YouGov has launched an app revealing lifestyle data based on a huge variety of brands. It’s addictive, but is it useful for anything other than procrastinating, asks Katie Wright

TYPE in any person, company or thing and the YouGov Profiler tells you, with the help of swishy animated infographics, a whole lot about its fans or customers - age, location, hobbies, political views, even favourite foods and films.

Fans of Apple, for instance, are mostly 30-something women who live in London and work in media. They like cycling, eating halloumi and watching The Great British Bake Off.

As a 30-year-old, female, London-based, halloumi-loving, Bake Off-aholic journalist who cycles to work, I have to agree that's a pretty accurate assessment.

Having said that, YouGov admits that the web-based app isn't meant to show the "typical" person in any segment.

"If it did, most groups would look very similar, and you wouldn't learn a lot about the specifics of a particular thing," says Freddie Sayers, director of YouGov Online.

Instead, the pollsters compare each group to the natural "comparison" set. So fans of TV series Breaking Bad are weighed against general TV watchers, the outcome showing what is "particularly true" about fans of the American narco-drama.

Some of the results are still pretty obvious. Fans of Michael Fassbender, for example, are mostly female and they like going to the cinema. Makes sense. But they also tend to agree that "across history, religion has done more bad than good", not a statement that you would immediately associate with the Irish actor.

It makes you wonder how corporations could use the data to their advantage.

Since Russell Brand fans' top four favourite foods, according to the Profiler, are vegetarian, should Tesco start handing out free veggie samples outside the comedian's gigs? Or, because Miley Cyrus fans' tend to hold right-wing views, could Ukip infiltrate Miley's messageboard and start recruiting members?

Well, not necessarily. The accuracy of the stats varies considerably, because the sample sizes - defined as people who self-identify as fans/customers - do too, from 36 (for Pukka tea) to nearly 17,000 (Tesco).

As such, the more popular or mainstream a brand, the weaker the preferences stated by the sample, while strong favourites from a small group (that Beyonce fans also love yule log) are more likely to be coincidental.

But maybe that's also just because this, the free version of the app, is essentially a shop window designed to lure businesses to cough up for something called the YouGov Cube, a mammoth "vault" of data waiting to be mined for money-making purposes.

It won't offer a route to commercial gain for everyone, but if you're looking for something to while away the hours at the office, one that still makes it look like you're legitimately working, then YouGov Profile is pretty unbeatable.

CAPTION COMPETITION

Getting computers to 'look' at photos and describe what's in them is a notoriously tricky problem that's been puzzling IT bods for years. But now, Google says it's had a breakthrough, developing a "machine-learning system" that can accurately write captions with just one glance at an image. And not just simple pictures either. An example given by the Google scientists in a blog post reads "two pizzas sitting on top of a stove-top oven". Their research combined recent advances in "computer vision" and linguistics, with the resulting system performing well in testing. The breakthrough bodes well for Google Image Search, and for filtering out the inaccurate results that crop up because it relies on human-generated descriptions.

SOCIAL WORK

Are you Facebook friends with your work colleagues? If you've decided against adding your co-workers but want to connect with them on a more sociable basis than the decidedly corporate-focused LinkedIn, then help is on the way. Facebook at Work is a new offering that looks similar to the existing social network, but allows you to keep your personal and professional profiles separate. No word yet on when the site will launch, but it's believed to already be in use internally at Facebook, and could rival the likes of Microsoft Office if companies decide to adopt it to replace their current email clients too.

BURY THE HACHETTE

The months-long war between Amazon and Hachette over ebook pricing has finally come to an end, with news that the web giant and book publisher have agreed to the terms of a multi-year deal. From early 2015, Hachette will be responsible for setting the consumer prices of its ebooks in exchange for better terms when it delivers more attractive prices for book buyers. During the stalemate, which started in May, Amazon had faced a petition signed by hundreds of Hachette authors after the site started reducing discounts on their books, but now it looks like a happy ending for all sides, with Hachette CEO Michael Pietsch saying: "The new agreement will benefit Hachette authors for years to come."

Website of the Week

Is this the world’s most expensive Advent calendar? - tiny.cc/harrods

Learn how Christmas is celebrated around the world with an interactive Advent calendar - tiny.cc/adventworld

The history of the Advent calendar - sellmer-verlag.de/history

Download a Christmas Market-themed Advent calendar, or send it to friends - jacquielawson.com/advent

The winners of the Worst Advent Calendar of the Year 2014 contest - tiny.cc/badvent

Thing of the week

The project that turns museum artworks into selfies – and you can submit your own - museumofselfies.tumblr.com