Compare how cool most new wave bands were named to how stupidly most Web 2.0 applications are named. Where is Prefab Sprout when you need them.
Speaking of stupid names, Twazzup, perhaps a new low in naming, wants to be your better Twitter search engine. Taking a page from the FriendFeed beta, Twazzup search results are real-time (assuming Twitter is, which it often ain’t) with a pause button. Stupid name aside (and it’s a little hard to put it aside), Twazzup has a really well designed interface. I like the tabs at the top, and the photos on the right side. And even the colors.
I don’t see an RSS feed to export search results to a feed reader or to my new love iGoogle, which is the feature of Twitter Search I use the most. As part of my very half-hearted efforts to monitor my “online reputation” I have a Twitter Search feed that picks up my Twitter mentions, replies and retweets. Here it is, if you want to use it as a go-by to create one for yourself:
h t t p://search.twitter.com/search.atom?q=%40kentnewsome+OR+%22Kent+Newsome%22+OR+Newsome.Org.
A try or two at Boolean searches also came up empty. I didn’t find any meaningful help or support options, and job one for Twazzup should be an FAQ. I would also like to have a list of saved searches that I could click on for easy access, and maybe a way to search only people I follow or who follow me. Or better yet, who follow a particular user.
One cool feature it does have is a clickable tab for relevant hash tags. For example a Grateful Dead search returned hash tag tabs for #musicmonday, #grateful dead, and #1071 (which is some sort of Grateful Dead playlist thingy). Another thing I like is the way thumbnails of attached photos show up in the applicable Tweet. You’d think Twitter would have added that functionality months ago.
ReadWriteWeb likes the fact that Twazzup displays a list of the “most authoritative” Twitter users for any given topic. I suspect we are, once again, confusing popular with authoritative, which is probably the single biggest fallacy of Web whatever.whatever. Just because there isn’t a readily available method to accurately measure something doesn’t mean you have to come up with inaccurate methods. The New York Times doesn’t call its bestsellers list the most authoritative books on the subject.
Mashable wonders if we really need a Twitter search alternative. I agree with the point that most if not all of these alternative search engines may shortly suffer the dual death knell of redundancy and remoteness once Twitter integrates a better search component on Twitter pages.
CNet likes the fact that Twazzup doesn’t monkey with the time-sorted results, but also likes the fact that it does have those popularity features in the right hand column. The CNet post looks at three Twitter search alternatives and concludes that Twazzup is the best.
Like many, I suspect these Twitter search alternatives may have a limited shelf life, but so far, only the lack of an RSS feed for search results is keeping me from making Twazzup my preferred choice for Twitter search. At least for a while.
Newsome.Org 