2009-08-09
Twitter and friend-only searches
Roo Reynolds posted a pair of photos (1, 2) to highlight a feature he says Twitter needs: searching the updates only of people you follow.*
I don’t disagree, but Twitter might find implementing followed-only search difficult. This is because Summize (the acquired company that provides their search functionality) is somewhat disconnected from Twitter proper: it still has own domain (which stayed up on Thursday), for example. Incidentally, this disjoint nature means that people who run private (hi!) aren’t indexed at all.
It’s also why deleted posts aren’t deleted on search, but then another failing actually saves you: the search index is only goes back a few weeks.
Probably the only practical solution in the short term, given I doubt Twitter have the time or inclination to fix these issues, is to fix it yourself. Simon Willison has started running his own local DB, largely for search purposes. It’s tempting to do the same.
* I commented over there, but thought it was worth pulling out for a larger audience.
