While everyone was celebrating Barack Obama’s historic victory last week, the team at OneRiot was trying to remember where we were when we knew that he would win.
At OneRiot we frequently peer into our massive database to spot emerging trends, bubbling topics, or seismic events… way before they actually happen. We do that by measuring “The Pulse” on the web for any particular topic. You can think of the Pulse as the social energy associated with that topic – how much are people talking about that topic today?
As you can see from the chart, The Pulse on Obama and McCain was relatively equal until the first presidential debates occurred in late September. After that, The Pulse on Obama took off like a rocket… and never came back to Earth. We started predicting a big win in early October… and a landslide by the middle of the month. By November 4th we already knew what was going to happen, so we started predicting the name of The First Puppy. More of that in a forthcoming post…
