IBM Discovers What Willis Is Talking About

The same day as PubSub's announcement about a similar service aimed at harnessing the ever-evolving information-overloaded blogosophere and using that power for good, IBM introduced new software enabling businesses to make sense of and manage information emerging from social networks about their company-a type of gossip monitor, called Public Image Monitoring Solution. The company refers to the proliferation of blogs, news feeds, consumer review sites, newsgroups and wiki-style articles published on the Web daily as support for the need for such a services. These new facets of the Internet, which pump out incredible amounts of information about everything from daily life to political figures to products to companies, present new challenges to entities wishing to manage public image-especially as the world shifts to the Internet to find that information. The information generated from online social networks is valuable as it gives businesses insight into public opinion and helps in the development of products, services, and business strategies.