Wall Street Meets Minority Report

This is not a joke: Twitter (among others) is being used to predict fluctuation of stock values.
This is what The Economist [link to original article] recently reported. Since a 2010 study by Indiana University researchers showing strong correlation between tweets and market activity, it has become popular in the Wall Street milieu to factor in "social sentiment" in their prediction models.

Last June 25, Reuters announced the publication of more than 18,000 indices based on the analysis of tens of thousands of news sites as well as 4.5 million social sites (including social media, tweets, blogs).
At $1,000 per month per indice,

The problem, though, is that though indices, although following trends quite closely in general, are not totally trustworthy... so far.
However, it's interesting to see this kind of technology and approach taken so seriously.
It's not like it didn't already fail in the past [link to investmentweek.co.uk], but the idea that one could predict market fluctuation a la Minority Report gives me food for thought.