In the past, very few people loved to write a personal diary regularly. However, today, millions of personal diaries are freely available online. Thanks to invention of complimentary blog technologies and growing computer literacy! Free access to internet in some countries like the United States of America made blogging easier for anyone who has an interest, basic writing skills especially in English language and time to arrange one’s thoughts lucidly. Unlike traditional diaries, virtual diary owners can even earn from their hobby using free online marketing and advertising programs.
Blogs have stirred investigative minds of scientists and they are trying to develop effective methods to collate useful information from these diaries. For instance, Dr. Gordon is trying to teach computers to mine blogs and gather useful information about personal lives of the bloggers to identify behavioral changes and new trends. To distinguish between non-story and story blogs, he defined a few parameters. For story blogs, he counts pronouns and past tense verbs used in blogs to identify phrases like “I did x so then y happened”. But, can machines read and understand?
