140 characters or less.