The Newsgroups module automatically filters the hundreds of discussion groups that are part of the USENET network.
The Newsgroups are discussion groups, which are accessed via a different technical protocol from E mail, i.e. NNTP. There are currently more than 20,000 of these groups worldwide. They enable Internet users to exchange opinions on a variety of subjects, and each one comes under a specific theme.
For example, the group sci.med.pharmacy is devoted to the usage of drugs and incorporates messages written by doctors, patients or chemists. Most of the different economic sectors are represented in a similar way.
This module has numerous applications. Here are a few examples:
- Track what your clients are saying about your products or those of your competitors
- Identify ideas for product development strategies
- Find out what sort of image consumers have of your company
- Anticipate potential risk of damage to your company (media threats for example)
- Etc.
Functions of the Newsgroups agent
Filtering
This module offers the possibility of filtering all the messages exchanged within a group on the basis of a query consisting of key words and Boolean operators. The operators accepted are as follows: AND, OR, NOT, inverted commas and brackets. It is also possible to apply the query to the title, subject or contents of the message (or all of these).
Frequency
The new messages are processed every 15 minutes.
Statistics
A sliding histogram covering a period of several days or several months offers access to the data filtered within each discussion group.
Archives
It is possible to view the messages filtered by date. The last 500 filtered messages are archived.
