[twitter-dev] Suggested method for getting GEO results

2010-06-02 Thread ELB
Hello,

We are looking at getting city based search results for 14 major
cities.

The current method we use is to plug in a cities Geo Coordinates into
the search API and then include a 25KM radius around the city.  This
works well and allows us to get true results of people inside or
around a given city.
However, for maybe a 20 minute period once or twice per day, the
results are empty.  We go from 50-100+ results for a given keyword to
0 - 5 results.  Then, 20 minutes later there will again be 50 - 100+
results including several results for the time period whereby the
results were blank.  So, its not a case of Twitter not having results,
it is a case of a 10 - 20 minute window whereby Twitter's results with
the GEO filter don't show up - or barely show up for a given time
period.

This has led us to consider using the Near API.  From what I
understand, the Near API will give us results near a given city based
off of GEO data as well as profile data.  I would assume this may be a
more stable option - but the option we use now is great except for
those rare instances whereby Twitter shows us little to no results for
a keyword they clearly have a lot of results for within our GEO
coordinates.

ELB


Re: [twitter-dev] Suggested method for getting GEO results

2010-06-02 Thread Taylor Singletary
Have you considered using the Streaming API for this purpose?
http://apiwiki.twitter.com/Streaming-API-Documentation#locations -- we
encourage those with heavy search needs to use it as an alternative. Search
is meant much more for servicing search results based off of user-initiated
queries, and is most tuned for that purpose.

Taylor

On Wed, Jun 2, 2010 at 2:37 PM, ELB ebrit...@gmail.com wrote:

 Hello,

 We are looking at getting city based search results for 14 major
 cities.

 The current method we use is to plug in a cities Geo Coordinates into
 the search API and then include a 25KM radius around the city.  This
 works well and allows us to get true results of people inside or
 around a given city.
 However, for maybe a 20 minute period once or twice per day, the
 results are empty.  We go from 50-100+ results for a given keyword to
 0 - 5 results.  Then, 20 minutes later there will again be 50 - 100+
 results including several results for the time period whereby the
 results were blank.  So, its not a case of Twitter not having results,
 it is a case of a 10 - 20 minute window whereby Twitter's results with
 the GEO filter don't show up - or barely show up for a given time
 period.

 This has led us to consider using the Near API.  From what I
 understand, the Near API will give us results near a given city based
 off of GEO data as well as profile data.  I would assume this may be a
 more stable option - but the option we use now is great except for
 those rare instances whereby Twitter shows us little to no results for
 a keyword they clearly have a lot of results for within our GEO
 coordinates.

 ELB