SUBJECT: Facebook is a GOLDMINE!

BODY:  

Facebook's Lexicon was, until very recently, a
secret goldmine for Facebook ad developers. But
now all you will see is a sign that the Lexicon
has been removed from Facebook "for the time
being".

While this is aggravating to those who had gotten
into the habit of using it for market research, it
may signal good news for internet marketers. Why?

Well, Facebook is apparently going to focus
development on their "analytics tools for Page
owners, advertisers and Platform developers". 

This means they are perfectly savvy to the uses
people were putting Lexicon to. And that it might
be brought back as a more tightly-focused
commercial version for marketers.

What was the Lexicon, anyway? (You ask, out of
idle curiosity.)

It was a short-lived tool, launched in October
2009, which used to track the number of
occurrences of Facebook wall "words and phrases".
Think "long-tailed keywords" for phrases, and
you'll see why marketers found it so exciting.

In other words, it measured the buzz...

..And the mood - its "Gross National Happiness
Tracking Index" measured words on Facebook walls
to see if people used positive or negative
keywords daily. It's similar to a tool created
years ago that did the same thing, right across
the net. (There was even a television program
about this type of internet sociometric recently,
in which the show's producers attempted to "prove"
that the words we collectively use mean that
Nostradamus' apocalyptic prophecies are coming
true).

But we are getting distracted and beginning to
veer off topic:  Something we Facebook users do a
lot, particularly when just browsing. To return to
our main point...

Alas. Facebook apparently got wise to Lexicon's
money-making potential, and realized they had a
Wonder Tool in the making - one they can no doubt
monetize and make income from (as good business
people should). Or else perhaps they had received
forceful letters from the Linguistic Inquiry and
Word Count (LIWC) lawyers about plagiarism. We'll
never know.

Farewell, Lexicon.  Facebook has hinted they will
bring back "some components" in an unspecified
future... but in what form will we see this
once-handy tool?

Talk To You Soon,
[YOUR NAME]