As a startup, it’s probably pretty scary and frustrating when you hear that Google has launched a competing offering. Tuesday, that happend for Dropbox when Google launched Google Drive. Google’s announcement came on the heels of Microsoft’s SkyDrive update announcement earlier this week.

Many expressed concern over privacy, but Google’s policy is actually no worse than its rivals. Google’s new cloud-based document and storage solution is priced aggressively and boasts best-in-class integration with other Google services — including Google Docs.

The cloud storage and collaboration space is more competitive than ever before. Google faces competition not just from cloud companies such as Box and Dropbox, but from Apple, Microsoft and Amazon as well.

A 100GB Dropbox account costs more than three times what a Google Drive account costs. Can Dropbox survive? We used Social Radar to analyze conversations online.

Dropbox conversation chatter

Google Drive was mentioned in 71% of all Dropbox conversations since yesterday. Although some of those mentions were to say things like Google Drive won’t be a Dropbox killer.

Google Drive vs. Microsoft SkyDrive vs. Dropbox buzz

Google Drive chatter more than doubled Dropbox and SkyDrive chatter online since yesterday.

If you’re a Dropbox user, will you switch to Google Drive?

On Monday morning, AOL announced a deal to sell and lease around 1,100 patents to Microsoft for a little more than $1 billion. AOL CEO Tim Armstrong said there were “no plans” to pursue acquisition right now.

We used Social Radar to analyze conversations around AOL and Microsoft online.

AOL mentions within Microsoft conversations

AOL was mentioned in 17% of all Microsoft conversations online following the patent sale.

AOL and Microsoft buzz

We analyzed conversations around AOL and Microsoft over the last month. Overall buzz around each company was not significantly affected by the news.

AOL and Microsoft conversation sentiment

Chatter around the AOL-Microsoft deal has been 86% positive this week.

Do you think the deal will lead to an acquisition?

British band Coldplay released its fifth studio album, Mylo Xyloto, Monday, Oct. 24. The album is positioned to head straight to the top of the Billboard 200 charts next week.

Coldplay chose not to make its new album available on Spotify or any other streaming music subscription service. Fans will either need to purchase physical copies or MP3 downloads from places like Apple’s iTunes store, Microsoft’s Zune store or Amazon. The decision is more likely financially motivated as Coldplay stands to make a great deal more money by encouraging the tens of millions of consumers who have streaming music subscriptions to purchase the songs.

How has the new album release affected Coldplay’s buzz online? We used Social Radar to find out.

Coldplay buzz October 2009-present

Coldplay buzz is currently more than 3x higher than its previous high point within the last two years.

Coldplay sentiment

Conversations around Coldplay are currently 76% positive online. The new album name, Mylo Xyloto, is currently being mentioned in 6% of Coldplay conversations. Rihanna, who collaborated with Coldplay on a song for the new album, is being mentioned in 5% of all Coldplay conversations. The classic Coldplay track “Fix You” is currently mentioned in 6% of all Coldplay conversations.

On October 3, ABC News and Yahoo announced a partnership to deliver more online news to their audiences. With the deal, ABC News content will be prominently featured on Yahoo News. The deal helps ABC grow its online reach and helps Yahoo drive further traffic to its own site by featuring original, made-for-online content. ABC launched a Web-only news series, starting with a live interview with President Barack Obama, and plans to feature online interviews conducted by Diane Sawyer, Barbara Walters, Katie Couric, Robin Roberts and others.

Then, October 5, Microsoft joined a list of companies considering a bid for Yahoo.

We used Social Radar to analyze how each of these stories affected Yahoo buzz.

Yahoo buzz

Yahoo buzz had been steadily declining for the past three years. Following the recent announcements buzz has nearly doubled.

Yahoo sentient

Conversations around Yahoo have been 71% positive over the last 30 days. Microsoft is currently appearing in 11% of Yahoo conversations.

How would a Yahoo-Microsoft partnership change the game? Could Bing and Yahoo together beat Google in the search game?

Microsoft unveiled the new Windows 8 operating system at its Build Conference in Anaheim, Calif. today. The OS, a complete rebuild of Microsoft’s flagship product, is designed to work with both tablets and PCs.

We used Social Radar to analyze preliminary conversations online.

Windows 8 sentiment

Conversations around Windows 8 have been overwhelmingly positive today.

Content distribution

So far today, 90% of chatter has come via Twitter, 56% in English. As expected, the majority of comments were made by males.

For further analysis, visit www.infegy.com/socialradar.

Google announced today that it would acquire Motorola Mobility, the cellphone business that was split from Motorola, for $12.5 billion. The acquisition, by far Google’s largest ever, turns Google (which makes the Android mobile operating system), into a full-fledged cellphone manufacturer, in direct competition with Apple

With the acquisition, Google gains a portfolio of 17,000 patents and another 7,000 patents pending globally. The word “patent” was mentioned 24 times on Google’s conference call this morning to discuss the deal. Google CEO Larry Page and other executives talked about how Motorola Mobility’s portfolio of patents will help protect google and its Android phone software from “anti-competitive threats” from Microsoft, Apple and other companies.

We used Social Radar to analyze conversations online.

Google and Motorola buzz

Nearly 79% of conversations around Google and Motorola today have been positive.

Where does this acquisition leave other Android phone makers?

Last week Facebook attempted to create buzz about an upcoming announcement today, inviting people to an “awesome” event online. It didn’t take long for the news to leak that the event would focus around Facebook’s long-rumored video chat product.

Facebook unveiled today video chat powered by Skype, as well as group chat.

Facebook buzz

Overall chatter around Facebook today is about equal to its average for the month.

Facebook vs. Google buzz

Many called today’s announcement Facebook’s response to Google’s Google+ announcement last week. Overall chatter around Facebook still trails chatter around Google.

Facebook’s new Skype video chat feature continues the integration between Microsoft and Facebook, including Microsoft’s Bing search engine, which indexes Facebook’s social data. With Facebook’s entry into the video-chat market, they’ll be competing with Apple’s FaceTime, Google Talk and the new Google+ Hangouts.

Skype mentioned within 6% of current Facebook chatter

We measured the number of Skype, video chat and group chat mentions within Facebook conversations, as well as the number of “awesome announcement” mentions to determine whether the attempted hype helped create buzz. Skype is currently generating the most buzz within those topics, being mentioned in nearly 6% of all Facebook conversations online. The “awesome announcement” hype attempt did not appear to help generate significant buzz for Facebook.

What are your thoughts on the new Facebook features announced today?

Microsoft yesterday unveiled Windows 8, which includes a touch-optimized, tile-based main interface, melding the user friendliness of modern smartphones with powerful PC features like complete access to the file system, the ability to see more than one app at a time on screen, and desktop caliber apps.

Apple, on the other hand, is poised to announce the eagerly awaited cloud system iCloud during Monday’s WWDC, among many other new features and announcements (OS X Lion, iOS 5).

We used Social Radar to measure buzz around Microsoft Windows 8 to Apple iCloud, OS X Lion and iOS 5.

Microsoft Windows 8 vs. Apple iCloud, OS X Lion, iOS 5 buzz

Windows 8 is currently generating more buzz than Apple iCloud, iOS 5 and OS X Lion.

Microsoft vs. Apple buzz

Throughout the last 30 days, Apple has generated more chatter overall than Microsoft, despite a large spike for Microsoft around May 10 following the Skype acquisition.

Microsoft sentiment

Microsoft conversations are currently 65% positive, which is below the average 80% positive throughout the last month.

We will check back Monday following Apple’s WWDC with further analysis around Apple buzz.

Microsoft announced plans to buy Internet phone service Skype for $8.5 billion in its biggest-ever acquisition, placing a rich bet on mobile and the Internet to try to best rivals such as Google. The software company outbid Google and Facebook, which sources said offered to partner or buy Skype for $3 billion to $4 billion.

The news comes shortly after Apple was named the world’s most valuable brand, dethroning Google, which held the title for four years. In its annual BrandZ ranking of the world’s 100 top brands, Millward Brown estimated the worth of Apple’s brand at $153.3 billion.

We used Social Radar to measure conversations around both stories.

Skype, Microsoft & Apple buzz

Chatter around Skype is up 793% today following the acquisition announcement.

Microsoft – Skype acquisition sentiment

Conversations around the acquisition have been 62% positive today.

My biggest question is…will Skype work on my MacBook and/or iPhone anymore?

Nintendo reported yesterday plans to cut the price of its Wii console to $150 as soon as May 15. Over the past year, Wii sales have slowed considerably. Nintendo revealed earlier this year that it sold about 7 million Wii units in the U.S. in 2010. It had sold more than 10 million units in 2008 and about 9 million units in 2009. The Wii has trailed the Xbox 360 so far this year in overall sales.

Wii chatter

The price drop generated a small increase in chatter. However, we noticed a much higher spike in chatter around Wii conversations on April 25. Further analysis showed us that Nintendo announced plans to release Wii 2 in 2012 that day.

Wii vs. PlayStation vs. Xbox

As we posted yesterday, PlayStation has been facing increased negative buzz due to its hacked PlayStation Network. Regardless, Xbox has generated the highest amount of buzz overall throughout the last month.