Topsy Search Launches: ReTweets Are The New Currency Of The Web

Topsy is only useful if you are looking for content that people are talking about right now. My average Google search isn't "blog", "quantum mechanics" or "ubuntu". If I was looking for information on those topics, I would first check Wikipedia and follow the external links from there. My regular Google search is something along the lines of "sony ericsson f305 maximum application size", "parkour new delhi" or "nsstring url encoding" (this is from my search history).

Google gave me satisfactory results for all 3 of those queries. Let's do a comparison.

(Note: DDG is DuckDuckGo)

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Term: "sony ericsson f305 maximum application size"

* Topsy: No results.

* DDG: The 5th result gave me my answer.

* Google: The second result gave me my answer.

* Cuil: 1 result, no answer.

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Term: "parkour new delhi"

* Topsy: No results.

* DDG: Many results with links to parkour groups across New Delhi. The second result (Parkour India) was the best result.

* Google: Many results with links to parkour groups across New Delhi, but I found several irrelevant results mixed with the ones I was looking for. Again, Parkour India got 2nd place.

* Cuil: Most of the results were random blogs about parkour, most of them not Indian. The Parkour India group on Ning got the second place.

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Term: "nsstring url encoding"

* Topsy: No results.

* DDG: The top result was from Apple's documentation, followed by a few mailing list discussions on the topic and two blog posts. Except the last 2 results, all of the results were right on target.

* Google: Got some of the same results, but shuffled around and mixed with many irrelevant results. Moreover, Apple's documentation was at the bottom of the page.

* Cuil: Several mailing list results, very few were relevant. I found my answer, though.

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So, Topsy is useful only if you want to know what's hot right now, Google and DuckDuckGo return nearly the same results, but with DuckDuckGo having relevant results closer to the top of the page and Cuil is pretty much useless.

(I always mess up formatting. What does HN use and where do I learn how to use it?)

While its a nifty service, Topsy seems to be 'static' search for Twitter - another version of "<search terms> site:twitter.com" (especially when you consider Google's time-range search options). A lot of people seem to be linking to tweets on blogs and forums, and the 'old-fashioned' currency of these links seems to be missing in Topsy (and present in the Google version). This omission could be an issue for their ranking algos when linking to tweets becomes more common.

If I were the Topsy team, I would also worry about Twitter adding a static option to their own search. Unless of course I am hoping to go the Summize route.

Some features of currency you may be familiar with:

Stores value.

Can be exchanged for goods and services.

Generally accepted as a common means of payment.

ReTweets look like they're zero for three. On the other hand, links, which were previously identified as a currency of the web, stack up pretty well -- they get more valuable over time for SEO purposes, and for the right ones people will pay actual dollars, yen, or what have you. (Does that make currency the new currency of the web?)

I think it depends on what you're trying to search for. If you're interested in what stories Twitter users consider important it could be helpful. If you want to see what actions people are taking on Twitter in response to a particular story, it could be helpful. Otherwise, good old Google News is likely to provide better links to more relevant content.

I love the smell of hype in the morning.

What does the real-time mean here?

Not compelling.

Results are not bad at all.

No they are not.