Twitter has unveiled a new global tracking option that allows you to get messages based on term rather than user. For instance, you can now subscribe to be notified any time anyone posts a public twit about "Wired."
At the moment the new feature only works through IM and text messaging, though the company says it plans to roll out the feature over RSS, e-mail and even in the API in the near future.
To use the keyword tracking you’ll need to set up your phone to use Twitter and then send a command like “track Wired.” Any time someone posts a public twitter using the word “Wired” you’ll be notified. To unsubscribe the command is “untrack Wired,” or to turn off all tracking send “track off.”
Presumably you can turn all your tracks back on with “track on” though the Twitter blog doesn’t explicitly mention this option.
To get a list of what you’re tracking send “tracks.”
The new features give Twitter users the ability to track topics somewhat similar to the way many use Technorati to tracks blog topics. However, there are a number of things missing that would make the new service much more useful, such as the ability to track terms by user — in other words only get notices when selected users post selected terms. Without that sort of fine-grained control the new features may well produce more noise than signal.
But despite some shortcomings, the new features add a whole other dimension to the service and make it significantly more useful.
See Also:
