By Marc of Noticed Trends
With search-engine queries yielding countless often irrelevant results, specific keywords which both narrow-down the number of search results, and even discern emerging social & business trends are valued.
The key here is to infer “unintended messages” through spotting anomalies; a process called “inferential scanning,” which a few consultants specialize in applying for trend-spotting. For example, if authors of content subconsciously mention the words “lately and noticed” within the same brief sentence, the reader may infer an anomaly– the unintended message which may signal emerging trends.
With search-engine queries yielding countless often irrelevant results, specific keywords which both narrow-down the number of search results, and even discern emerging social & business trends are valued.
The key here is to infer “unintended messages” through spotting anomalies; a process called “inferential scanning,” which a few consultants specialize in applying for trend-spotting. For example, if authors of content subconsciously mention the words “lately and noticed” within the same brief sentence, the reader may infer an anomaly– the unintended message which may signal emerging trends.
Author William Gibson, (who coined the term ‘Cyberspace’) described a character in his book ‘Idoru’ as an intuitive fisher of patterns of information; the discerning of “nodal points” in seemingly disconnected data very much relates to inferential scanning.
Entering in keywords which may infer content signaling the emerging business & public zeitgeist yields a wide variety search results. In quite a few cases, search results don’t necessarily have value e.g., individual opinions which don’t necessarily indicate emerging trends. In some cases, search results yield specialty websites that are fee-only and even restricted access content. Usually, content which may be interpreted like “a crystal-ball of sorts” is free.
Several examples of links (which can assist in spotting trends) are included in this post.
Note: The wildcard character asterisk “*” is important for two examples:
– In the current month and year, the wildcard character “*” represents a specific date. In quotations: “September * 2005″ infers content that mentions the current month and year. Search results often include older content e.g., blogs include content produced several months earlier.
– Search terms in quotations with the wildcard character “*” indicates two words NEAR each other: “lately * noticed.” This type of search is excellent for trend spotting.
–Example: “lately * noticed”
–Lately and noticed can also be reversed : “noticed * lately”
Additional examples of keywords; which may be inferred as “indicators of emerging trends.”
– “People * becoming” or “people * become.” “People have become” or “people are becoming” also apply.
– “Lately * become” or “lately * becoming”
– “Lately * trend” or “lately * marketing”
www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&as_qdr=m3&q=%22lately+*+marketing%22++%22september+*+2005%22&as_qdr=m3&btnG=Search
– “Lately * marketing” can be reversed for “marketing * lately”
– What’s new with….search-engines?
– “Lately * industry” can be applied as the “*” asterisks can indicate emerging trends in specific industries.
– The terms “trend * becoming” or “trend * become” can also indicate “growing trends”
–The terms “becoming more” OR “trend toward” also apply.
The several examples of links offer plenty of ideas for experimenting with different combinations of keywords. Many of the links indicate important trends; even without the addition of keywords mentioning specific industries, occupations, businesses, people, places, culture, etc.
Quite often, search-results are very subjective. After all, inferential scanning needs “human inputs” to “separate the wheat from the chaff” as search engine technologies cannot mimic “the complexities of semantics” and automatically yield information on “relevant emerging trends!”
Let me know how you think inferential scanning methods could be developed into business opportunities. Marc.
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