Real time search and discovery engine Topsy is releasing a bunch of new products and tools this afternoon.
Topsy is all about the power of the ReTweet on Twitter. When the service first launched publicly in May we noted that ReTweets are the new currency of the web. And it isn’t just the number of retweets that matters (which is subject to large scale spamming efforts). It’s the authority of the people doing the retweeting, too.
One way Topsy is distinguishing itself from competitors like OneRiot and TweetMeme is by holding on to data forever. Most real time search engines are focused on right now, which is exactly what people want. But they dump data periodically, and anyone looking for older stuff won’t be able to find it. Here’s a sample search for “skype andreessen” on OneRiot (4 resutls), TweetMeme (0 results) and Topsy (37 pages of results, which can be sorted and filtered by time). So when you want to look up old Tweets around a link, Topsy has the data that no one else is currently showing.
Topsy TopLinks
Today Topsy is releasing new lists of top links being shared on Twitter at any given time. The product is called Topsy TopLinks. There are lists for the Top 100, Top 1,000 and Top 5,000 links. You can also search within the lists – example.
Users can grab RSS feeds for TopLinks, or even feeds for searches within TopLinks.
Like Bit.ly Now and TweetMeme, Topsy TopLinks is a great way to see what’s hot on Twitter right now. And by using influence they cut out the spammy stuff.
Topsy ReTweet Button
Topsy is now offering a Wordpress plugin that gives sites a TweetMeme-like retweet button. And it also shows any badges earned for the URL in TopLinks. Here’s how it looks:
Advanced Query Syntax
Among the other changes at Topsy, the site now supports new advanced search queries.
from:
– e.g. ‘from:Topsy influence’ Using this search query will limit your results to links about ‘influence’ that were posted by the Topsy account.
site:
– e.g. ’site:techcrunch.com Topsy’ Using this search query will limit your results to links on the TechCrunch site that are about Topsy.
site:
– e.g. ’site:eu.techcrunch.com twitter’ Using this search query will limit your results to links on the EU version of the TechCrunch site that include the term ‘twitter’.
site:
– e.g. ’site:wired.com/gadgets twitter’ Using this search query will limit your results to links that are within the gadgets section of the the wired.com site and include the term ‘twitter’.
We remain big fans of Topsy. They are amassing a huge long term database of popular links from Twitter, and allowing search and discovery against those links based on advanced search techniques and the idea of influence among Twitter users. The company is based in San Francisco, has 16 employees and has raised $15 million in venture funding.
Did you know if you put a regular URL into Topsy (no link: or anything else needed), it shows ALL retweets of that URL, even if the retweeter is using their own short links? This is great.
As a blogger, I was amazed at how many people were talking about my site without using my @ name or long URL. As far as I know, Topsy is the only site that shows this. This makes it indispensable for me.
-Erica
Twitturly does this too, and we keep all of the links forever, and we’ve been doing it since April, 2008 – yes, 2008. We by far have the largest database of links shared on Twitter.
You can also do searches by domain name if you don’t want/have the specific link.
NO DB CONNECTION! 1
doing it isn’t the word I’d choose.
It works really well for searching your own blog post, for example, and seeing what people are saying about it.
I like the “Highly Influential” badges some people get. But how are they awarded?
Brandon,
Check this link for an explanation of influence:
http://labs.top....com/influence/
Thanks,
brian@topsy
Hi
I tried
This is what I got in twitter
RT @minah: http://www.test.com?q1=a1 http://www.test.com?q1=a1
Note that
1. Url repeats twice
2. URL truncated
What I am missing
I think the script was removed by the validator. Here its again
script type=”text/javascript” src=”http://button.topsy.com/widget/retweet-big?nick=minah&url=www.test.com?q1=a1&q2=a2″ /script
*removed the angle braces since they wont allow me to post
Minah,
If you contact support@topsy.com, we’ll be happy to help.
Thanks,
Brian
Great improvements from the previous version of Topsy. This is an amazing way to filter the results and minimize the impacts of spam on Twitter.
Good post!
Well, I guess I am seeing even better results in other real-time websites. Here’s an example:
http://boilingp...kype+andreessen
I can’t wait to use this with my http://www.tweetiator.com account. Know who is tweeting my links and how popular they are will be a killer combination.
It’s getting way too busy up at the top of each post now with all these retweet/share buttons. Overkill.
topsy needs to improve its twitter search
I don’t really trust link shorteners. As long as I trust the user, but barely
Warning… Shamless promotion of Wowd follows…
Wowd also uses Twitter data, but uses that data to search the web writ large.
So try a Freshness-ranked search, using the example from the article, at Wowd:
http://www.wowd...amp;sortby=time
Topsy, I got my reaction for this site on my blog.
I think Topsy take some more time to get its services broaden.
But Topsy widgets are looking great.
why bit.ly can’t do the same?
For real-time links you can use a simple mashup:
http://bit.ly/zDSrB
Well then these ppl get into google’s territory, and end up killing themselves.
its about freshness, and google is closing up that gap fast.
search equals google. period.
Topsy also offers free analytics on your link & site that Tweetmeme will charge you for it.
I just wrote a post on my blog on how to setup Topsy retweet button using JavaScript only!