--Service Now Allows Users to Conduct Real-Time Searches of Videos Shared on Twitter
Social TV company, ffwd (the company describes its goals as to "reinterpret the television channel from the perspective of crowd sourcing, personalization and the social graph" and to "make the ever-expanding video Web easier to navigate"), has relaunched Twitmatic--the Web-based service which it unveiled just two months ago at [itvt]'s TV of Tomorrow Show and which originally presented users with a simple, real-time stream of videos being shared on microblogging service, Twitter--as a real-time search engine for Twitter videos.
The service now presents visitors to twitmatic.com with a search field into which they can enter up to three terms, separated by commas, in order to find related videos. The results of the search are by default presented in a list format (though users have the option of clicking on an icon in order to watch them as a stream), each of whose entries allows users to click to view the related video, access the profile of the Twitter user who posted it, follow and/or reply to that user, and view the Tweet which linked to the video. Users also have the option of logging into Twitmatic with their Twitter credentials, allowing them 1) to follow/unfollow people without leaving Twitmatic, 2) to "favorite" a Tweet/video and access it later from their Twitter Favorites list, and 3) to save their searches as channels on a new navigation pane on the left side of the screen. According to ffwd, Twitmatic constantly checks for new video results, based on the search terms that the user entered, and, when new results come in, the service notifies the user via a message on the page (alternatively, the user can simply refresh the page to see new videos). The service also now offers a back button that allows users to re-view videos they have already seen in the course of their current search and viewing session. Other features include "Show All Videos" (allows viewers to see a real-time stream of videos being shared on Twitter--in the manner of the original Twitmatic service) and "Popular Today."
ffwd says that Twitmatic's new search service is based on a "built-in method for taking a search term, accessing the Twitter API, processing the clips found for links and then running the supported links through the Twitmatic import system." It promises that "the more people search, the better the index will be and the faster the results."
