Microsoft works on its social-media aggregator and monitoring tool

Microsoft has unveiled a proof-of-concept prototype business tool, code-named LookingGlass, that lets companies listen to, participate in, and analyse social media.

The tool harnesses the Microsoft platform to demonstrate how businesses can quickly and efficiently put social media to use as they create advertising.
 
LookingGlass is part of a broader shift under way within the platform strategy group. For the past two years, the group has been driving strategy around how to move marketing and advertising into the software-plus-services arena.
 
The tool lets users track customer sentiment across an array of social media sites. Users will be to use LookingGlass to see what users are saying about the product in real time on Twitter, Flickr, or YouTube. Using technology from Microsoft Research, LookingGlass automatically rates each posting as positive or negative. Accordingly, the user  can rank comments according to sentiment and see how customers are responding to the product and the campaign to sell it.

Businesses will be able to participate in conversations taking place on the social web or start new ones. At a glance, they'll be able to see a spike in activity and to pinpoint how their campaigns are being received.