Facebook Lexicon

Alexa is a great tool and I've seen it used many times to illustrate trends on the web - compare facebook.com against bbc.co.uk and it's hard to deny the impact of social media on the web landscape.


Facebook has a similar service called Lexicon, which allows you to looks at "the usage of words and phrases on profile, group and event Walls".

Here's a comparison of the number of times Obama, Clinton and McCain were mentioned showing a clear spike around Super Tuesday on February 5th.

Trying comparisons in Lexicon is interesting, there is a regular peak every week when comparing party tonight and hangover, with about a 12 hour lag between the two.

Insights into Facebook can be inferred - try searching for less event related terms like news and there seems to be a regular drop in traffic on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Facebook seems to be a weekday site - no enormous surprise there.

Lexicon could also be extremely useful for marketeers who want to get a sense of buzz around a product. Comparing Xbox, Wii and PS3 together shows significant more interest in the Wii and an enormous buzz around the Christmas period.

Of course all this needs to be taken with a pinch of salt take into account the people who are creating these terms, their demographic, language and also geographic location - as a comparison of capital cities or a comparison of hello in different language demonstrates.

To make the circle complete, you can share your Lexicon comparison with friends or post it to your profile. There is a danger that this could create some horrible Facebook amplification feedback loop though, possibly leading to the end of the world. Or perhaps that's reserved for Facebook chat.