Divining Rods

I saw three commercial proprietary tools for Web 2.0 in action today. The first two were developed by Pole Nord - a company acquired by the Publicis Groupe (my employers) last year. The third was developed by Attentio , a Brussels-based start up that aggregates online content into a 'buzz tracking' tool. All three were great examples of how it's relatively easy to develop ground-breaking tools in online marketing.

In each case the tools differentiate themselves from the competition by facilitating the manipulation of data in order to provide actionable insights (how 'bout that for marketing speak).

There is far too much data in the digital world and not enough insights. Great tools (and people who know who to use them) are too few and far between.