Methods and apparatus for extracting and correlating text information derived from comment and product databases for use in identifying product improvements based on comment and product database commonalities

The present invention concerns methods and apparatus for analyzing product descriptions and comment databases, and for correlating product descriptions with comment databases. In methods and apparatus of the present invention general categories of product descriptions or user comments are identified. In instances where product descriptions or user comments are subject to highly differentiable grammatical expression, several or more possible grammatical expressions are identified, or formulated. Grammatical information derived from an expression, or multiple expressions, of a comment are then used to search a comment database or product description to locate similar comments reflected in the comment database, or concerns reflected in the product description. Once similar comments or concerns are identified, the methods and apparatus of the present invention can perform various correlations. For example, correlations can be made between user comments and concerns reflected in product descriptions, or between user comments and managerial or developer expectations.