“Content clouds”, not to be confused with their useful sister, “tag clouds”, are the latest graffiti to appear on the net. And true to form, it is arguable how much meaning can be gleaned from these puffy word abstractions.

Content clouds are essentially nests of words that represent the count or frequency of expressions within a given document. They have become very popular during the presidential race; speeches from both McCain and Obama have appeared on the net reduced to only the most salient words used by each speaker. Tag clouds, popularized by web tools such as del.ic.ous and sites like Flickr, are weighted word bubbles consisting of tags, which are user-generated content, put there by the audiences who frequent the sites. Tag clouds have obvious utility. Seeing what people care enough to flag on the net provides insight into popular trend and profiles the collective consciousness. On the other hand, not unlike sweeping clutter into like piles, the utility of content clouds is a little less clear.

The proliferation of content clouds is evidence that news sites and bloggers alike have ascribed these visuals with value. Is it important and meaningful that Obama used the word “country” more than McCain? These comparisons do little more than contrast rhetoric, never mind analyze argument. Suggesting that content clouds can be supplanted for a thorough reading of a text is false.

These clouds would be more useful if coupled with other analytics. For example, applying a semantic risk metric across a content cloud would cull inherent risks from the word nest, and would reveal much more than just grouped, prominent words. One could then quantitatively measure the meaning within the communication - gauging risk - rather than just seeing what is being communicated and making qualitative assessments. This is effectively turning a denotative visual, that which simply represents, into a connotative analytic, that which assesses the underlying signification, or meaning of a text.

With all of the excitement surrounding social media and the windows with which we peer into this content, we can get swept up with half-baked analytics and visuals whose business value is only so deep. I admit, content clouds are interesting, they’re fun to look at, and they make great water cooler talk. But in terms of hard, decision-making analytics they tend to be a little fluffy.