In 2007, Martin Wattenberg and Fernanda Viégas created the word tree, a search tool for unstructured text. You enter the text, pick a word or phrase, and you can see how other words and phrases branch from the root. Data visualization developer Jason Davies rephrased the visualization in JavaScript, and you can enter a URL or a Twitter username (or enter your own text like with the original). There’s also a nice sidebar that makes it easier to browse through the text.
So for example, the above is a word tree for The Cat in the Hat, and you can see what branches from Thing One and Thing Two. The phrase “and Thing Two” often follows “Thing One” as do exclamation points. The reverse feature comes in handy for text like Steve Jobs’ commencement speech.
