Facebook intends to seriously contend with Google for the title of the main indicator of mass consciousness. Both companies already have
Google Zeitgeist and
Facebook Lexicon services in their portfolios, which reflect the most relevant topics for the public.
Now Facebook has launched another interesting indicator: the
national index of happiness (Gross National Happiness, by analogy with gross domestic product). It is calculated by analyzing the real-time publication of words with positive (happy, yay, awesome, etc.) and negative (sad, doubt, tragic) emotional coloring on Facebook pages.
The national happiness index is currently calculated only for the USA.
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