Finding Old Tweets

Tweet much? Want to study tweets, or review tweets from a recent (or not-so-recent) conference? I've been asked for recommendations on software that will archive tweets, so I thought I'd post my replies here for posterity. Also for my future self.

All The Old Tweets Are Found: Google Launches Twitter Archive Search reports Greg Sterling on Search Engine Land. A Google search will yield archived tweets; click on "More" to the left of the results and scroll down to "Updates."

Here are the results from last year's Science Online conference, hashtagged #scio10. You'll see a few recent tweets, but then you'll see a flurry of tweets from Feb. 2010 to the present (apparently the service started in Feb.) You can click on a calendar image to see tweets from a particular month or date.

(click to see Feb 2010 tweets about #scio10.)

I also tried another conference I attended, #asist21010, & was pleased to see pre-, mid-, and post-conference tweets. For something a bit more topical, check out #ItGetsBetter. Greg's Search Engine Land post goes into more detail, so I'll link to it again.

The Archivist Desktop By Mix Online (and Microsoft). Only available for Windows. They say: "The Archivist is a Windows application that helps you archive tweets for later data-mining and analysis. Start a search with The Archivist and get as many results as it can. The, leave The Archivist running and it will poll Twitter for that search."

Chris Pirillo tweeted about this in September: Archive the Tweets That are Important to You. There is a web version as well for non PC users.

Back in August, 2009, Read Write Web listed 10 Ways to Archive Your Tweets.

Of these, Twinbox looks really handy, as it downloads certain Twitter feeds directly to your Outlook mail client. Again, however, this is only for PeeCee folks.

If you are interested in assessing social media campaigns, you might also want to check out my list of resource to help you Assess Social Media Campaigns.

Tweet on!