1. How to Search Twitter
Vicky Ludas Orlofsky
Dr. Lopatovska
Online Searching
April 5, 2012

2. What is Twitter?
A microblogging social network founded in 2006 by Jack
Dorsey and Biz Stone
Members can post "tweets" of up to 140 characters directing
them to specific people via the @ symbol, linking them to
specific topics with the # symbol, or releasing them to the
world at large
Direct messages are also available but these are not open to the public nor
searchable by anyone other than the user
As of February/March 2012, 92.5 million+ users a month
sending 340 million tweets every day (Source: Quantcast.com,
Twitter)

3. Who Tweets?
According to Quantcast (U.S. demographics), Twitter users compared
to the average internet users are…
Female 18-34 Parents Well-off Not college-educated African-American or Hispanic

4. Searching Twitter:
http://twitter.com/#!/search-home
Can also be reached at twitter.com/search or search.twitter.com

5. Search Operators
Operators allow a more
specific search:
people
from:
to:
location
#
near:
within:
time
@
since:
until:
result type
filter:
include:
source:
:)
language
:(
lang:
*but this option is not
? included in the operators nor
is a language code available

6. Advanced Search:
http://twitter.com/#!/search-advanced
Search
operators as
natural
language

9. @People Search
The
@verified
When
account is a searching
list of all for a
verified politician,
(identity entertainer,
confirmed journalist,
by Twitter) or other
notable
accounts
figure,
make sure
their
Of the account has
140 million been
+ users, verified to
20,169 are ensure
currently credibility
verified

10. Twitter and Search Engines
Bing: “Social” search which searches Facebook and Twitter in real time
and can be narrowed to either
Not obvious, located in the “Explore” menu
Searches by keyword, also lists “Trending Topics”
Google: no “Social”-type search
But you can site search  [site:twitter.com “phrase”] will look for the phrase
within Twitter
Differences - not in real time, can’t be narrowed to tweets OR people, just tweets
AND people, and usually just people (even when searching for a #keyword)
Yahoo: almost as Twitter-friendly as Bing; keyword searches will return recent tweets if
applicable

11. Bing
http://www.bing.com/social

12. Twitter and Search Engines
Bing: “Social” search which searches Facebook and Twitter in real time and can be
narrowed to either
Not obvious, located in the “Explore” menu
Searches by keyword, also lists “Trending Topics”
Google: no “Social”-type search
But you can site search  [site:twitter.com “phrase”] will look for
the phrase within Twitter
Can’t be narrowed to tweets OR people, just tweets AND people, and
usually just people (even when searching for a #keyword)
Yahoo: almost as Twitter-friendly as Bing; keyword searches will return recent tweets if
applicable

13. Google
http://www.google.com

14. Twitter and Search Engines
Bing: “Social” search which searches Facebook and Twitter in real time and can be
narrowed to either
Not obvious, located in the “Explore” menu
Searches by keyword, also lists “Trending Topics”
Google: no “Social”-type search
But you can site search [site:twitter.com “phrase”] will look for the phrase
within Twitter
Differences - not in real time, can’t be narrowed to tweets OR people, just tweets
AND people, and usually just people (even when searching for a #keyword)
Yahoo: almost as Twitter-friendly as Bing; keyword searches will
return recent tweets if applicable

15. Yahoo
http://search.yahoo.com/
Yahoo Search Direct

16. Yahoo part 2
Yahoo does not explain when the Twitter tab will appear and when it will
not (i.e., it appears for “One Direction” searched as a keyword, but not
“Trayvon”…)

17. Other Tools
http://hashtags.org/ - list of all active hashtags and their recent activity
http://beta.twitseek.com/ - searches URLs used in tweets
http://tweetscan.com/ - searches names used in tweets
http://www.twitscoop.com/ - searches and tracks both keywords and
hashtags
http://tweetag.com/ - another keyword/hashtag tracker

18. Sources
"Twitter.com Traffic and Demographic Statistics," Quantcast.com (3/2012):
http://www.quantcast.com/twitter.com
"Twitter Turns Six," Twitter blog (3/21/2012):
http://blog.twitter.com/2012/03/twitter-turns-six.html
"How to Search Twitter - The Advanced Guide," Search Engine Journal (11/28/2008):
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/how-to-search-twitter-the-advanced-guide/8034/
"Twitter," Wikipedia (3/2012): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter
Image sources:
http://designrelated.com/news/feature_view/53/the-redesign-of-the-twitter-bird
http://www.freesocialicons.com/free-tweeting-twitter-bird-icon/
http://holidayblog.easyjet.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/twitter-bird-logo.jpg
http://gadgetsin.com/tag/fun-cake