OutTwit Search/Track Keywords
Ok, so I’ve described how I search the incoming messages from Twitter to find the stuff I want to read first quickly. But having said that, do you really need to follow everyone just because they may have mentioned something your interested in once? That being the case, how do you find subjects or keywords of things your interested in so you don’t miss any posts, or following thousands of folks (like I started to do)?
OutTwit makes it easy to search/track keywords:
The primary difference between search folders and search/track keywords is that the search folders search only the messages from those you follow, or those in your timeline and being downloaded. Search/Track Keywords actually searches the entire Twitter public timeline to find messages you may be interested in, from all users who haven’t protected their updates. As a side note, I haven’t really figured out the whole protected update thing. Why use Twitter if you protect your updates when you can email or text, or join an email distribution list? Isn’t that really defeating the purpose of Twitter? In any event…
So, how does it work?
If you select Search/Track Keywords…, you’ll be presented with the option to create new searches, edit existing searches, or delete searches you may have wanted to follow at the time, but no longer want to track. Selecting New:
For instance, if I wanted to search the entire Twitter public timeline for Windows Mobile:
You’ll see there is a hyperlink above that will take you directly to http://search.twitter.com/operators. This will give you some idea of the search functions that are supported and can be used. You can either then select Save, in which case all search results will be dropped in your main OutTwit folder, or you can select a different folder. For my searches, I have a separate folder for each search so that I can find them faster. My folders are typically named for the searches. Again, keep in mind this is different in that it is searching the entire public timeline, not just people you follow. This is also a great way to find others you want to follow, finding folks who have similar interests.
The search options are actually pretty unlimited. For instance, if you want to follow someone’s posts (including replies, and what others send them) without following them, build a search for their username, and all of their posts will show up without following. This will allow you to find out whether to follow, so that you don’t have to go back and unfollow.
Note the “OR” is in caps, and must be in caps for the search operator to work. The default search operator is “and”, so two or more words and search will interpret as “and”, as in windows and mobile.
An interesting phenomenon for some on Twitter. It’s an interesting experiment in social media. Some folks will follow you on Twitter hoping to be followed back, or get an autofollow which some utilize. These are folks who have no real desire to engage or read anything you post, just looking for followers. Then, those same folks will unfollow you a few days later so that they can build their “Followers” while keeping their “Following” ratio down. They never engage or @ reply to anything you post, then several days later, after you follow them back, drop you. It can be quite funny at times to watch folks do this. Twitter by default doesn’t track folks who unfollow, only those that follow. You can get email notification of any new followers, but you don’t get email notifications for folks who quit following you. Applications like Qwitter though lets you see it in full action. A little misleading and dishonest if you ask me, but again an interesting experiment in social media, and more of the “I want to be popular” mentality, “look at all my followers”. There are also those who follow you, then unfollow because you don’t follow them back. Again a little cheesy if you ask me. Granted, some legitimately unfollow after reading some posts, but there are those trying to build their following. Follow folks you want to follow, folks you want to learn from, folks that make you laugh (honestly most of the time they are the same people) and try to engage. But I digress. OutTwit gives you the ability to follow someone for awhile, perhaps engage a little, without actually following, and also helps find spammers (yes, spammers are in Twitter too). It’s a great way to separate the wheat from the chaff. You never really have to follow to keep up, which can be a good thing.
Try Search/Track Keywords in OutTwit. I’m sure you’ll appreciate the functionality and is yet another great tool from OutTwit to make your Twitter interaction a little more manageable.