Twitter tweaks search with "Discovery Engine"

"Far more awesome"

2 April 2009 10:49 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

Twitter has announced changes to the search functionality on the micro-blogging site with the news that the "Discovery Engine" is coming soon.

A few weeks ago the company began testing "Twitter Search" for a small number of users with the search box towards the top of the page and the results on a separate page.

But Biz Stone, Twitter co-founder, says in a blog post: "It turns out that's not the awesome way to do it. The best way to experience Twitter Search is when it's a natural part of your normal Twitter experience".

Stone says they "went back to the original sketch and made everything far more awesome".

Search is now being trialled in the sidebar of the Twitter home page with tweets relevant to the search instantly showing up on that page.

In addition, regular searches will be able to be saved, with the search term becoming a link on a user's homepage.

Still in testing stages, Twitter promises to get these features out to everyone "as soon as possible", not great news for third-party sites who've used the API to create Twitter search tools of their own.