If you’ve ever had to search for something on Twitter, you know how difficult and frustrating it can be. First, the site only lets you search back through a couple weeks of tweets. Worse than that is the fact that you cannot narrow down whose tweets you will see in your results. This often means that you’ll be inundated with spam and other junk you weren’t looking for in the first place. Thankfully, Topsy seems to be getting it right.

Topsy is a simple search engine, powered only by tweets. Topsy doesn’t think the Internet is a collection of documents. They see that people are connected in a web of relationships. When you search for something on Topsy it finds snippets of conversations that match what you’re looking for. They ranks results based on how well they match your search terms, and the influence of the people talking about them.

If you haven’t checked it out yet, you probably should head on over there now. Topsy results are fresh, because they’re based on what you’re talking about right now. However, they can also find out what you were talking about months ago, which is something Twitter itself hasn’t figured out how to do yet.

• HP goes Green in the English countryside.
• What are your thoughts thus far on Google Buzz?
• Are you excited about Opera coming to the iPhone?
• Are you trapped in the “White Blight” in the U.S.?
• Those who throw stones shouldn’t live in glass houses.
• Tell us how you really feel about Facebook’s new look.
• Where do you come up with ideas for your business models?
• Do you use Twitter for work?
• What games are being released this week?
• Do you know how to find your product key?
• Do you need help with spelling when you are typing?
• Do you have dating and relationship secrets?
• Microsoft is responding to the Windows 7 battery problem.
• Customize your theme colors in Word 2007.

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Twitter Search Made Better

I noticed a thread today on Geeks that is talking about how discussions always end up turning negative in some way. This got me to thinking about conversations I have all over the web – on Geeks, over at Lockergnome, here in my blog, and even on sites like Twitter. It seems no matter what you’re trying to talk about, someone is going to be negative in some way. The people in this particular thread are right – it truly is annoying.

I’m not talking about differing opinions. Those are great, and I welcome them. Hopefully, you like hearing them as well. Having different viewpoints on things allows us to stretch our minds in directions they may not have otherwise gone. It can make us look at things in a whole new way, from a completely different perspective.

The negativity I’m referring to is exactly as it sounds – negativity, for no reason other than to be rude/demeaning. You’ll be having a conversation that’s going along nicely, and some person pops their nose in and starts going off on a tangent about something that may or may not relate to your discussion. They may even be completely rude about it, or directly “attack” someone involved in the thread/post. I really hate that. What’s the point of it? Why must Internet trolls even exist? Can’t we just like shoot them out of a cannon or something?

Seriously, though, why does it seem so difficult these days to have a completely intelligent conversation with others without the fear of someone taking it down a road it should never go? What are your thoughts? Are you seeing more and more of this lately, and how do you get past it to continue your discussion? What else are you reading and/or participating in online that has your mind stretching?

• Harvest Moon: Animal Parade for the Wii has marched straight to retail.
• Identity Theft from the inside can be the most dangerous of all.
• Blockbuster is planning to rent movies on SD cards?! Maybe we should stick with Netflix.
• What flavor of Linux do you recommend for someone completely new to the operating system?
• Your Nokia phone charging cord could possibly be a shock hazard.
• Why don’t our cars tell us when our batteries are going bad or getting low?!
• Parallels reups on VMWare
• So many Apps – so few ever used.
• Could YouTube be a crime-fighting tool?
• Topsy is fast becoming the new currency of the Web.
• Nearly 60% of US doctors report that their patients are having difficulties paying their bills.

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Can Online Discussions Always Be Positive?

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Twitter may not be for you, and that’s ok. It’s for me, that’s for sure! Even if you don’t want to “be” on Twitter, you can still take advantage of the information that’s flying around. You can surface extremely relevant information related to links that are shared. All you have to do is check out Topsy!

Topsy is a free search engine powered by tweets. Simply enter in a keyword that you are interested in tracking, and Topsy will return a list of results. You’ll notice that those results will all be tweets that include the keyword, and related links that were sent. It will also give you a list of people who tweeted out that word and link, in the order of who did so the most.

Topsy is an excellent way to keep yourself up-to-date as to what is hot right now, and who is talking about it. It’s also easy to use Topsy to watch trends, and keep your eye on things that are important to you.

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How to Find Popular Links on Twitter