New search engine Topsy draws on Twitter users to generate its results

May 27, 2009 12:31 GMT  ·  By

Nothing looks like it's going to change Google's dominance of the search market anytime soon, but that hasn't stopped many from trying. From Microsoft to Wikipedia to Wolfram, everyone still wants in on the search game and for good reason - it's very, very profitable. Now, start-up Topsy is having a go at it, and, as you can imagine, there is a twist. There always is.

Currently search engines rely on links, which are what makes a page valuable. The more sites linking to that page the higher it gets in the results. Search engines know how many links are out there by means of indexing and the faster a page is updated the faster it needs to be indexed. This worked more or less fine; up until now, because now the web is changing, and faster than ever. It is getting more and more real time and users are getting accustomed to having instant information. And currently the synonym for instant information is Twitter. News spreads in a matter of minutes on Twitter as it gets retweeted and re-retweeted and current search engines just can't keep up.

This is where Topsy comes in because – and this is the twist – its results come from Twitter and not the web pages themselves. Topsy generates its results based on what links the service users are sharing. The more a link is spread the higher up it will be in the results. Also, some users have more influence than others. The more a link originating from a certain user is retweeted the more influence is given to that user. This is why the results coming from Topsy are much more up to date and about current events than those of any of the other search engines. Besides the links themselves results also show the most popular and influential users tweeting about the subject.

Of the new search engines in recent times Topsy actually shows the most promise and with the right amount of exposure it might gather a large following. That is until Google decides to implement a Twitter search as well, of course. Oh, and you want to know the secret behind Topsy? Coming straight from the site's About page, it's actually run by “hyper-intellegent pan-dimensional white mice at Topsy Labs, Inc., although our investors think it's run by humans.” Now it makes sense.