Lexalytics Now Offers Intention Analysis
February 12, 2015
Lexalytics is going beyond predicting consumers’ feelings, or sentiment analysis, to anticipating their actions with what they call “intention analysis.” Information Week takes a look at the feature, soon to be a premium service for the company’s Semantria platform, in “Big Data Tool Analyzes Intentions: Cool or Creepy?” Writer Jeff Bertolucci consulted Lexalytics founder and CEO Jeff Catlin, and writes:
Catlin explained via email how intention analysis software would deconstruct the following tweet: “I’ve been saving like crazy for Black Friday. iPhone 6 here I come!”
“There are no words like ‘buy’ or ‘purchase’ in this tweet, even though their intention is to purchase an iPhone,” wrote Catlin. Here’s how an intention analysis tool would tag the tweet:
– intention = “buy”
– intended object = “iPhone”
– intendee = “I”
Grammar-parsing technology is the engine that makes intention analysis work.
“Intention is kind of the sexy feature, but the grammar parser is the key that makes it go, the ability to understand what people are talking about, regardless of content type,” said Catlin. “We’ve built a grammar-parser for Twitter, which deals with the fact that there’s bad punctuation, weird capitalization, and things like that.”
Companies can use the technology to determine buying patterns, of course, and may use it to ramp up personalized advertising. Another potential market is that of law enforcement, where agents can use the tool to monitor social media for potential threats.
Lexalytics has been leaders in the sentiment analysis field for years, and counts big tech names like Oracle and Microsoft among their clients. Designed to integrate with third-party applications, their analysis software chugs along in the background at many data-related organizations. Founded in 2003, Lexalytics is headquartered in Amherst, Massachusetts.
Cynthia Murrell, February 12, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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