Mike Arrington is right, it’s definitely time to start thinking of Twitter as a search engine. I’m going to tell you exactly how powerful Twitter’s search data is and why you might want to start using Twitter’s search engine a lot more than Google.
SxSW Interactive
For the past three day’s because of Twitter, I’ve been able to score a Press Pass for SxSW Interactive (free) and stumble upon a ride to Austin from Atlanta (I just need to help with driving) with the awesomesauce Grant Robertson, lead blogger of Download Squad (a must subscribe), and his awesomesauce other half Christina Warren b.k.a @film_girl from The Unofficial Apple Weblog. They’re native residents of Atlanta. Guess who told me that? I’m generating great sponsorship offers to accommodate the outrageous hotel prices for SxSW Interactive because of Twitter search also.
After all this, the surprises didn’t stop there. Today I became a panelist for the panel: Can the Afrosphere Survive the Age of Obama (If you have room on your schedule, stop by). I DM’d the Moderator of this panel a few months back when it seemed she might need an extra panelist. I saw her tweet about the dilemma because of Twitter search. I highly doubt she would’ve been in Google’s results and she was exactly who I was looking for. Now I have access to a few Film panels too.
All of this was made possible with a few connections that gave great advice, and a lot of playing with keywords on Twitter’s search engine to find everything I needed to gain sponsorship. Twitter was where I gathered the bulk of my results. Not our beloved Google.
Pay Attention
How I came across the information is by paying attention to the context of the tweets and who tweeters were responding to. Twitter’s search engine is full of connections. You only have to pay attention to the stream. The results are so much more personalized all because it’s YOUR creation. It’s a human powered search engine in a lot of ways! It has a TON of potential once the masses figure out how to use it.
Something to ponder, yes?
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If you’ve ever tried to explain to a friend the difference between their
The community is the key to separating social networks. The difference between a Facebook status update and a tweet, is the difference between apples and oranges; though they’re grouped in the same category, you just can’t compare them. Twitter is all about making conversations happen. However, the majority of these conversations revolve around some type of content: a
The feature-set of both social networks also enforces different behavior. Though both are tools for communication, you should be aware that different tools can create different reactions, especially when integrated with the right user interface. Facebook promotes more personal and intimate relationship building features such as games, image and video uploads, groups.
The social aspect of community is changing so rapidly, where we once had to seek people out at their homes, or on their phones, the conversation has moved to a myriad of online services where visual or verbal communication is a rarity, but is this type of constant connection with others helping or hindering our sense of community?
At first we had bulletin boards, which remind me of what
With all of these different forms of online communication, most of them leaves me feeling rather unfulfilled and disconnected. I believe this is in part why so many social events like
What do you think of the community connections people are making online? What communities are you part of and how have they helped you? Let me know in the comments below. 
