Pulse: The New Science Book

Showing how the Internet can be an incredible tool for businesses and others to measure trends in real time, Pulse describes tools for inexpensive and real time measurement methodologies businesses can start using right away. This timely book also puts this emerging science in perspective and explains how this new measurement instrument will profoundly change decision making in business and government.

• Shows how the Internet can be used as an incredibly powerful measurement tool
• Reveals how to mine the Internet to measure and forecast business progress
• Written by a leading expert in business analytics and performance management

Pulse reveals how the Internet is evolving into a tool for measuring and forecasting trends in society, the economy, public opinion and even public health and security. It is an absolutely essential book for every business leader to turn a powerful, underutilized tool to its complete potential.

From the Inside Flap

PULSE: The New Science of Harnessing Internet Buzz to Track Threats and Opportunities

The Internet contains the largest repository of human knowledge, interests, and activities ever constructed. Yet this powerful tool is still vastly underutilized. Written by Douglas Hubbard—bestselling author of How to Measure Anything—Pulse shows you how to harness the explosive potential of the Internet and mobile devices to measure data and trends economically and in real time—vital information that traditionally costs millions of dollars and lags weeks and months behind the events being measured.

Featuring a complementary website (www.pulsethenewscience.com) rich with links, analysis, examples, and spreadsheets, Pulse uses real-world examples to illustrate how:

• A Canadian epidemiologist tracking “flu symptoms” searches on Google is able to track flu outbreaks faster than Canadian health authorities. His success inspired Google’s “Flu Trends” tool.
• Tracking Twitter comments about upcoming movies could reliably predict box office success better than any other method.
• The number of “unemployment” Google searches nationwide tracks very closely to Bureau of Labor Statistics unemployment reports, which releases its data monthly after sampling 60,000 households while Google trends data is available weekly—and for free.
• Tracking Twitter comments produces nearly the same results for consumer confidence and political polls as Gallup polls—except that Twitter results are real time and free.

By tapping into the digital footprints of two billion Internet users, executives can mine real-time data to fundamentally change how you make some of the most important decisions you face in business and government. Access real-time raw data and calibrate it against traditional methods to greatly improve your organization’s trend forecasting, productivity, and bottom line. Learn how to track trends, threats, and opportunities.

Success in business may come down to who exploits the Pulse to its fullest potential.

Vastly larger than all the data collected by governments, businesses, and academics using traditional surveys, the Internet is evolving into a cutting-edge tool for measuring and forecasting trends in society, the economy, public opinion, and even public health and security. Yet the potential of this powerful new measurement instrument is still almost entirely untapped. Written by Douglas Hubbard—author of How to Measure Anything, the number-one selling business math book for three years running—Pulse shows how the buzz from two billion mobile device and Internet users can be harnessed to produce real-time data about major trends faster, better, and cheaper than traditional polls and government reports.