Application and techniques of opinion mining

Abstract The study and analysis of human behavior using a computer modeling approach is known as opinion mining or sentiment analysis. Data mining, Web extraction, text mining, etc. are the key areas of opinion mining. Social media platforms are gaining popularity and are becoming essential components of most people’s lives. Various social networking websites, like Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp, are generating a huge amount of data and the mining of these data helps in discovering hidden and useful information with high potential. The calculation and evaluation of average inclinations to any opinion/sentiment toward any entity helps both the organization and the individual to get the right opinion about the ongoing trends or unfamiliar things. Various computational intelligence techniques are also used to analyze the sentiments of users. In this chapter the authors cover the fundamental concepts of opinion mining and sentiment analysis. The chapter also includes various techniques of opinion mining, along with various tools used to analyze opinions. Some key areas related to feature extraction, ontologies, and deep learning have also been discussed. Toward the end of the chapter research and future directions, along with references, have been given for further study.