Google announced that it was going to start mixing its Google+ results into normal search results. Twitter wasn’t happy (because Google+ results will drive traffic back to Google’s own properties), saying that Google’s changes were “bad for people, publishers, news organizations and Twitter users.”

We used Social Radar to analyze conversations online.

Google sentiment

Conversations around Google went from 73% to 64% positive overnight. Twitter is currently being mentioned in 12% of all Google conversations.

Google is appearing in 9% of Twitter conversations.

As Blake Ross, director of product at Facebook, mentioned in a comment to this TechCrunch article:

“When you search Google for ‘basketball’ now, you get a link to Dwyane Wade’s Google+ profile in the right column. Why isn’t Google also linking to Dwyane’s Twitter profile, which has been around for much longer, has far more content, and is fully public?”

Did Google just make it more difficult to find relevant information online?

Kanye West generated headlines in the Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, NY Mag, and even drew praise from Twitter founder Jack Dorsey after his late night / early morning tweets.

West talked candidly about his life and design career until 6 a.m. over a series of tweets, then announced the creation of a design company called DONDA, named after his late mother, that would comprise 22 divisions and make “products and experiences that people want and can afford.” West invited graphic designers, app makers, social media experts, doctors and scientists, among others, to reach out to contact [email protected]

We used Social Radar to analyze conversations around Kanye West and DONDA online.

Kanye West buzz

Kanye West mentions tripled following the Twitter rant and reached the highest point of the month by far.

DONDA buzz

DONDA has been mentioned more than 500,000 times online since last night.

DONDA sentiment

Conversations around DONDA are 85% positive. The word ‘amazing’ is appearing in 11% of DONDA conversations.

What are your thoughts on West’s use of social media to share personal thoughts and make announcements?

Police began showing up by the hundreds just after midnight at Zuccotti Park last night, surrounded the encampment of tents and tarps and booths that the Occupy Wall Street protesters had built, and began evacuating protesters.

We used Social Radar to analyze conversations online.

Occupy Wall Street buzz

Occupy Wall Street buzz skyrocketed to an all-time high overnight.

Occupy Wall Street conversation topic cloud

Conversations around the Occupy Wall Street are currently 49% negative. Several topics reached Twitter’s worldwide list of trending topics, providing real-time updates of the events via social media.

A judge ruled against Occupy Wall Street protesters, upholding a move by New York City and the landlord of the privately owned plaza to clear tents from Zuccotti Park and prevent protesters from bringing equipment back in.

Will this mark the end of the Occupy Wall Street protests?

Nokia this morning introduced a series of basic smartphones and higher-end Windows Phone-powered smartphones at the Nokia World 2011 event in London. The company has posted several videos featuring the phones on its YouTube channel.

The struggling giant is trying to stage a comeback with the bevy of new products. Twitter and Square founder Jack Dorsey has some advice for the Nokia via Twitter today: “you make too many products. Focus on 3.” It’s a very Steve Jobs piece of advice, who famously said, “Focus is about saying No.”.

How did consumers react to the Nokia news? We used Social Radar to analyze conversations online.

Nokia buzz

Nokia mentions increased 550% to their highest point within the last six months.

Nokia sentiment

Conversations around Nokia are currently more than 80% positive. ‘Windows phone’ is being mentioned in 34% of Nokia conversations and is 92% positive.

Is Nokia back on the path to success? Or is the company trying to do too much?

Facebook has once again redesigned the news feed and officially launched a ticker in the right-hand side of the screen displaying real-time updates. The news feed reflects the addition of the recently launched smart friend lists, the subscribe button and the relocated privacy controls on the site.

The updates precede the upcoming “major profile redesign” Facebook is expected to roll out at its f8 developer conference tomorrow.

As with most Facebook updates, many users complained. MySpace even became a trending topic on Twitter last night, comparing the new Facebook changes to the fledgling overly complicated MySpace design.

We used Social Radar to analyze conversations online.

Facebook buzz

Facebook mentions — which are typically already high compared to other topics — increased 300% overnight.

Facebook sentiment August 18 – September 19

Facebook sentiment September 20-21

Negative chatter increased 9% following the changes. The word ‘MySpace’ appears in nearly 2% of all Facebook conversations. The word ‘Facebook’ appears in nearly 60% of all MySpace conversations.

#NewFacebook sentiment

The hashtag #NewFacebook was also trending overnight and today. Nearly 80% of all mentions were negative.

Facebook vs. Twitter vs. Google+

Not to be outdone, Google+ announced several new features, such as turning Hangouts into a bona fide broadcast platform. The search giant even added search to the service, and alerted users to the new changes with a giant blue arrow on the Google.com homepage.

Twitter, which typically generates the most mentions online among the big three, fell behind to Facebook following all of the current buzz.

Will tomorrow’s f8 conference, which speculates potential partnerships with Spotify and others, increase positive buzz for Facebook?

The country stopped to remember the 10th anniversary of the World Trade Center tragedy yesterday. Family members, President Barack Obama, former President George W. Bush, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and other political leaders visited the new National September 11th Memorial. NFL games across the country paid tribute to Americans who lost their lives. Many used social media to pay respects and remembered where they were when terror struck 10 years ago using the Twitter hash tag #on911.

We used Social Radar to measure conversations around September 11, 9/11, #on911, etc. online.

9/11 mentions

9/11 was mentioned in an unprecedented 1.7% of all Internet conversations yesterday, making it one of the most discussed topics online ever. Since we built our Social Radar database in 2007, we rarely see conversation topics pass even 1% of all conversations.

Content distribution

Approximately 93% of mentions came via Twitter. 61% of posts were made by males. For further analysis, visit www.infegy.com/socialradar.

Using hashtags – # - on Twitter to make searching easier is now common practice, especially for the ever growing online community of users who tweet whilst watching TV.  More and more often viewers will see official hashtags appear at the start of programmes so they don’t have to think of their own.  However it seems that  the BBC’s popular series ‘Dragons’ Den -’ where entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to a panel of  investors - has bowed to the pressure of Twitter users by changing the official hashtag shown at the start of the programme early on in the ten-part series.  In episode one it’s clearly shown as #bbcdragons:

 

 
By the time we get to episode three of the series the hashtag has changed to
#dragonsden as shown below:

 
Why has the BBC done this?  Well if you look at Social Radar’s analysis of the two tags it
should become clear:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since the series started on 31 July Social Radar has calculated that 192,528 mentions of #dragonsden occurred compared to just 28,915 of the official #bbcdragons.  The hashtag was changed on 14 August to #dragonsden and by episode 4 on 21 August there were only 60 mentions of the original #bbcdragons. 

The BBC has been prepared to drop its brand at the beginning of the tag to try and encourage a community of Twitter users who can easily follow each other’s tweets all from one source.  On the official Dragons’ Den website it displays the current tag and even asks tweeps whether they’ve seen a better one http://www.bbc.co.uk/apps/buzz/suggest-hashtag. Overall mentions have declined so it will be interesting to see how this trend develops during the remaining six episodes and whether the hashtag changes again.

Virgin America is using Twitter to get the word out for a 24-hour sale that will give some of its proceeds to a cancer charity. We used Social Radar to analyze conversations around Virgin American online.

Virgin America buzz

Virgin American mentions increased 4X thanks to the sale promotion. However, there was an even larger spike in mentions on August 4. We used Social Radar to investigate further.

Virgin America conversations August 4, 2011

Turns out, Virgin America celebrated its fourth anniversary with another Twitter-themed scavenger hunt promotion at AT&T Park in San Francisco.

Turntable.fm, the upstart online music sharing service, received good press in June following its launch. Turntable.fm turns music into a social game by letting members set up or join rooms where they can play music for each other.

Fast Company reported this week that labels, promoters and bands such as Passion Pit are turning to Turntable.fm rather than Facebook or Twitter or even radio to announce concerts. Lady Gaga and Kanye West are listed among the company’s latest investors.

Will Turntable.fm turn into the best promotional tool for artists to interact with fans? We used Social Radar to analyze conversations online.

Turntable.fm buzz

Turntable.fm buzz spiked in June following its launch and has since subsided considerably.

Online music sharing comparison

We compared Turntable.fm to other popular music sharing and discovery services such as Blip.fm, Pandora, Rdio and Spotify. Blip.fm consistently generated the most conversations online among the five services, followed by Pandora, Spotify, Turntable.fm, and Rdio.

Has the initial excitement around Turntable.fm already worn off? Or will we see more artists use the platform to launch music, make announcements and interact with fans?

Typically anytime a watershed event happens, my Twitter stream is full of people chiming in with opinions. Amy Winehouse, Grammy Awards, Super Bowl…you can’t really miss a major event and expect to login to Twitter without a spoiler alert. So today when President Obama asked all Americans to “call, email and tweet their GOP lawmakers if you want to see #compromise,” I expected an overload of tweets on the subject. Surprisingly, I saw very few. Then the @BarackObama account proceeded to post the Twitter handles of the GOP lawmakers in each state, so that Twitter users may voice their opinions to the people in charge. Still not much activity in my stream.

In other news, Apple now has more cash than the U.S. Government.

We used Social Radar to analyze which was generating more chatter online.

Apple vs. The U.S. Government

Wow. iPhone and Apple are generating significantly more chatter than Obama and the compromise he asked Americans to tweet about.

Tweet mentions within Obama chatter

Despite the President’s plea and his staff’s diligent work to provide contact info for all 50 states, the word “tweet” only appeared in around 3% of all Obama mentions today.

Will the American public step up and make their voices heard on this important topic?