Searchtastic: Twitter Search System

October 12, 2009

TechCrunch’s “Searchtastic Throws Its Hat Into The Twitter Search Engine Ring” called my attention to another real time search engine provider. The screenshot below shows the unique feature of the new service. I can search for Twitter users by their name:

I ran several test queries and found the results useful. When queries return null results, the system displays the search terms with a strikethrough and the message “remove words from search”. Useful but the interface was initially confusing. In comparative tests against my current favorite real time search system Collecta.com, I thought Searchtastic was useful but Collecta seemed more mature in this evolving sector of the search market.

Stephen Arnold, October 12, 2009

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under News, Real time search, Search

Comments

One Response to “Searchtastic: Twitter Search System”

Searchtastic on October 12th, 2009 1:20 am

Thanks for writing this. We changed the message to “CLICK TO remove words from search” which will hopefully be less cryptic. The concept is that the entire search can be done by clicking. You can click on words in the results to add them or click in that section to remove them.

Collecta has a fancier interface but does not search Twitter history. Compare these searches:

Searchtastic: http://www.searchtastic.com/index.php?User=&Search=Michael+Jackson+rushed+to+hospital

Collecta: http://www.collecta.com/#q=Michael%2520Jackson%2520rushed%2520to%2520hospital

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.