There are a plethora of startups that are trying to harness and improve upon Twitter’s real-time search functionality, including Collecta, One Riot, Scoopler and TwitterTroll. The simple fact is that there is considerable value for users in searching Tweets, and even the big guns like Microsoft and Google are beginning to wake up to this. Today, Searchtastic, which bills itself as “smart Twitter search,” is launching its own Twitter search engine.
Like other Twitter search sites, Searchtastic lets you search Tweets for a particular keyword or hashtag. What makes the search engine interesting is the ability to pull up Tweets from weeks or months ago, which Twitter’s own search engine doesn’t allow you to do. Twitter’s search currently lets you see Tweets from a week and a half back (which varies).
The other main feature of Searchtastic is the ability to search Tweets from a particular user. And the interface lets you add and delete search terms fairly easily. And speaking of the interface, Searchtastic definitely leaves little to be desired. But the startup says that it will be adding new features and improvements in the next few weeks, so hopefully that will include a redesign.