Research took an early look at the service last month at which time panellists were being asked to sign up to allow Harris to match their social network updates and blog posts with demographic data and the answers they give to more traditional, straight-forward online surveys.

The purpose, according to SVP Michael Saxon, was to give research buyers a better picture of who is saying things on social media sites, rather than just what is being said.

Many of the details of the service were under wraps at the time of our last report, but other aspects revealed today include what Harris describes as the ‘observe’ component, which uses mobile phone GPS data to pinpoint and survey consumers by location. Users will also be able to see how respondents behave online through clickstream monitoring techniques. Clients of the service will also be able to engage participants directly via moderated conversations, while Lifestreamers can also be profiled by more than 100 variables.

• In other news today, Harris has signed up to use Confirmit’s Data Collection and Panel Management software.