Ask HN: When do you use Twitter or other real-time search?

#1

Post by gpp » Fri, Jul 22, 2011, 2:09 PM UTC

Before I purchase something online especially Amazon, I noticed I use Twitter search for promo/discount code to get fresh and working code. Google usually returns old and not working promotion code for discounts.

I was wondering when or what do you use Twitter or other real-time search for?

Re: Ask HN: When do you use Twitter or other real-time search?

#2

Post by seanmccann » Fri, Jul 22, 2011, 2:22 PM UTC

One time I was in San Francisco and we felt a fairly big shake. We were in an old building and were not certain if it was an earthquake. A quick search on Twitter showed that it was in fact and earthqake and tweets mentioned specific details about it. I looked on sfgate.com and they still didn't have anything posts (since it was just second after it happened).

Re: Ask HN: When do you use Twitter or other real-time search?

#3

Post by virmundi » Fri, Jul 22, 2011, 2:25 PM UTC

I use Twitter to tell if Netflix is down or if it's just my connection.

Re: Ask HN: When do you use Twitter or other real-time search?

#4

Post by diolpah » Fri, Jul 22, 2011, 2:37 PM UTC

Whenever we have a service outage from one of our providers( dns, payment gateway, AWS, etc )we check twitter to determine if it is widespread to more than just us. It is almost always more timely than the providers' own status pages.

Re: Ask HN: When do you use Twitter or other real-time search?

#5

Post by delip » Fri, Jul 22, 2011, 4:03 PM UTC

To find out what people are saying about any specific topic/ product/ service.

Re: Ask HN: When do you use Twitter or other real-time search?

#6

Post by revorad » Fri, Jul 22, 2011, 4:09 PM UTC

I use Twitter to check for breaking news and also doing one-on-one market research.