Quantum Leap Sees Gold in Mining Social Media Data

(Reuters) -- He has helped the military predict where bombs will go off and worked with law enforcement to fight crime, but now Quantum Leap Innovations CEO Joseph Budner Elad wants to use his technology to help consumers

On Feb. 29 the Newark, Del.-based company will release Quantum Leap Buzz, a tool that uses pattern based analytics for social media, starting with Twitter, to mine data from the huge amounts of information created on these sites every day.

The tool, which can be downloaded from the company's Web site for $10 a year, allows users to search for words or phrases and then identifies themes and trends around the search giving a sense of their popularity.

We've developed the pattern based analytics through government contracts that examined geo-political, world health and military trends, said Elad.

We are also working on a business edition which will have features that Buzz Leap does not, Elad told Reuters on Wednesday, adding the enterprise model will be released in the first week of April for $500 annually.

The explosion of digital data and tools for analyzing the information is seen as a major business opportunity for companies to gain insights and monetize them. It also useful for law enforcement.

IBM Corp, which has long bet on data analytics, recently released new software making it easier for companies to sift through messages, posts and presentations, both internally and externally.

According to research by network security firm Palo Alto Networks, activity on social networks increased 300 percent in second half of last year compared with the same period in 2010.

We're drowning in streams of information and you really have to be a great swimmer, Elad said, adding that his company plans eventually to expand its technology to help users spot popular topics or new themes on Facebook and Google+, too.

Elad, who was born in Israel and studied chemical engineering and computer science in Delaware, has launched several software companies.

One of his goals is to reach one million users for Buzz Leap, although he said it was too early to tell how long that would take.

Asked if he would consider a public listing of the company he founded in 1999, Elad said: That's still a far ways off, right now I am not in debt and I am profitable.

(Reporting by Nicola Leske; editing by Andre Grenon)