This week, Apple acquired Topsy, a social media analytics company that focuses on tracking Twitter data. The acquisition is interesting, not only because of its purported price (a hefty $200 million), but also for what role it might might play in the Cupertino giant's future plans.
Immediately after the acquisition was confirmed, analysts and pundits started to speculate as to why Apple would acquire Topsy. If this were any other company, the promise of "leveraging big data" and "mining social conversations" for real-time data and "sentiment impact" and other buzzword-laden drivel might be enough. But this is Apple.
My own initial reaction to the news was a visceral "this is weird." After spending more time thinking about it and talking to people smarter than myself, I think I might have an idea of what Apple could do with Topsy and its technology.
It's all about solving the problem of content discovery, particularly when it comes to the mythical Apple TV set/service.
The idea was spurred by a Twitter conversation with Jesse Redniss, thenewly-appointed chief strategy officer at Mass Relevance, a company that creates social experiences around brands, agencies and and media companies.
As a former television executive, Redniss is in a unique position to offer this kind of insight. It should come as no surprise that he thinks Topsy's data could have huge potential for helping Apple with content recommendations.
"Access to Twitter's firehose offers the ability to look back at trending content, especially when it comes to staples within Apple's business such as TV, music and apps," Redniss said. He added that having access to this kind of data for "pure historical understanding" could be useful as well.
"Apple has already had the ability to set trends," Redniss said, noting the importance of being featured by Apple on its homepage, in the App Store or on iTunes. "This data could be used as predictive analysis when making those types of promotional decisions of what to feature and when."
Redniss also sees potential for SeeIt-esque integration. SeeIt is Comcast's new initiative that lets users tune into certain shows on their TVs or DVRs directly from Twitter.
What if you have that kind of experience, the ability to instantly access content on a separate source, but it is integrated more completely into the Apple ecosystem?
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