Tweetdeck is a web application that allows users to post, search, and manage their Twitter accounts. This tool is really handy for Twitter users because it allows you to organize and sift through all of the Twitter information related to your account. As a user, you can add columns for @mentions, searching specific hashtags, and also private messages that you may receive. It is a a great time-saver and easy way to view everything that is going on within the Twitter sphere.
For this assignment, I created 3 search columns with the following topics: Cloud Computing, Digital Security, and Installation Art. Within each topic, I set up a column to search for the specific hashtags that are related, which included: #cloudstorage, #onlineprivacy, and #DNAArt.
Tweetdeck is an application that can be used as a ‘search engine’, in the sense that it provides another mechanism for users to find information. For example, I could Google “Nuit Blanche” to find information about the event, or I could use Twitter and search #nuitblanche.
While both Tweetdeck and Google are great applications to use to find and discover new information, the search results are vastly different. As a way to demonstrate the differences in quantity and quality, specifically the type of results, I entered the same 6 phrases into Google.
As you can see, the same type of search in Tweetdeck and Google provide very different results. Google seemed to better sift or customize and personalize the results for the searches, whereas Tweetdeck provided everything that was related to the search. The quality of results were very different.
With Web 2.0, there is an extremely large amount of ‘information’ on the web, all of which is widely accessible to individuals. Anyone who is able to connect to the web is able to participate in the Web 2.0 technologies. This is why many experts explain that there is an “information overload” online.
Using Tweetdeck as a search engine works, but it may not produce or show the high quality of results you might need. It seemed as though there was a lot of “junky” responses and results on Tweetdeck. Google seems to be more reliable and trustworthy. Filtering and organizing online content based on your needs is crucial when it comes to searching online.
