Twitter goes beyond the tweets. Using millions of messages posted to the site, researchers at Northeastern University in Boston, created an application that claims to be able to measure the mood of the United States.

People are happier in the morning and early evening, and happiness reaches its peak on Sunday morning and its lowest point in the evening of Thursday, they found. Service users of social networks seem more discouraged by mid-afternoon and evening tends to improve mood.

Not surprisingly, people seem happier on weekends, and residents of California, Miami and the southern states of the USA are among the most satisfied.

The researchers are the first to admit that their conclusions are not very scientific, Twitter users tend to be experienced in the use of technology live in big cities and account for only a fraction of the total population, but according to the results of the method has potential as a tool to provide real-time analysis of critical issues.

Sume Lehman and his colleagues employed a system of psychological classification of words to examine key terms in about 300 million Twitter messages, defining them as happy or sad. Once created maps based on the location of the messages and the kind of reaction they evoke.

The map can be useful not only for studying public opinion but to mobilize users quickly, for example in a campaign for donations for emergencies, the researchers said.

Via: Reuters.