Mark has a point there, Twazzup makes use of RTs from the search results to compute some relevancy/popularity scores.
If we consider that those RTs are simple "forwards" or "likes", search result could simply provide each tweets with its number of RTs (total number and/or unique RT'ing user number ?) and one could argue that there is no real need for RT's as entries in the search results. Another nice effect to this : increasing the twitter search memory by reducing the amount of tweets to keep in the index. This is overall a good step, I'd just like to know how disruptive it's going to be for apps that use twitter search API ... @sphilipakis www.twazzup.com On Aug 14, 12:59 pm, Mark Nutter <[email protected]> wrote: > So when someone uses this retweet feature, does it actually create a > status update in the twitter system? In other words, if I retweet > your post, and I use the search api and look for tweets posted by me, > will that retweet show up as a search result? Is this new retweet > feature going to kill a good portion of the tweets that you might find > using the search API? I would have to imagine sites like tweetmeme > would be interested to know this. Providing an array of the people > who have retweeted a particular link would be a very handy API call to > have (without requiring user authentication). Do you plan on > including that feature if actual posts aren't being created? > > On Aug 13, 3:52 pm, Marcel Molina <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Retweeting has become one of the cultural conventions of the Twitter > > experience. It's yet another example of Twitter's users discovering > > innovative ways to use the service. We dig it. So soon it's going to > > become a natively supported feature on twitter.com. It's looking like > > we're only weeks away from being ready to launch it on our end. We > > wanted to show the community of platform developers the API we've > > cooked up for retweeting so those who want to support it in their > > applications would have enough time to have it ready by launch day. We > > were planning on exposing a way for developers to create a retweet, > > recognize retweets in your timeline and display them distinctively > > amongst other tweets. We've also got APIs for several retweet > > timelines: retweets you've created, retweets the users you're > > following have created, and your tweets that have been retweeted by > > others. > > > - Creating Retweets > > > The API documentation for creating retweets can be found here: > > >http://apiwiki.twitter.com/Twitter-REST-API-Method%3A-statuses-retweet > > > Reminder: Making requests to /statuses/retweet won't work yet as the > > feature has not launched. > > > - Consuming Retweets in the Timeline > > > 1) Retweets in the new home timeline > > > We don't want to break existing apps that don't add retweeting support > > or create a confusing experience for that app's users. So the > > /statuses/friends_timeline API resource will remain unchanged--i.e. > > retweets will *not* appear in it. > > > For those who *do* want to support retweets, we are adding a new (more > > aptly named) /statuses/home_timeline resource. This *will* include > > retweets. The /statuses/friends_timeline API resource will continue to > > be supported in version 1 of the API. In version 2 it will go away and > > be fully replaced by /statuses/home_timeline. > > > The API documentation for the home timeline, which includes retweets, > > can be found here: > > >http://apiwiki.twitter.com/Twitter-REST-API-Method%3A-statuses-home_t... > > > Take a look at the example payload in the documentation. The original > > tweet that was retweeted Thanks appears in the timeline. Notice the > > embedded "retweet_details" element. It contains the user who created > > the retweet as well as the date and time the retweet occurred. > > > 2) Retweeted by me > > timelinehttp://apiwiki.twitter.com/Twitter-REST-API-Method%3A-statuses-retwee... > > > 3) Retweeted to me > > timelinehttp://apiwiki.twitter.com/Twitter-REST-API-Method%3A-statuses-retwee... > > > 4) My tweets, > > retweetedhttp://apiwiki.twitter.com/Twitter-REST-API-Method%3A-statuses-retwee... > > > Reminder: Making requests to any of these timelines won't work yet as > > the feature has not launched. > > > UI considerations: > > ------------------ > > > Here are some early draft design mockups of how retweets might appear > > on the Twitter website (don't be surprised if > > it doesn't look exactly like this). They are presented just as an > > example of how retweets can be differentiated visually. > > >http://s.twimg.com/retweet-dev-mocks-7-aug-09.png > > > Things to note: > > > 1) It was important for us that retweets are easily differentiated > > visually from regular tweets. If someone you follow retweets a tweet, > > the original tweet will appear in your timeline whether you follow the > > author of the original tweet or not, just as it currently does when > > users use the "RT" convention. Seeing a tweet in your timeline from > > someone you don't follow without being told it was shared from someone > > you *do* follow could be confusing. So we're encouraging developers to > > be mindful of this confusion and make retweets stand out visually from > > regular tweets. > > > 2) The retweeted tweet shows the username of the first of your > > followers to retweet it. If other's subsequently retweet the same > > tweet, the retweet should only appear once in a user's timeline > > > That's it for now. > > > We'll be sending out more updates as we get closer to launching. > > > -- > > Marcel Molina > > Twitter Platform Teamhttp://twitter.com/noradio
