When Twitter first launched I did what any entrepreneurial educational technologist did and registered for an account. It was the infancy of Twitter, when tweets read more like a public collection of Facebook updates. The media coverage was full of speculation, curiosity, and of course humor (see the famous “Twouble with Twitters” video). I only had a couple of colleagues trying it out, so I really didn’t have any lively banter or collaboration going on. And it seemed most people interested in following me were spammers.
Somehow this didn’t dissuade me from checking regularly on Twitter’s evolution and progress. I searched for keywords and lurked with interest on a few regular hashtag conversations, especially #edtech, #eLearn and the more recent #edchat . Folks whom I’ve never met, but with similar professional interests, were sharing resources, tips, ideas and articles that provided just-in-time relevancy to my field. And then somehow, without really noticing, my web searching habits began to shift. I was soon doing searches on topics first via Twitter, and then Google, but only if needed. This completely surprised me because back in March of 2009 I read “Twitter Destined to Replace Google Search” on twitip and thought “whatever!”
So what changed? Well for one, my Twitter searching seems to follow a pattern. Generally, I am trying to do one of the following things; answer a question, solve a problem quickly, or get recommendations for resources. Doing Google searches is somewhat effective –but not exacting. As the twitip article describes, Twitter is positioned to give a better search experience because people are directly powering the content, which provides context to the search. A search engine can not find context, or even relevance within the content.
Twitter provides me two ways to carry out my searches; I can ask my question to my twitter community, while also performing a key word search through Twitter, or using a Twitter search engine like Topsy. Generally, I get good leads from each approach, and often these leads will help me refine a more effective and efficient search of data via Google. The icing on the cake is that my Twitter community is only a touch screen away via a mobile device. There is no shortage of mobile apps for smartphones or the iTouch. I can truly have one information hub no matter what device I am connecting with, bringing continuity to the search process.
I am not alone in appreciating the differences and unique benefits of a Twitter search. I found a piece from Josh Bernoff at Forrester Research describing Twitter search “your own personal groundswell.” Which brings me to the social aspect of the search process and the immediate ability to receive validation on a topic or a new direction and theory. I compare the social search aspect of Twitter like attending a social event at a conference or seminar. I am able to engage as much or as little in the conversation as I want, and I am bound to pick a good tip or resource just from listening in. Obviously the folks at Google seem to think there is something unique about this since they have started including Twitter feeds as a part of the Google searching experience.
I haven’t thrown Google out the window but I continued to be surprised and delighted at the number of professional communities on Twitter. In my case, my work in ed tech spans k12, higher education and eLearning communities. I no longer need to wait 8-12 months to read about a new innovative teaching method in a journal because we are able to report and share our experiences immediately. In the case of education, I argue this allows us to innovate more rapidly since we are able to accelerate the publication process and avoid long peer-review processes, that while important, can take away from the timeliness that is essential. I am pretty confident other professional fields are experiencing the same thing. But I am digressing and should pick up on this riff for a future posting.
So friends, fret not if you are Google fan, or even if you are Google. There is a something for everyone and Browsy brings us the ability to Twoogle (but of course!). So now can have the best of your aggregated data and social searching worlds in one web interface. Thank goodness.
Updated– Twitter v. Google Search: A Superbowl Postscript
Digitally Learning 
I am amazed with Twitter. I have been active on Twitter since the middle of December 09. I can’t believe the people I have ‘met’ and the amount of info that I have gotten from Twitter. It’s wonderful!! There are so many responsible people providing so much more than just ‘updates’. I am thrilled with Twitter and talked to my building principal the other day advocating that everyone get involved, professionally…then to use it in my classroom with our students.
Love it!!
Thanks for the great comment! I agree that this has been a wonderful medium for exchanging ideas and perspectives in the field.
Twitter allows both broadcasting and asking. I agree that it can foster rapid idea sharing leading to innovation for most any industry.
Great post, enjoyed the read. In my role as business development, timely information is highly important and I find that Twitter – following key people and key terms – is a great way to leverage networking to get information. The context of the information, as you indicated, is also a key aspect. In a way, Twitter is really about the now and for the most part search engines are about the past, simply because of the nature of indexing content. One could argue that search engines are a faster, smater version of the encyclopedia britannica, but are similar in the reference of historial and not real-time information. Of course, all the major search engines are moving to real-time as well, so will be interesting to see if Twitter can maintain its position, and grow it, or whether the big search engines can really make the move into real-time search.
Darby-
Thanks for the reply and taking time to read. I am also eager to see what’s next for Twitter. Will it integrate with a big search engine player or will it morph into something more?