Mining data for fun, for profit and for the greater good

Marshall Kirkpatrick of ReadWriteWeb.com posted an interesting article today titled: "Four Ad-Free Ways that Mined Data Can Make Money."

This subject strikes close to home for us at Twitalytics and is timely given our second day of operations. Mining data ... specifically mining user sentiment and the pulse of Twitteropia is our mission.

Twitterdom is full of valuable information and beautiful harmonies hidden amongst a cacophony of noise. The uninitiated to Twitter can not possibly understand the value of wading through so much chaff to get to the wheat. But the question we at Twitalytics ask is simple: is it possible to mine through the layers of stone to find the precious gems and then polish them up in byte size pieces of 14o characters for rapid consumption??

Rhetorical question. Obviously we think we can.

But how does one make money on Twitter? This is a work in progress. Those who tweet often may be using the platform as a marketing vehicle to drive traffic to their respective web sites. For now, that is pretty much all we can hope for as well. But one thing remains true on the web. If you create enough value, the money will follow.

We are confident that our mission of mining tweets for the good stuff will be welcomed as a valuable service by many. We hope you agree.

PS: We welcome ReadWriteWeb.com as the first member of our blogroll.