Boffin builds sex-selecting email analysis software

If you've met Glenda in a chat room, but want to make sure she’s not a Glen before a physical meeting, then help is at hand. A Malaysian boffin has developed text analysis software that, she claims, can distinguish between men and women. The software analyses the text within an email, and Professor Dianne Cheong Lee Mei claims …

[Anonymous Coward]

Link needed

We need a link to a site where we can paste our emails in and find out what sex we are please.

[Tom]

Sex Offender Training Tool

Great.. just what we need, a tool to help sex offenders train on being feminine to lure girls into a meeting.

[Joseph Zygnerski]

Such tools exist

They're just not that accurate. I remember pasting pieces of text into one of these things years ago and having different ones come up different genders.

[/etc]

Here's a site that has an algorithm for doing that

http://bookblog.net/gender/genie.php

But it may not be that reliable. I just tested it on Lester Haines' latest piece:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/08/campbell_grounded/

and it says he's a girl.

Strangely, it also says the same about Steve Ballmer after analysing his latest threatening letter to Yahoo! I've never seen him as a Stephanie, but I guess you never know ...

[leslie]

balderdash! !

So, if it thinks I'm a woman because of the lack of manly comments in my email, should I be complemented or insulted...

PH, simply because

[Steven Raith]

"Just what we need...."

"Great.. just what we need, a tool to help IT blokes train on being feminine to lure women into a date over email."

Corrected ;-)

Steven R

Paris, because she knows all about luring the opposite sex.

[Elliott White]

Old News

This has been available for years. Shame Reg isn't doing some basic research before running a puff-piece

http://bookblog.net/gender/genie.php