Twitter Searches
For many users, Twitter is a fun way to broadcast opinions on subjects ranging from favourite foods to cats to politics or any combination of the aforementioned topics. It’s also a fun place to get involved in arguments and discussions that may drag on for days, weeks or even months.
Unfortunately, Twitter is an essentially ephemeral medium with Tweets having a half life of just a few hours in most cases. While this can be hugely convenient for those who like to use it in fire and forget mode, it can be very frustrating for those who would like to point out an inconsistency in a point of view or simply make reference to some interesting tidbit that supports a position or enhances an argument. Well organised Tweeters may well use a tool like Evernote to keep track of tweets of special interest but most of us just aren’t that committed (no matter how much we kid ourselves on that we are).
Not to worry, though, for the boys and girls at Twitter Support have provided us with a rich suite of tools that we can use to aid us in our search for that killer tweet. Combined with the oft forgotten fact that your tweets are accessible forever (unless you delete them, though even then they’re not completely gone), these tools can be very powerful. Since most Twitterers don’t know about them, much less use them, and since I’ve responded to requests along the lines of “How can I find X?” more times than I can remember, I thought I’d list some of those that I use most often.
Finding Conversations
@handle1 @handle2 … @handleN
Find tweets involving all of the Twitter handles listed. This includes tweets sent by one of the handles specified in the search that mentions the others, either directly or indirectly.
from:handleX
Find all tweets sent by the specified Twitter handle.
Note: At the time of this update, Twitter search rules won’t find tweets from a Twitter user who has blocked your account. This hasn’t always been the case, and may change again with little (or no) notice.
to:handleX
Find all tweets sent to the specified Twitter handle.
For much more fine grained searches, you can combine any (or all) of the above. For example, to find tweets from handleX to handleY that mention handleZ:
from:handleX to:handleY @handleZ
Looking For Key Phrases
“some key words”
Find all tweets that contain the exact phrase, “some key words”
“some words” AND “other words”
Find all tweets that contain both of the phrases specified.
“some words” OR “other words”
Find all tweets that contain either of the phrases specified.
Twitter also allows for more complex expressions by using parentheses to group AND / OR terms.
this OR (that AND other)
(this OR that) AND other
The first search will match tweets containing this, or both that and other. The second search will match tweets contain this or that, and other. Any of the terms can be replaced with a “quoted phrase” for exact multi-word matches, as in earlier examples.
Searching Date Ranges
since:yyyy-mm-dd
Find all tweets sent since the specified date. The ‘since’ date is inclusive.
until:yyyy-mm-dd
Find all tweets sent up to the specified date. The ‘until’ date is inclusive.
The since date must be earlier than the until date except when you want to search for tweets sent on a specific day. In that case, both dates should be the same.
Truly Advanced Searches
To really narrow down the tweets that are returned in the search results, you can combine any of the above search expressions to find just what you’re looking for. For example, you know that handleX made a bet with you last August that Angus MacNeil would win a beauty contest:
to:myHandle from:handleX @AngusMacNeilSNP since:2014–08–01 until:2014–08–31 “beauty contest”
Happy searching, Tweeps!
If you made it this far then why not follow me on Twitter (@bgilmour), tweet a link to this blog, or read some other stuff that I’ve written.
