Twazzup: Twitter Search Alternative

April 14, 2009

A happy quack to the reader who sent me a link to Twazzup.com, the most recent Twitter search alternative. You can try the system here. Keep in mind that if you are new to Twitter, you won’t make much sense of Twitter results. I’m convinced that Twitter content needs some smart software to provide context for the posts that appear to have meaningful information. Twazzup does some value adding to the Twitter hits, and when compared to Twitter’s approach, Twazzup is heading in the right direction. Take a look at Louis Gray’s analysis here.

I ran my standard suite of queries and was a bit dismayed to see that my search for “beyond search” returned zero results. I put quotes around the phrase and the relevancy jumped. The other queries were useful, but I have been fiddling with Twitter content for a while, and I don’t think I am a good “out of the box” judge.

What I liked about Twazzup.com was:

  • The system was snappy. I perceived zero latency even when I was using my lousy Verizon “high speed” wireless service
  • I liked the listing of popular Tweets. I am not sure that I am ready to abandon Tweetmeme.com or the other services I use to see what’s hot and what’s not, but I liked their inclusion
  • The gray hot spots that open up relevant information could be useful, but in general I don’t use those service. I focus more on results lists. So “facets” don’t “facet-nate” me. Other folks love them which is okay with me.

On the downside, I find the presentation a bit busy, but compared with some of the Chinese interfaces I’ve examined recently, Twazzup.com is downright sedate. The multiplicity of buttons may be better suited to the young at heart. I am an old and addled goose, not a spring chicken.

Here’s the result screen for one of my test queries:

twazzup

Give it a look.

Stephen Arnold, April 14, 2009

Comments

3 Responses to “Twazzup: Twitter Search Alternative”

  1. Andre on April 14th, 2009 10:31 am

    Interesting to see these services come up. Stephen, how does this site relate to Tweepz (www.tweepz.com)?

  2. Stephen E. Arnold on April 14th, 2009 1:51 pm

    Andre,

    You are the second person today to point me to Tweepz.com. I looked at it and it seemed to be closer to the job search service I wrote about in the Web log a few days ago; that is, a vertical search implementation within Twitter space.

    Stephen Arnold, April 14, 2009

  3. Imane Exalead on April 23rd, 2009 3:20 am

    Stephen,

    Just to let you know that Tweepz is based on Exalead’s core technologies 🙂

    Have a nice day,

    Imane

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