Colby Palmer - Web apps • Web platform developer • User Interfaces

I started experimenting with the Terraminds Twitter search API last night and wired it into iTweet, my Twitter UI.  Originally my intent had been to add the capability of searching #hashtags, as a way of better indexing my own tweets.  After I spent a while with it and I was happy with the tagging implementation, I realized that I could also add a simple search box to the interface and it would be useful on a different level.

Now you can do a quick search to mine the Twitterverse for anything you want, in the same place you do your Twittering from.  Enjoy.

You can also embed groupings into your Twitterstream by employing the use of #hashtags.  These links will appear in green, and clicking them will lead you to a search page for that term.  iTweet also "cleans" the pound sign from your search tag to make a nicer-looking, easier to read Tweet.  (But yes, it still counts in your allotted total of 140 characters.) Easy, right?

What's the big difference between the two methods (tagging and searching)?  The system of tagging is a more specific way of tracking and contextualizing conversations on Twitter; people are embedding the tags purposefully, to create ad hoc channels or groupings. What TerraMinds does is different, it's a generalized search engine for the Twitter service.  You can read more about #hashtags in my blog and at the Twitter Fan Wiki.  Stowe Boyd and Chris Messina were early proponents of the idea and they have written about it at length as well.

Hashtags.org also has a great service for employing hashtags.  Why am I using Terraminds for #hashtags then?  Users must be following the @hashtags Twitter user in order to have their tweets scanned and registered by the hashtags.org service.  At the time of this writing there are only about 620 users following @hashtags, so IMO this service doesn't really permeate the Twitterverse enough to establish ubiquity (yet).  For this reason, I recommend following @hashtags on Twitter.  I would prefer to use the hashtags.org service until Twitter adds this feature natively; unfortunately at this time I don't feel like hashtags.org is widespread enough to add it to iTweet without confusing a ton of people.  (I also do not know if they support 3rd-party services via an API.)

The development of iTweet has been very fun due to feedback from you, the users...so let me know what you think.  Get in there and try to break that sucker, as I know you will.  ;)

Leave comments on this blog, or let's talk on Twitter or Facebook.

Cross-pollinate social networks?  Sure!  Join the iTweet Facebook group.

Note: iTweet.net's browser interface currently works great in Firefox and Safari. I will debug it for the evil Internet Explorer as soon as possible.  I will also be adding the search and tagging functions to the iPhone version as soon as possible.

Tags: iTweet, twitter, hashtags, search, terraminds, tagging, webdev, social+media

Posted on Jan. 7, 2008, 12:03 a.m. Tags: hashtags itweet search

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Twitter just introduced a new method of "tracking" keywords - enter "track keyword" in SMS or IM and you will receive notifications whenever someone uses that keyword in a tweet. Right now it's only available via IM or SMS notifications, but they say it will eventually come to the API etc.

I've been using it for a couple days and I think it's a very cool addition. I've also been very interested in Chris Messina's suggestions for using #hashmark tag channels similar to what you can find in Jaiku (and IRC I think). The "tracking" feature provides a similar service but they are slightly different and I can see a great reason for both to exist. Here is my take on the difference between the two:

Twitter Tracking:

• involuntary
• results are broader and less contextual
• great for customer service, marketing, vanity
• automatically removes anonymity (can't opt out of tracking searches)
• no "on-board" archiving
• present tense only (cannot track past tweets)

#Hashtags:

• voluntary
• items are intentionally tagged so results are higher quality
• great for networking, community, research
• anonymity is removed by knowing participation
• creates public archive
• can search Twitterstream into the past

I hoped even just "tracking" a #tagged word would have some good results - just to experiment I used "track #bacn" today. I received notifications for "#bacn", but also for "bacn" (without the hashmarks)...so it seems that Twitter doesn't even recognize the syntax. I thought that was odd.

I think it would be best (for all) if tagchannels were implemented natively in Twitter. It would make the archiving and tracking function portable across the Web instead of confining it to a particular client etc. I don't want to wait for that; the tools are there, and there is definitely a way to make #hashtags work in a third-party way...so I'm going to try to add it to my iPhone app. (It's on the list, anyway.)

As a maker of Twitter Web software, from a customer service standpoint tracking is way cool. I track "iTweet" and then I get notified whenever someone talks about it. Naturally people Twitter about it, right? So I've gotten lots of helpful feedback from that...

"Love it." "It sucks." "It's really fast." "It's too slow". "It works great but it's ugly." "It doesn't work well but at least it looks great."

OK, maybe it's been a little less than helpful. It has been interesting though! But I digress...

To me the most interesting question is: does anyone have a proposal for a way to pull TagChannel-like features out of Twitter's new tracking method? Maybe it doesn't actually track the #pound sign but perhaps another syntax could be used. It would ruin all the efforts to date by Chris Messina and Stowe Boyd in hashtagging all their tweets for quite a while now, but perhaps there's another tagging method we can use to leverage what Twitter has given us? Please leave your thoughts in the comments!

Also, please follow me on Twitter (I'm @colbypalmer) and we can carry on the conversation in real time!

Update: There is a great post about this topic at Stowe Boyd's website, with comments from Mr. Messina here.

Update 2: Hashtags.org has built an app that indexes all hashtagged tweets, AS LONG AS the user using the #hashtag is following the hashtags bot. Follow @hashtags on Twitter and start using #hashtags today!

Update 3: You can now use #hashtags and search all of Twitter using my web and iPhone app, iTweet.net. Now you can click on #hashtags (they appear in green) and see all posts using that tag!

Posted on Oct. 1, 2007, 6:57 p.m. Tags: hashtags tracking twitter

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