14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft Codename "Social Analytics" Lab has made its debut, a project from the Redmond company designed as a response to the increasing need to tap social web data for business decisions.
Currently hosted under SQL Azure Labs, Microsoft designed Codename "Social Analytics" as a Cloud service set up to bridge the social networking universe with business applications.
The software giant is stressing that the new SQL Azure offering is just experimental at this point in time.
Still, the service already “provides an API enabling developers to easily integrate relevant social web information into business applications. Also included is a simple browsing application to view the social stream and the kind of analytics that can be constructed and integrated in your application,” a member of the Social Analytics team stated.
The fact that the service is only in experimental stage should be obvious when early adopters find out that there are only two topics available to them, “Windows 8” and “Bill Gates.”
Testers interested in taking “Social Analytics” out for a spin can sign up and choose a topic, but they’ll need to wait for a few days until Microsoft allows them to start exploring the social data associated with the service.
“Future releases will allow you to define your own topic(s) of interest. The data in “Social Analytics” includes top social sources like Twitter, Facebook, blogs and forums. It has also been automatically enriched to tie conversations together across sources, and to assess sentiment,” the Redmond company said.
Singing-up for Microsoft Codename "Social Analytics" Lab can be done by clicking the ‘Start here’ button on the official webpage set up for the service.
“As the popularity of the social web continues to grow it has become increasingly important for businesses to keep their finger on the pulse of the social web. Social information provides businesses with new insights, and the social web provides a means to connect with customers and respond quickly to customer concerns or comments,” Microsoft noted.