Ok, I can replicate your results with curl $ curl -v "http://search.twitter.com/search.json?q=\"exeter%20city\"";
...returns the wrong results, as you say. $ curl -v "http://search.twitter.com/search.json?q=%22exeter%20city%22"; ...returns the correct results. I think double quotes are not actually valid URL characters (tho some browsers try to treat them as such), so you should really turn " into %22 before the requests go out. That said, I'm starting to agree with Paul that twitter is doing some sort of encoding trick on their end when literal quotes are sent in the request: $ curl -v http://search.twitter.com/search.json?q=\"exeter%20city\"; * About to connect() to search.twitter.com port 80 (#0) * Trying 128.121.146.107... connected * Connected to search.twitter.com (128.121.146.107) port 80 (#0) > GET /search.json?q="exeter%20city" HTTP/1.1 > User-Agent: curl/7.16.4 (i486-pc-linux-gnu) libcurl/7.16.4 OpenSSL/0.9.8e > zlib/1.2.3.3 libidn/1.0 > Host: search.twitter.com > Accept: */* > < HTTP/1.1 200 OK < Date: Tue, 03 Mar 2009 17:09:34 GMT < Server: hi < Status: 200 OK < Cache-Control: max-age=20, must-revalidate, max-age=300 < Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8 < X-Served-By: searchweb003.twitter.com < Expires: Tue, 03 Mar 2009 17:14:34 GMT < Content-Length: 195 < Vary: Accept-Encoding < X-Varnish: 1733084231 < Age: 0 < Via: 1.1 varnish < X-Cache-Svr: searchweb003.twitter.com < X-Cache: MISS < Connection: close < * Closing connection #0 {"results":[],"since_id":0,"max_id":1274236746,"refresh_url":"?since_id=1274236746&q=%22exeter%2520city%22","results_per_page":15,"completed_in":0.112164,"page":1,"query":"%22exeter%2520city%22"} Now, one could argue that the request itself is invalid or malformed, and so the result may be undefined, but I do agree that something is happening on twitter's end. Moral of the story: encode " as %22 in URLs. -Chad On Tue, Mar 3, 2009 at 11:33 AM, Paul Kinlan <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi, > > It works with the "+", but I knew that :) > > With a space (in IE) it encodes it as %20 when it makes the request and I > can see it through fiddler (as below) and it comes back. > > GET /search.json?q="exeter%20city" HTTP/1.1 > Accept: image/gif, image/x-xbitmap, image/jpeg, image/pjpeg, > application/x-ms-application, application/vnd.ms-xpsdocument, > application/xaml+xml, application/x-ms-xbap, application/x-shockwave-flash, > application/vnd.ms-excel, application/vnd.ms-powerpoint, application/msword, > */* > Accept-Language: en-gb > UA-CPU: x86 > Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate > User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.0; SLCC1; .NET > CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.5.21022; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET CLR 3.0.30618; > InfoPath.2; OfficeLiveConnector.1.3; OfficeLivePatch.0.0) > Host: search.twitter.com > Connection: Keep-Alive > Cookie: > __utma=43838368.379476752167577530.1234449205.1234449205.1234449205.1; > __utmz=43838368.1234449205.1.1.utmcsr=blog.twe2.com|utmccn=(referral)|utmcmd=referral|utmcct=/; > __utmv=43838368.lang%3A%20en_GB > > I fully accept it is probably our client software that is not encoding > correcly, but I also tried this from the command line curl > "http://search.twitter.com/search.json?q=\"exeter%20city\""; the response > comes back as %22exeter%2520city%22 in the json object. From my point of > view I know the quotes are not correct, but it looks like twitter is > encoding them when it recieves them. I belive our client API is sending > double quotes rather %22. > > Kind Regards, > Paul > > 2009/3/3 Chad Etzel <[email protected]> >> >> I also just tested searching "exeter city" in TweetGrid with IE, >> FireFox, and Chrome. All came back with the same results. >> fwiw, >> -Chad >> >> On Tue, Mar 3, 2009 at 11:14 AM, Matt Sanford <[email protected]> wrote: >> > Hi Paul, >> > I just tested form the command line and everything seems fine >> > with: curl >> > 'http://search.twitter.com/search.json?q=%22exeter%20city%22' >> > If you are typing %20 into the IE address bar it is likely try to >> > correct your % (which is not a valid URL character) and making it %25 >> > in >> > the request but displaying it correctly to you. Try replacing it with a >> > + or >> > a space and see what you get. >> > Thanks; >> > — Matt >> > - Show quoted text - >> > On Mar 3, 2009, at 08:06 AM, Paul Kinlan wrote: >> > >> > Forgot to add, I am checking our client library now too. >> > >> > Paul. >> > >> > 2009/3/3 Paul Kinlan <[email protected]> >> >> >> >> Hi Matt, >> >> >> >> I was typing the search term through IE (to test it after reports that >> >> "" >> >> enclosed searches aren't working) as >> >> http://search.twitter.com/search.json?q="exeter city" which it then >> >> converts >> >> to http://search.twitter.com/search.json?q="exeter%20city"; but the >> >> result >> >> came back as "%22exeter%2520city%22" (see json object below) in the >> >> search >> >> API json object. It works in firefox so I am presuming firefox is >> >> correctly >> >> encoding the url. >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> {"results":[],"since_id":0,"max_id":1273765306,"refresh_url":"?since_id=1273765306&q=%22exeter%2520city%22","results_per_page":15,"completed_in":1.313905,"page":1,"query":"%22exeter%2520city%22"} >> >> >> >> it is highly likely that if IE is having the issue, the client API >> >> would >> >> probably have it, however the query that is going out over the wire (I >> >> checked with fiddler as "exeter%20city" and the result comes back as >> >> above, >> >> so I don't think it is us for the entire problem). >> >> >> >> Kind Regards, >> >> Paul. >> >> >> >> 2009/3/3 Matt Sanford <[email protected]> >> >>> >> >>> Hi Paul, >> >>> It sounds like whatever is generating your API requests is double >> >>> URL >> >>> encoding. So the space becomes %20, and then on the second url >> >>> encoding the >> >>> % becomes a %25. >> >>> Thanks; >> >>> — Matt Sanford / @mzsanford >> >>> On Mar 3, 2009, at 07:34 AM, Paul Kinlan wrote: >> >>> >> >>> Hi, >> >>> >> >>> I am noticing something that I think is odd at the moment. >> >>> >> >>> Some of our users are not getting searches that are enclosed in quotes >> >>> via the API, yet they work directly from the website. >> >>> >> >>> For example there is a difference between the following query on the >> >>> API >> >>> and Website: >> >>> >> >>> http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%22exeter%20city%22 which has the >> >>> same >> >>> results as http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%22exeter+city%22 >> >>> >> >>> but returns a different result via the API using the following query >> >>> >> >>> http://search.twitter.com/search.json?q="exeter%20city"; >> >>> >> >>> Looking at what is returned by the API the query looks like it has >> >>> been >> >>> transformed in to "%22exeter%2520city%22". To me the %2520 looks odd >> >>> when I >> >>> would expect %20 >> >>> >> >>> Kind Regards, >> >>> Paul Kinlan >> >>> >> >> >> > >> > >> > > >
