I was wondering about the comparison between Facebook search and Twitter search, so I ran a little experiment using the current trending topic on Twitter “Snow Leopard”.
You might find the outcome VERY interesting!
I took the current trending topic on Twitter which Snow Leopard – #6 on Twitter trends at 8:34pm 8/24/09.
Then I went to Twitter search and Facebook search and did a query for “snow leopard”, and the results were quite unexpected.
Below are images of my findings and analysis of the comparison between Facebook search and Twitter search.
The first observation, and one I completely don’t understand is, Facebook search results only gave me 1 page of search results, and the time range was from 5 minutes ago to the very last one on the bottom of page 1 which was 2 hours ago.
And it looks like Facebook search results show 15 results per page – or what would be per page, but they don’t give you the option to scroll through more results – at least in this experiment they didn’t.
Here’s an image of the very bottom of the search results that Facebook search provided. Notice the “There are no more posts to show right now” message. That’s what is shown underneath the 15th search result.
And then I went to Twitter and searched the same keyword phrase “snow leopard”, and the results were exponentially different than Facebook’s search results.
What I found in the Twitter search results was astounding to say the very least – compared to Facebook search results that is.
First of all, Twitter search results has 15 results per page – just like Facebook search results – but on Twitter, the first 15 results were postings that occurred in the last 2 minutes.
The image shown below is page 10 (results 141 – 150), and notice the time stamp on the 15oth result – it’s only 13 minutes ago!!!
Imagine how many pages of Twitter search results I would have to go out until I got to the equivalent of Facebook search results which was 2 hours out.
Here’s the image:
So my findings were fascinating to say the least. I don’t know if Facebook just isn’t capturing the actual updates from all Facebook users or what.
But if we take these results as value, then it’s clear the activity (or updating) on Twitter is at an exponentially higher volume and rate than Facebook.
So what do you think of the results, the differences, and the analysis between Facebook search and Twitter search?