In a move that means convenience for Twitter users now and another potential monetizable feature later, Twitter has unveiled a tweak to the site’s general search function. Now if you enter a name into the search box on the right hand side panel, 3 users who may may match who you’re searching for appear above the regular search results.
When I did a search for basketball phenom “Lebron James” the new hero of Miami and villain of Cleveland, it returns a link to his personal site @KingJames (which is verified), a fake/funny site @LeBronsElbow, and a very stupid fake site @LeBronJamesdunk (which according to Twitter’s Terms of Service, needs to state somewhere in its description that it is NOT the real LeBron). Below the “featured” users, you see the customary real-time results for occurrences of your search term (in this case “Lebron James”) across twitter – with your term bolded.
One of the things I find very interesting is the URL that comes up as a result of clicking on a “featured” user. The URL is not just the regular “twitter.com/KingJames” but includes where it came from “twitter.com/KingJames?source=onebox” — definitely an indicator of Twitter’s future plans to develop this feature further, with analytics to prove ROI and monetization.
Conducting a traditional name search through the “Find People” tab at the top right of your Twitter page, still yields the usual results (as seen here) with no “featured” listing… yet.
I’ll be interested in seeing what else Twitter comes up with to better serve users and advertisers while trying to turn a profit.
TIP TO GO: Be sure to claim your company’s name NOW on all social networking sites- even if you aren’t ready to be active yet. Be sure you list relevant names in your profile/bio as well.
Tags: Corrie Davidson, feature, LeBron James, monetize, search, Social Media, twitter
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Lebron James has come a long way since he was first recruited by Cleveland Cavaliers!
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Thanks! I truly think that a couple of my friends will enjoy this article.. now where is that email to your buddies button again?
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