What does Lady Gaga's meat dress, Kanye West's comeback and LeBron James 'Decision' have in common with ToneCheck?

We all made the New York Times Magazine's 10th Annual Year in Ideas issue.

View the interactive edition here. 

A huge shout-out to @michaelbeirut for his amazing animation of the proof of concept for ToneCheck and to @jaschavsjascha for the interview.

Should Wikileaks be condemned or a celebrated? While opinions differ one thing is for certain: Wikileaks and its director Julian Assange are trending topics to consider. While we expect most everyone will have caught a news story on one or more of these topics we appreciate some may be in need of a catch up. Find excellent summaries of the scandal here, here, and here.  

We were naturally curious about which side of the debate the majority of Twitter users were on, so we began tracking both Wikileaks and Assange using our Sentiment API.  Much like the division of opinion on the subject matter itself, sentiment seems to be split as to whether the recent leaked release of U.S. State department diplomatic cables by the media organization is a brave stand in favour of openness and against government conspiracy or rather, an irresponsible and inappropriate act worthy of prosecution. 

Without getting into the politics surrounding the leaked documents, here’s a quick snapshot of how Twitter users really feel about both the subject matter and Assange.

Keyword: Wikileaks
Tweets Processed: 39,734
Dominant Emotion: Enjoyment/Elation

Keyword: Assange
Tweets Processed: 9,320
Dominant Emotion: Anger/Loathing

It's safe to say that general sentiment surrounding Wikileaks is leaning towards the positive, however the conversation skews more negatively when Assange is concerned. Why? Could it be backlash due to his recent arrest or a negative opinion of him in general? We welcome your thoughts in the comments! Bring them on.

Word on the street is that Google is on the cusp of acquiring group-buying site Groupon for a staggering 6 billion dollars. While many wouldn't actually consider that a deal, a 6 billion dollar price tag isn't actually out of the question for a Groupon acquisition, given their recent uptake.

In case you're joining us from outside of the tech sect: Groupon is huge. They currently get 79% of all site traffic for group-buying visits, it’s now active in 52 cities and counting, and brings in over $50 million dollars a month. And hey: it has by far the catchiest name. There’s Group and then there’s Coupon… Groupon!… Get it? 

Now, while we have no way of knowing what goes on behind closed doors or when if the acquisition will go down, but what we can do is speculate on how Google’s Groupon acquisition would go over with the tweeting public. 

 We sampled 3125 twitter messages and can report that overall: the news is positive. 

Our analysis indicates that people love Groupon. Considered by many to be the future of commerce, the site makes money by offering local daily deals to the group-buying public. And who doesn’t need steep discounts on laser hair removal or bubble tea smoothies, anyway? 

What's particularly interesting is *how* passionate Groupon fans are. Of the tweets surveyed, we scanned them looking for ones that were emotionally intense. Those that love Groupon and whos tweets were in the Affection, Enjoyment, Amusement, and Gratitude categories *really* love the group-buying site. Those expressing negative sentiments in the Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Humiliation categories were significantly less enthusiastic. 

So - what do you think? Will Groupon sign with Google? Is the estimated 5 Billion dollar price tag too steep? Tell us in the comments.

Want to know how we got this info? Contact Us regarding our Sentiment API or visit www.ToneAPI.com.