Blogs: Netflix vs. Blockbuster

There are more than 15 million blogs according to some reports, so it's no surprise that tools are being created to figure out what bloggers are saying about companies. Opinmind is a tool that will scan blogs to find positive and negative opinions and create a "Sentimeter" report.

I compared Netflix and Blockbuster, and the results were interesting. Here's the Sentimeter report for Netflix:

Here's the Sentimeter report for Blockbuster:

The reportes were based on 273 posts for Netflix (225+/48-) and 332 for Blockbuster (172+/160-).

Opinmind is an interesting tool, and while it's far from perfect, it can give you an idea as to what bloggers are saying about a company or product. Some interesting comparisons include Honda vs. Ford, Coke vs. Pepsi, and even George Bush vs. Bill Clinton.

Thanks to Ryan at Orbitcast for sending this in.

Comments

[Michael]

Lol...love the Bush one...more negative than positive, so this site must work right.

hah -- i noticed that too. this tool isn't very good about picking up on sarcasm. it looks like it just looks for certain words like "love" "awesome" "miss" or "hate", "sucks", etc near the subject at hand. For Bush, some of the positives are Two truths and a lie: i love my kids, id have more kids, i love George Bush.. " or links that say "I love photoshop and I love Geroge Bush" with pictures of photoshopped monkeys resembling Bush.

Although I'm no fan of Bush, I certainly don't need a half-witted tool to tell me what 15 year olds on Xanga aren't even thinking.

[B Strand]

The huge flaw with this is it mainly mines Xanga... Which doesn't seem like an ideal sample to me.

[RAYMOND KNIGHT]

The problem with blogs is that we know that NETFLIX has shills who apparently do nothing but make positive comments about the company in various blogs. No throttling, delayed shipping, etc. ever occurs in the shills world.

[RAYMOND KNIGHT]

The problem with blogs is that we know that NETFLIX has shills who apparently do nothing but make positive comments about the company in various blogs. No throttling, delayed shipping, etc. ever occurs in the shills world.

[Dan]

There may be NetFlix shills out there there, but there are far more NetFlix fanboys. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, I'm a huge fan (though I like to think of myself as a proper fan, and not a fanboy).

The thing is that you should take a look at the difference in material posted about Blockbuster. Most of the negative things are about brick and mortor locations, and a few are actually employees complaining. My wife used to be an assistant manager at a blockbuster, and I've met quite a few employees. They all complain. Having worked jobs like that before, I know that I would complain too.

Also, I think it has to do with Blockbuster's size. They become an easy target. Check the mixed feelings about Wal-Mart. Now compare that with the smaller chain Meijer. It's long been my belief that the larger a collective voice gets the louder the negative side of that collective becomes.

Though, I guess a lot of these ratings charts do match how I would rate various companies. So, maybe it's just that Blockbuster sucks.

p.s. You think Honda vs. Ford was lopsided, you should have looked for General Motors.

"The problem with blogs is that we know that NETFLIX has shills who apparently do nothing but make positive comments about the company in various blogs. No throttling, delayed shipping, etc. ever occurs in the shills world."

They also claim they have no trouble getting new releases sent on the day before relesae, even while receiving 2 full shipments a week of movies. Yeah, right. That's happening...

[The Damned Ghost Of Tookie]

I have a Ford Mustang GT and a Honda Element. Both are very nice. Never had a problem with vehicles frojm either company, although a coworker had a recall fix on her Honda... somethingorother for some brake issue last year.