News broke this week that Verizon would be blocking Google’s flagship Galaxy Nexus phone from including Google Wallet, the NFC-based system that will let you tap your phone against special sensors to pay for goods and services. Speculation was that the decision was spurred by Verizon’s support of a rival NFC-based payment solution ISIS. The decision sparked a battle between Google and Verizon.

We used Social Radar to analyze conversations online.

Verizon conversation sentiment

Conversations around Verizon averaged more than 75% positive throughout the past month but spiked to nearly 50% negative this week. The phrases ‘blocking Google Wallet’ and ‘Galaxy Nexus’ are appearing in nearly 20% of all Verizon conversations online.

Do you think Verizon is making a bad decision?

Motorola has resurrected the RAZR as a Droid-branded smartphone. That’s right, the razor-thin flip phone that sold more than 130 million units in its four-year run in the mid-2000s is back.

Motorola released the Droid Razr on Friday, 11/11/11, at 11:11 a.m. Amazon offered a Friday-only deal on the new Razr through its AmazonWireless site giving you the Razr for $111.11 with a Verizon contract.

How did buzz on the resurrected RAZR compare to the original? We used Social Radar to analyze conversations online back to 2007 to find out.

Motorola RAZR buzz

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Current RAZR sentiment

Within the last 30 days, conversations around RAZR have been 88% positive. The word ‘Android’ is appearing in 47% of all RAZR conversations and is 92% positive.

Current RAZR content distribution

Within the last 30 days, 40% of RAZR mentions came via Twitter, 48% via blogs, and 8% via forums.

Are you happy to see the RAZR attempting to make a comeback? Will you buy a Droid RAZR?

On Monday, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey’s mobile payment service Square released a Register app for merchants to use an iPad at the point of purchase. With the software merchants can complete transactions with absolutely no plastic as long as the customer has Square’s mobile app. Square has built a wallet into its app called Card Case, which stores payment details, sharing your name when checking out, processing the transaction and sending a text message confirmation.

On Tuesday, Ad Age reported that Square’s Card Case system marked the first major mobile payments launch in a category that has everyone from Visa to AT&T in a tizzy. And while Square nabbed Visa as a strategic investor in April, Visa is also launching its own mobile wallet competitor based on near field communication (NFC) technology, which will enable users to touch or wave their phone at the register to pay, rather than give their name to a salesperson.

Then, today, Google announced Google Wallet, an app that the company says will make your phone your wallet. You’ll be able to tap, pay and save using your phone and near field communication. Google is field testing Google Wallet now and plans to release it soon. Users will be able to store credit cards, offers, loyalty cards and gift cards. When you tap to pay, your phone will redeem offers and earn loyalty points. Google also plans to store things like boarding passes, tickets, IDs and even keys.

We used Social Radar to measure buzz.

Google Wallet chatter online

Google Wallet, which had been nearly unmentioned before today, experienced a 116,483% spike in chatter.

Google vs. Square vs. Visa vs. MasterCard vs. AT&T vs. Verizon mentions within “mobile payment” conversations

Visa and Square generated the most overall chatter within “mobile payment” conversations over the past month. However, Google spiked above all others today, being mentioned in 90% of all “mobile payment” conversations.

Did Google Wallet just change the game? How will Google Wallet affect plans and offerings for Square and Visa moving forward?

After nearly four years of rumors and speculation, Verizon announced this week that the iPhone will be available on the Verizon network beginning February 10.

Verizon vs. AT&T chatter

Chatter around Verizon spiked following the announcement.

iPhone mentions within Verizon and AT&T conversations

We measured the number of times iPhone was mentioned in each conversation around both Verizon and AT&T. On average, iPhone was mentioned in 33.8% of Verizon conversations and 5.75% of AT&T conversations within the last month.

AT&T vs Verizon mentions within iPhone posts

When we look at overall conversations around the iPhone, Verizon has appeared in around 11% of iPhone conversations, while AT&T has appeared in less than 4% of iPhone conversations overall so far in 2011. Following yesterday’s announcement, the word Verizon appeared in 41% of iPhone conversations.

Verizon vs. AT&T conversation sentiment

Conversations around Verizon have been 77% positive so far in 2011, while conversations around AT&T have been only 69% positive.

Verizon conversation topic cloud

In the days since the Verizon iPhone announcement, the only word even remotely negative (in grey) appearing in Verizon conversations is AT&T.

AT&T conversation sentiment around service, reception and calls

Conversely, negative sentiment around the words service, reception and calls within AT&T conversations spiked following the Verizon iPhone announcement.

What will the Verizon iPhone mean for Verizon and AT&T moving forward? The Wall Street Journal reported analyst estimates that Verizon could add more than 10 million U.S. iPhone customers in 2011. How will AT&T respond?

Verizon said yesterday that it would pay up to $90 million in refunds to 15 million cellphone customers who were wrongly charged for data sessions. The announcement came after talks with the F.C.C. about complaints of unauthorized charges and in response to questions about a possible settlement of an F.C.C. investigation into the issue.

Verizon said customers would receive credits from $2 to $6 for the incorrect charges that had been happening since 2007.

Negative chatter around Verizon spike above positive yesterday for the first time this year.

The topic cloud for Verizon over the past two days shows a high propensity of negativity.

The F.C.C. is raising questions about whether Verizon was aware of the problem and why it has been happening for more than two years. How will this refund affect public perception of Verizon in the future?

Samsung turned heads this summer with its launch of the Galaxy S line of Android smart phones. Samsung even accomplished the rare feat of coordinating the launch across all four major U.S. carriers – T-Mobile (as the Vibrant), AT&T (as the Captivate), Sprint (as the Epic 4G) and Verizon (as the Fascinate).

With competition in the mobile market heating up, we decided to breakdown the buzz on the Galaxy S.

Chatter trend: iPhone vs. HTC Evo vs. Droid X vs. BlackBerry Torch vs. Galaxy S

Measuring chatter: iPhone vs. HTC Evo vs. Droid X vs. BlackBerry Torch vs. Galaxy S

As expected, iPhone 4 generated the most online chatter in the last month against the HTC Evo, Droid X, BlackBerry Torch and Galaxy S.

However, chatter around Galaxy S specifically has been steadily rising over the past several months.

Galaxy S chatter trend

Galaxy S sentiment

Sentiment around Galaxy S has been very positive, with 85% of conversations being positive and only 7% negative.

Galaxy S sentiment trend

Galaxy S Negative Words

The word ‘problem’ was among the most frequently used negative words.

By drilling into individual posts for further analysis, we found the words ‘slow’ and ‘lag’ among those used most often with the word ‘problem’.

We also looked at the overall topic cloud to reveal some of the key words used in Galaxy S posts, sized by relevance and colored by sentiment.

Galaxy S Conversation Topics

The word iPhone appeared in 22% of Galaxy S posts.

Galaxy S Most Influential Sites

Analysis of the Top Sources using the Social Radar visualization tool reveals Engadget blog as the top source based on links in, links out and relevant posts.

Galaxy S chatter: Captivate vs. Epic 4G vs. Fascinate vs. Vibrant

We also analyzed chatter around each of the four Galaxy S phones: the T-Mobile Vibrant, AT&T Captivate, Sprint Epic 4G and Verizon Fascinate. At the moment, the Vibrant is generating the most chatter, followed by the Captivate, the Epic 4G and then the Fascinate.

Galaxy S content breakdown

Further breaking down the percentage of content contributed by various sources reveals 67% of chatter around Galaxy S was generated by microblogs, 22% by blogs and 11% by forums.

So how does the Galaxy S chatter compare among Android enthusiasts vs. iPhone enthusiasts?

We created a watch list consisting of blogs and news feeds specifically focused on Android products, and compared which of the Android phones were generating the most chatter. We included Galaxy S, Galaxy A, Evo, Nexus One, Hero, Droid Incredible, Droid X, Droid 2 and myTouch on the chart below:

Android phone chatter among influential Android bloggers:

Conversely, we thought it would be interesting to run the same query among top iPhone focused blogs and news feeds to see which of the Android phones were generating the most chatter among iPhone enthusiasts:

Android phone chatter among influential iPhone bloggers

Nexus One dominated chatter among both Android and iPhone sources. Although the Nexus One has been on the market much longer than the Galaxy S and has been generating chatter for a longer period of time. Interestingly, the Galaxy S is not generating as much chatter among iPhone blogs and news feeds, though it is one of the most discussed among Android sources.  We will check back with an update and further analysis once the Galaxy S line has been on the market longer.

With two major Google stories this week, we decided to compare which was generating more buzz.

On Monday, Google and Verizon introduced a proposal for how Internet services should be regulated, and were immediately criticized by groups in favor of keeping the network as open as possible.

Then, Thursday, Oracle filed a lawsuit against Google for infringing on copyrights and patents related to Java and Android.

Both have been generating negative buzz for Google — negative sentiment is up 18% overall for Google this week.

And so far the Oracle lawsuit seems to be a bigger story, with Oracle appearing in nearly 15% of posts related to Google today and rising.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last month, you have probably been hearing about the ad battle between AT&T and Verizon that is paralleling a political campaign with constant attacking on both sides. It all started when Verizon decided to make a silly spin on iPhone “There’s an App for That” ads by making a “There’s a Map for That” ad, exploiting AT&T’s poor 3G network coverage. To fight back, AT&T decided to sue Verizon, leading to a war of attack ads back and forth that has no end in sight.

What does the consumer do in this situation? Sit back and watch in amusement? Take sides? One thing’s for certain – they’ve been talking, and Social Radar is showing us some interesting insight. Let’s take a look.

Now let’s take a look at the sentiment after the ad battle.

The sentiment appears to have effected AT&T the most severely, appearing to be a success for Verizon. But, both brands gained at least some negativity. Though this is good news for Verizon, let’s take a look at this from another perspective.

Below is a trend chart from September 1st, 2009 through today of Droid Mentions (blue line) versus Commercial/Ad Mentions (red line) within Verizon chatter.

What’s concerning here is that as soon as Verizon began to run these AT&T attack ads, chatter around their beloved Droid devices has dramatically decreased. We can see very clearly that consumers are losing focus and beginning to chat more about their commercials than the very ammunition they are using to sell against AT&T and the iPhone.

It will be interesting to see how this continues to play out. Are attack ads a good way to point out flaws of competitors or does it simply lose their consumers’ focus?

The November 2009 Social Radar Top 50 measures the brands with the most active Web presence based on overall online conversation volume. To create the Top 50 list, we used Social Radar to analyze millions of blog posts, news feeds, forums, social networks and Twitter posts to aggregate a list of the words and brands mentioned most frequently on the Web during November 2009. The list measures the number of unique individuals or sources that posted content about each brand during November 2009 rather than the overall number of mentions, which would be more heavily influenced by big fans who post frequently about a specific brand.

There were quite a few shifts this month. The success of Windows 7 has increased the chatter of Microsoft and Windows, raising their ranking three spots. Verizon has made it into the Top 50 this month and AT&T has increased rank mostly due to chatter around recent Verizon-AT&T attack ads. Also making an appearance this month is Oprah due to her announcement of the show ending in 2011.

The biggest surprise this month is Android, or “Droid”. It has made a remarkable jump to 11th place, surging past heavy hitters iPod, Blackberry, and even MySpace. It received nearly identical amounts of chatter as Windows and Microsoft this month.

Rank	Chg	Brand
1		Twitter
2	(+1)	Google
3	(+2)	YouTube
4		Facebook
5	(-3)	iPhone
6		Mac
7	(+1)	Obama
8	(-1)	Apple
9	(+3)	Windows
10	(+3)	Microsoft
11	(+18)	Android
12	(-3)	iPod
13	(-2)	MySpace
14	(+1)	XBox
15	(-5)	LG
16	(+1)	Fox
17	(-1)	Yahoo
18	(-4)	BlackBerry
19	(+2)	Amazon
20	(-1)	Playstation
21	(+2)	NFL
22	(-4)	BBC
23	(-1)	Wii
24		CNN
25	(+6)	AT&T
26	(-6)	Disney
27	(+5)	Firefox
28	(-2)	Sony
29		Oprah
30	(+4)	Nokia
31	(-4)	MTV
32	(-2)	NBA
33	(-5)	Starbucks
34	(-9)	Linux
35		ABC
36	(+4)	Dell
37	(+1)	eBay
38	(-1)	Skype
39		Verizon
40	(-7)	ESPN
41	(-5)	Ford
42		Wikipedia
43	(-4)	UPS
44		NASA
45	(-1)	Samsung
46	(-1)	BMW
47		Intel
48	(+2)	CBS
49	(-3)	Blu-Ray
50	(-7)	Canon

View the full list below, or download the PDF. For additional information about how you can analyze chatter sentiment to gauge positivity/negativity, view key words mentioned about your brand and identify key influencers, visit www.infegy.com/socialradar.

Questions or comments? Twitter me @adamcoomes.

The Verizon Wireless Droid launched last week and was quick to gain buzz on the internet as consumers got a hold of their very own mini-machines. The Droid gained momentum closer to its release date as numerous reviews, tweets and comments poured into social media.

Taking a deeper look into the content of these posts, we are able to pin-pont key concerns that users associate with Verizon’s new product. The fact that the Droid is being offered at the reasonable price of $199 bodes well across the board.

Looking at this sentiment trend, we are able to see emotions mapped out over time. As expected, negativity climbed after phones went on sale and consumers were actually able to get their hands on the product. On a good note, things look to be calming down quickly, but, as usual, can be expected to fluctuate a long the way as more and more of these devices are disbursed.

Thinking about getting a Droid, but aren’t really sure? Social media has become a very useful product research outlet for many, and this next graph illustrates where the best places are to look for insight. Nearly half of the content related to the Droid is coming out of the social media world via blogs. If you’re looking for fast and to-the-point feedback, Droid conversations are sprouting up all over the Twitter network. Simply search Twitter for the #droid hashtag to see what people are saying or to speak your mind!