News in brief

North America’s Ipsos Understanding has launched an online qualitative research tool called QualSpace – an interactive virtual bulletin board which can play host to consumer discussions lasting anywhere from three days to nine months.

Nationwide Surveys of California is offering market research companies a new PDA data collection system called KNow. The service includes programming, unit rental, field personnel and immediate access to results.

Communications firm DDB Gulf has launched a telecom brand strategy team in the United Arab Emirates. The Luciola DDB team – headed by agency CEO Najam Khawaja, group strategy director Abdul Karim and marketing director Eiléen Lee – will produce and evaluate data on how technology influences consumer behaviour and the role this has in changing the communications marketplace.

ESPN is building a new research facility at Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex, reports the Orlando Sentinel. The ESPN Innovation Lab will allow the US cable TV sports network to test new broadcasting concepts.

Michigan-based Gongos Research has launched an updated version of its online research community platform, dubbed i°Communities 2009, including a new ‘Lite’ option that offers a “licencing plus” option to companies that want to manage and moderate the community process within their organisation.

Social media agency LiveWorld in California has launched a new version of its Community Center software platform. The new version of the tool will allow clients to change the design, features and layouts of their online communities.

Language processing technology firm Teragram has launched the Sentiment Analysis Manager. It analyses the sentiment of online text and captures relevant information to let clients see what customers are saying about their brand.

UK-based research viewing facility firm So What? has opened a new premises in Chitty Street in central London. The new facility can host focus groups of up to 12 people and is fitted with a PC-based recording system.

GfK Healthcare in the US has launched a new business unit, the Managed Markets Practice Area, aimed at pharmaceutical clients in the managed markets sector.

Canadian predictive analytics firm Angoss Software Corporation has launched the seventh version of its analytics software suite. The latest version introduces wider support for clients’ IT platforms and has additional data analysis capabilities.

Analytics firm Webtrends has added the ability to track and analyse data from Microsoft’s new search site, Bing. Webtrends’ customers will now be able to keep track of which traffic comes to their site from Bing and the service will also cover all search engine reporting, such as keywords and phrases.