1. A method of analyzing micro-blog activity to detect emerging and viral events comprising: examining a plurality of received micro-blog messages to predict an effect on society of a single event described in each micro-blog message included in a subset of micro-blog messages, wherein the subset of micro-blog messages comprises a plurality of micro-blog messages contained in the plurality of received micro-blog messages; forming a prediction about the effect on society of the single event described in each of the micro-blog messages contained in the subset of micro-blog messages; and alerting a user when the predicted effect exceeds a threshold.