Tag Archives: search

02.11.14
by

Data Mining: Snapbird

Use:  find historical tweets to add context to or background for a news story

Snapbird is a free tool that allows you to search your own tweets or other users’ timelines for specific information.  In addition, you can search yours or other users’ favorites, tweets, mentions, direct messages you’ve sent and direct messages you’ve received. Select the search function, type in a Twitter username and a keyword, and Snapbird will list all messages that contain that keyword.

Previously, I wrote about Topsy, another Twitter search engine that allows you to search Twitter history by tweets, links, photos, videos and influencers.  But, unlike Snapbird, it does not allow you to search by specific Twitter user.

More:

journalism.co.uk: Tool for journalist: Snapbird, for searching Twitter

bloggingtips.com: Snap Bird: The Best Way to Search Beyond Twitter’s History

thenextweb: Snap Bird helps find old tweets and messages by going where Twitter Search can’t: months back

 

 

Advertisement
11.21.13
by

Social Media: NewsWhip Spike

Use:  Identify conversations or stories with a local angle that are trending on social media sites

On my previous post, I share information on Geofeedia, a tool to search social media sites for activity related to a specific locality.  NewsWhip Spike is a similar tool that tracks “social signals” identifying hot stories or popular conversations and allows publishers to narrow the search to specific regions.  So far, the service features 50 U.S. cities as well as cities and regions in Canada, Germany and the UK.

According to an article on Journalist.co.uk: “Stories are ranked by ‘social velocity’ how much and how fast it is trending on socSocial Media: NewsWhip Spikeial media, categorised into time periods of the last hour, three hours, 12 hours or 24 hours. The locales featured on Spike are chosen by regional importance or population density as “you need a metro market to be a certain size before you have much local press.”

As with Geofeedia, NewsWhip Spike could be a helpful tool for journalists to surface local stories they are unaware of or track how and which published stories are trending.  It could also be useful to help advertisers track stories that contain their brand.

More:

Journalism.co.uk: NewsWhip launches local function for social search tool

Journalism.co.uk: NewsWhip Spike: A powerful tool to monitor news sources

11.20.13
by

Social Media: Geofeedia

Use: Search content by location across social media networks to surface interesting local stories, commentary,  sources and content

Geofeedia is a Web-based application that allows media publishers to search social media activity by location across Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Instagram and Picassa.   According to Geofeedia: “Once you create a Geofeed – by simply entering an address or drawing a boundary around a location on a map – you can search, monitor and analyze all social media activity from that location.”  The search can be refined with additional filters such as source, date, keyword and hashtag.

The data collected can be archived so you can track trends or tie activity to a particular past event.  Journalists can use the tool to uncover and curate relevant content for a particular location.   Sales executives can use the tool to pin down sentiments about a particular retailer by store location.

Geofeedia offers a 24-hour pass for $49 and special plans for events

More:

ijnet: How newsrooms can use Geofeedia to curate social media by location

Poynter: Geofeedia helps journalists locate real-time photos, tweets where news breaks

iRevolution: Geofeedia: Next Generation Crisis Mapping Technology?

 

 

08.20.13
by

Content Distribution: Google In-Depth Stories

Use:  Increase exposure of related content to articles that show up in Google search

In early August, Google began rolling out a new search feature called “In-Depth Articles.”  The feature will surface content relevant to specific search results to provide users with more background on searched topics.  According to Google:  “these results are ranked algorithmically based on many signals that look for high-quality, in-depth content.”  (See link below to similar Twitter feature launched on August 20).

So, for example, if a user searches for Edwin Snowden,  a list of in-depth articles will appear below search results and might include stories about the NSA Prism program, reaction from foreign governments, tensions between the U.S. and Russia over granting of asylum, etc.

Google offers a variety of tips to optimize this feature, including a logo and implementing aspects of schema.org article, markup, authorship markup and, for paid sites, first click free.

More:

Update 8/21/2013: Mashable: Twitter Provides Context With Related Headlines Feature

Hubspot: What Google’s ‘In-Depth Articles’ Algorithm Update Means For Your Content Strategy

Copyblogger: How to Write the In-Depth Articles that Google Loves

The Moz Blog: Inside In-depth Articles: Dissecting Google’s Latest Feature