Twitter is My New Search Engine
Douglas KarrThanks for stopping by my personal blog on Marketing Technology! Over 50,000 visitors a month find my content worth returning for, so don't forget to subscribe to the Marketing Technology Blog RSS feed or to the Marketing Technology Email to have new content sent directly to your inbox. You may also find my other business blog helpful, Social Media Domination.
I’m currently following 341 folks on Twitter. I contacted Twitter and asked them to enable ‘auto-follow’. That means that if you follow me, I automatically follow you. It’s not a documented feature nor is it in the user interface… but someone told me about it, so I requested it and Twitter graciously enabled it.
There are a lot of discussions out on the web about Twitter and that may or may not be a waste of time.
As new communication tools and technologies appear through the web there’s often a transformation in their use that, perhaps, wasn’t anticipated by its creators. Only today did I realize how much I utilize Twitter as a Search Engine, and how I’m used as a Search Engine by others. It seems to me that Twitter could eventually take quite a chunk out of some other technologies - perhaps the regional example is ChaCha, the brain-powered search engine.
ChaCha hasn’t always received the nicest press - and I have honestly never understood what the business case was for it. Humans backing search seems very inefficient. And perhaps it is… if you’re a company and not a community.
That said, the advantage of Twitter as a search engine is remarkable. I have surrounded myself with business experts, friends and colleagues that I enjoy sharing with and learning from. I respect them independently, they aren’t a stranger on the other end of the web. And as the number of people I’ve started following has become larger - so has the quality and quantity of the responses I’ve received when I post a question.
When I asked about an online photo editor, two folks immediately responded with Aviary. When I asked for a Slideshare alternative (they have been down a lot lately), I received no less than a dozen responses. AND, I was able to reply and ‘fine-tune’ my question to really find the right solution. With Twitter, I can refine my search, get opinions, and recommendations as quickly as I can click on a few results in Google.
If you’re concerned about following too many on Twitter, perhaps you can think of it with a different perspective. Twitter is my new Search Engine.
I looked and I’m following you so it appears you’ve figured it out!
Cheers & see you on Twitter!
Doug
I hope you’re well, Doug.