Facebook Lexicon – Experiments with the new Facebook Wall buzz tracking application

Facebook are unveiling a number of new features and the ‘Facebook Lexicon’ is an interesting new application as it aggregates information from Facebook Wall Posts and plots the trends on a graph.

You need to login to Facebook to use the Facebook Lexicon, but you can access it from here: http://www.facebook.com/lexicon

Facebook Lexicon works in a similar way to Google Trends and allows users to track buzz and see what Facebook users are talking about:

ABOVE: Facebook Lexicon graph showing use of the words 'drunk' and 'hungover' on wall posts - peaks every weekend and a big spike around New Years Eve! (click for larger image)

ABOVE: Facebook Lexicon graph showing the use of words 'girlfriend' and 'boyfriend' on wall posts - a peak around Valentine's Day, but it would appear that women are either more romantic or more inclined to talk about their partners more than men do!
(click for larger image)

ABOVE: The example Facebook use - Facebook Lexicon graph showing use of the words 'skiing' and 'beach' on wall posts - unsurprisingly showing that skiing is popular in the winter and beaches are popular in the summer
(click for larger image)

Facebook Lexicon is an interesting development in buzz tracking and follows recent releases from YouTube (YouTube Insight) and the more established systems like Google Trends and Technorati Buzz Monitoring. Think this is another example of how social media and social media tracking is developing, offering new opportunities for marketers and advertisers.

UPDATE: New Facebook Lexicon has now launched and gives greater insight into sentiment, demographics and other useful contextual interpretation.