My Favourite Tweets

Posted on by

Have you ever wondered who has made one of your tweets a favourite and near knew how to find out?

@mattuk from Datadial in the UK (web designers, developers and online marketing agency) sent this little tweet out earlier this evening linking to a rather smart search criteria that brings up a list of all your tweets that have been marked as favourites by other twitter users.

Its of immense interest to me to understand what my followers find interesting and useful and this simple search string has provided me for this incredibly information about their favourite tweets, so a big thanks to Mattuk!

Here is how you can find out who has made a favourite of your tweets.

Open Google search and in the search bar paste this query:

site:twitter.com/*/favourites @[justinparks]

To see your results just replace my twitter username: justinparks with your own account id and low and behold, a list of tweets that people have added to favourites appears.

**Note USA
Users located in the USA have noticed that this search query wont return a result (or not always) Thanks to Ian Miller for spotting that.

The problem is simply the spelling of the word favourite or favorite as Twitter use the American English spelling for US based users and the English spelling of favourite for everyone else. If your located in the USA use this query below in the Google search to get a result, again just replacing my user name with your own.

site:twitter.com/*/favorites @[justinparks]

Hope this is of use to you as it will certainly be of use to me If you want to check out another way of using google to target specific tweets or users have a read at Using Google Search to find interesting twitter users and Google Searching Users Tweets in Twitter.

  • http://twitter.com/bitlynow/statuses/1825522171 bitlynow (bit.ly Now)

    http://bit.ly/JypVX (1,848) My Favourite Tweets | Social Media Stuff| Justin Parks

  • http://www.marcofolio.net/ Marco

    Sweet, never knew this little “trick”!

    Sadly that it takes a while for Google to index all the Twitter favorites, so when you make a Tweet, you don’t know directly whether it is saved or not.

    Anyway, thanks for sharing!

    • http://www.justinparks.com Justin Parks

      No Problems, im glad its of interest. Suppose it might take a while to see them indexed but its really quite valuable to know what your network finds most valuable from you, so you can focus and tailor tweets for the future. Just wondering now if these serve as backlinks in some beneficial fashion as they are “more” permanent…

  • http://www.marcofolio.net/ Marco

    Sweet, never knew this little “trick”!

    Sadly that it takes a while for Google to index all the Twitter favorites, so when you make a Tweet, you don’t know directly whether it is saved or not.

    Anyway, thanks for sharing!

    • http://www.justinparks.com Justin Parks

      No Problems, im glad its of interest. Suppose it might take a while to see them indexed but its really quite valuable to know what your network finds most valuable from you, so you can focus and tailor tweets for the future. Just wondering now if these serve as backlinks in some beneficial fashion as they are “more” permanent…

  • Anonymous

    Interesting watching this one Justin, even for a Sunday morning!

    I guess throwing this into an RSS feed via a Google > rss service would be another way of keeping track..Just have to find myself something reliable.

    Paul.

    • http://www.justinparks.com Justin Parks

      Keep me in the loop on that Paul, would be a much more friendly way of keeping updated about favourites via RSS, definately interested in what you discover.

  • http://blog.webdistortion.com Paul Anthony

    Interesting watching this one Justin, even for a Sunday morning!

    I guess throwing this into an RSS feed via a Google > rss service would be another way of keeping track..Just have to find myself something reliable.

    Paul.

    • http://www.justinparks.com Justin Parks

      Keep me in the loop on that Paul, would be a much more friendly way of keeping updated about favourites via RSS, definately interested in what you discover.

  • http://homeopathyworldcommunity.com Debby Bruck

    Thank you for this neat trick Justin. Sorrowfully, only 4 favourites out of over 1000 followers. How can that be? Is it that people do not know how to use this ‘favourite’ function? I have Starred many of my favorite tweeple.

    Thanks for sharing.

    • http://www.justinparks.com Justin Parks

      Dont take it to heart Debby!

      The favourite items on twitter is not really being used as much as it could be I think. This little trick of finding out who has favourited what information is really valuable however. Have a look at those tweets that have been added to favourites and, even though there is only 4, study their context, what they where about and try and provide the same type of value as they contain. Remember you are not adding the PERSON as a favourite but rather that one single tweet.

      As I mentioned above Im still trying to figure out the overall value of the favourite tweets from other angles, such as SEO and backlinks, but the feedback these simple links give is intriguing.

  • http://homeopathyworldcommunity.com Debby Bruck

    Thank you for this neat trick Justin. Sorrowfully, only 4 favourites out of over 1000 followers. How can that be? Is it that people do not know how to use this ‘favourite’ function? I have Starred many of my favorite tweeple.

    Thanks for sharing.

    • http://www.justinparks.com Justin Parks

      Just want to thank the people who have retweeted this post so far, its been a REALLY busy morning and I cant thank you guys enough!

    • http://www.justinparks.com Justin Parks

      Dont take it to heart Debby!

      The favourite items on twitter is not really being used as much as it could be I think. This little trick of finding out who has favourited what information is really valuable however. Have a look at those tweets that have been added to favourites and, even though there is only 4, study their context, what they where about and try and provide the same type of value as they contain. Remember you are not adding the PERSON as a favourite but rather that one single tweet.

      As I mentioned above Im still trying to figure out the overall value of the favourite tweets from other angles, such as SEO and backlinks, but the feedback these simple links give is intriguing.

  • http://www.justinparks.com Justin Parks

    Just want to thank the people who have retweeted this post so far, its been a REALLY busy morning and I cant thank you guys enough!

  • Warner Onstine

    Are you sure this works? I tried it and while it comes back with results when I check them there is nothing there relating to your tweets. Even If I checked the cached version of Google (when they should be there) and they aren’t there.

    Just curious if you looked at the favourites of the people who turned up and your tweets were there.

  • Warner Onstine

    Are you sure this works? I tried it and while it comes back with results when I check them there is nothing there relating to your tweets. Even If I checked the cached version of Google (when they should be there) and they aren’t there.

    Just curious if you looked at the favourites of the people who turned up and your tweets were there.

  • Warner Onstine

    Ok, I looked at your results and they worked. When I looked at justinparks results the favourites that came up didn’t mention his tweets (even in the google cache) so I wasn’t sure if it was actually working or not.

    Thanks for verifying this search works!

    • http://www.justinparks.com Justin Parks

      No problem at all, im glad you got it sorted.

  • Warner Onstine

    Ok, I looked at your results and they worked. When I looked at justinparks results the favourites that came up didn’t mention his tweets (even in the google cache) so I wasn’t sure if it was actually working or not.

    Thanks for verifying this search works!

    • http://www.justinparks.com Justin Parks

      No problem at all, im glad you got it sorted.

      • http://twitter.com/HerbFirestone Herb Firestone

        I see what Warner is talking about. Tried searching for mine and although five came up in the results, when I clicked the links, they weren’t on the pages. Possibly only someone’s most recent favorites appear on their Twitter favorites page and there seems to be no link to click for more!

        • http://www.justinparks.com Justin Parks

          As Marco mentioned its possible the tweets havent been indexed by Google yet or they where favourited for future reference and then removed later on once they had been checked out, not totally sure to be honest.

    • Pingback: Twitted by gladperez

  • http://twitter.com/HerbFirestone Herb Firestone

    I see what Warner is talking about. Tried searching for mine and although five came up in the results, when I clicked the links, they weren’t on the pages. Possibly only someone’s most recent favorites appear on their Twitter favorites page and there seems to be no link to click for more!

    • http://www.justinparks.com Justin Parks

      As Marco mentioned its possible the tweets havent been indexed by Google yet or they where favourited for future reference and then removed later on once they had been checked out, not totally sure to be honest.

  • http://www.twitter.com/millerian Ian Miller

    One small point, is that the search need the US spelling without the “u” in favourites.

    Great tip though.

    • http://www.justinparks.com Justin Parks

      Sorry Ian, don’t quite understand about the “u” bit, can you expand on what you mean?

      I tried a google.com search and it works with the spelling favourite, and it doesn’t work when I remove the U for the American English spelling or favorite, or have I missed the point?

  • http://www.twitter.com/millerian Ian Miller

    One small point, is that the search need the US spelling without the “u” in favourites.

    Great tip though.

    • http://www.justinparks.com Justin Parks

      Sorry Ian, don’t quite understand about the “u” bit, can you expand on what you mean?

      I tried a google.com search and it works with the spelling favourite, and it doesn’t work when I remove the U for the American English spelling or favorite, or have I missed the point?

  • http://www.twitter.com/millerian Ian Miller

    Hi Justin,

    Oddly, it doesn’t work that way around for me, tried on Google.com and .co.uk

    Favorite returns results, Favourite doesn’t.

    This is .com without “u” (for my username)
    http://bit.ly/15e2zx

    And .com and favourites
    http://bit.ly/FdICg

    Returns blank.

    Very strange!

    • http://www.justinparks.com Justin Parks

      This is strange!

      Have a look at this URL with the spelling favorite for my name:
      http://bit.ly/WHr8q

      This brings back an error page for me with the good old:

      Your search – site:twitter.com/*/favorites @[justin parks] – did not match any documents.

      Suggestions:

      * Make sure all words are spelled correctly.
      * Try different keywords.
      * Try more general keywords.
      * Try fewer keywords.

      Is Google returning results based on location, ip, language?
      What the hell…

  • http://www.twitter.com/millerian Ian Miller

    Hi Justin,

    Oddly, it doesn’t work that way around for me, tried on Google.com and .co.uk

    Favorite returns results, Favourite doesn’t.

    This is .com without “u” (for my username)
    http://bit.ly/15e2zx

    And .com and favourites
    http://bit.ly/FdICg

    Returns blank.

    Very strange!

    • http://www.justinparks.com Justin Parks

      This is strange!

      Have a look at this URL with the spelling favorite for my name:
      http://bit.ly/WHr8q

      This brings back an error page for me with the good old:

      Your search – site:twitter.com/*/favorites @[justin parks] – did not match any documents.

      Suggestions:

      * Make sure all words are spelled correctly.
      * Try different keywords.
      * Try more general keywords.
      * Try fewer keywords.

      Is Google returning results based on location, ip, language?
      What the hell…

    • http://twitter.com/mkraft matthew kraft

      I’ve noticed a long time ago that when I’m on my *own* page, the URL says “favorites” (American spelling) but when I’m on someone *else’s* page, the URL has “favourites.” Doesn’t matter if they’re American, British, French, or Indonesian. anything that’s not your own favorites page will be spelled “favourites.”

      Cannot for the life of me figure out why twitter would do that, but I’m not a programmer, there must be some reasoning behind it…

      • http://www.justinparks.com Justin Parks

        Its driving me daft, thanks for letting us know Matthew. I wonder what the reasoning is and why the URLS work if linked but not when the search is performed. It makes me wonder where this may arise in other sites and searches as well.

  • http://twitter.com/mkraft matthew kraft

    I’ve noticed a long time ago that when I’m on my *own* page, the URL says “favorites” (American spelling) but when I’m on someone *else’s* page, the URL has “favourites.” Doesn’t matter if they’re American, British, French, or Indonesian. anything that’s not your own favorites page will be spelled “favourites.”

    Cannot for the life of me figure out why twitter would do that, but I’m not a programmer, there must be some reasoning behind it…

    • http://www.justinparks.com Justin Parks

      Its driving me daft, thanks for letting us know Matthew. I wonder what the reasoning is and why the URLS work if linked but not when the search is performed. It makes me wonder where this may arise in other sites and searches as well.

  • http://twitter.com/hu55in Hussin Khan

    Justin, I get “site is not a registered protocol” prompt. Any clues? HK

    • http://www.justinparks.com Justin Parks

      Hi Hussin,

      Is this the page Google is returning?
      http://bit.ly/k0Acm

      If not give me more detail and I will see if I can figure out why you are getting that error.

  • http://twitter.com/hu55in Hussin Khan

    Justin, I get “site is not a registered protocol” prompt. Any clues? HK

  • http://jaredwsmith.com Jared Smith

    This search is definitely interesting, but was pretty incomplete for me. Two sites actually tally favorites, but with limitations:

    http://favrd.textism.com — you have to opt-in to this one to have your favorites counted, but it works very well. It’s primarily tilted toward comedy, and has a pretty tight-knit community around it.

    http://favotter.matope.com/en/ — scans the favorites of the Twitter users who favorite the most tweets and lists them here. I’ve had over 700+ stars: http://favotter.matope.com/en/user.php?user=jaredwsmith Again, though, it doesn’t count everybody.

  • http://jaredwsmith.com Jared Smith

    This search is definitely interesting, but was pretty incomplete for me. Two sites actually tally favorites, but with limitations:

    http://favrd.textism.com — you have to opt-in to this one to have your favorites counted, but it works very well. It’s primarily tilted toward comedy, and has a pretty tight-knit community around it.

    http://favotter.matope.com/en/ — scans the favorites of the Twitter users who favorite the most tweets and lists them here. I’ve had over 700+ stars: http://favotter.matope.com/en/user.php?user=jaredwsmith Again, though, it doesn’t count everybody.

    • http://twitter.com/freerangemom Peggy Dolane

      Don’t miss Favotter (http://favotter.matope.com/en/) it shows everyone’s favorite tweets — including those that are most popular.

  • http://twitter.com/freerangemom Peggy Dolane

    Don’t miss Favotter (http://favotter.matope.com/en/) it shows everyone’s favorite tweets — including those that are most popular.

  • http://twitter.com/chrisspooner/statuses/1858432660 chrisspooner (Chris Spooner)

    Search site:twitter.com/*/favourites @[yourusername] to see which of your posts have been starred by others (via http://is.gd/BEHr)

  • Chelsea

    I keep getting an error mesage when I put site:twitter.com/*/favourites%20@[two_ontheaisle] into my browser. Do you need special software to view this?

    • http://www.justinparks.com Justin Parks

      Are you putting it into the browser address bar? if so you need to go to Google.com and put it in the search bar to get a result. Let me know if that was the problem.

  • Chelsea

    I keep getting an error mesage when I put site:twitter.com/*/favourites%20@[two_ontheaisle] into my browser. Do you need special software to view this?

    • http://www.justinparks.com Justin Parks

      Are you putting it into the browser address bar? if so you need to go to Google.com and put it in the search bar to get a result. Let me know if that was the problem.

  • http://chuckwelch.com Chuck Welch

    I’m in the USA. If I use:

    site:twitter.com/*/favourites @chuckwelch

    I get an error. Removing the @ doesn’t help.

    However, if I use

    chuckwelch site:twitter.com/*/favourites

    I get some retweets and some pages where I am being followed.

    If I use:

    “chuckwelch” site:twitter.com/*/favourites

    I just get a few favorites.

    In all cases, I have to check the cache to find the hit, and I know I’m not getting all of the favorites.

    • http://www.justinparks.com Justin Parks

      Ah this may have be the problem. Ian Miller Noticed this earlier in the comments.

      Twitter USA spell favorites in the American English so Google wont detect it.

      Try this query in the google search:

      site:twitter.com/*/favorites @[chuckwelch]

      (notice the missing “U” in favorites?)

      Let me know if that works Chuck

  • http://chuckwelch.com Chuck Welch

    I’m in the USA. If I use:

    site:twitter.com/*/favourites @chuckwelch

    I get an error. Removing the @ doesn’t help.

    However, if I use

    chuckwelch site:twitter.com/*/favourites

    I get some retweets and some pages where I am being followed.

    If I use:

    “chuckwelch” site:twitter.com/*/favourites

    I just get a few favorites.

    In all cases, I have to check the cache to find the hit, and I know I’m not getting all of the favorites.

    • http://www.justinparks.com Justin Parks

      Ah this may have be the problem. Ian Miller Noticed this earlier in the comments.

      Twitter USA spell favorites in the American English so Google wont detect it.

      Try this query in the google search:

      site:twitter.com/*/favorites @[chuckwelch]

      (notice the missing “U” in favorites?)

      Let me know if that works Chuck

  • http://twitter.com/interrupt_d/statuses/1862247178 interrupt_d (C. Jacob Maddox)

    Search site:twitter.com/*/favourites @[yourusername] see which of your posts have been starred via http://is.gd/BEHr @chrisspooner

    • http://twitter.com/brianlapp/statuses/1859542505 brianlapp (brianlapp)

      Search site:twitter.com/*/favourites @[yourusername] to see which of your posts have been starred by others (via http://is.gd/BEHr)

    • http://www.justinparks.com Justin Parks

      :P My first tweet thats a comment!

      • http://twitter.com/googooster/statuses/1858642674 googooster (Goo Goo)

        Google Search site:twitter.com/*/favourites @[yourusername] 2 see which of ur posts have been starred (via http://is.gd/BEHr)

    • http://www.justinparks.com Justin Parks

      :P My first tweet thats a comment!

    • Pingback: twttrlist - creating and sharing a list of you favourite Tweets | Social Media Stuff | Justin Parks

    • http://www.sliced.liamalexander.com/ liamalexander

      I tried this search query with your username and mine, with the different spellings etc. and got no results. Am I missing something?

      • http://www.justinparks.com Justin Parks

        Hi Liam, It works, it just means that no one has made a favourite or any of your tweets, or mine it seems!

        Try it with a power user such as Mayhem Studios:

        site:twitter.com/*/favourites @[mayhemstudios]

    • liamalexander

      I tried this search query with your username and mine, with the different spellings etc. and got no results. Am I missing something?

      • http://www.justinparks.com justinparks

        Hi Liam, It works, it just means that no one has made a favourite or any of your tweets, or mine it seems!

        Try it with a power user such as Mayhem Studios:

        site:twitter.com/*/favourites @[mayhemstudios]

    • http://www.sliced.liamalexander.com/ liamalexander

      Hi Justin, you’re right; plenty of results with @mayhemstudios. I’ve added a lot of his tweets to favourites; he certainly tweets some great stuff. I’m feeling crushed now I know no one liks my tweets! :-(

      • http://www.justinparks.com Justin Parks

        Dont feel to put out!

        Remember someone could make a tweet a favourite then remove it later, it may be just a bookmark to refer back to later.

        Second thing is, not many people are using favourites much and thirdly Im not 100% sure that making a tweet a favourite means it becomes “permanent”.

        Tweets have a shelf life and expire eventually (couple of months I believe) and favourites may make the tweet last longer, or forever, or have no effect at all, im not 100% sure.

        • http://www.sliced.liamalexander.com/ liamalexander

          That’s true, in fact I remember some people telling me they’d added my tweets to favourites so your theory might well hold some water. (Either that or they are complete liars!) Thank you; I feel so much better now ;-)

          • http://www.justinparks.com Justin Parks

            If I get any confirmation on this (god knows how) I will update in a post. Glad you feel a little better now!

    • liamalexander

      Hi Justin, you're right; plenty of results with @mayhemstudios. I've added a lot of his tweets to favourites; he certainly tweets some great stuff. I'm feeling crushed now I know no one liks my tweets! :-(

    • http://www.justinparks.com justinparks

      Dont feel to put out!

      Remember someone could make a tweet a favourite then remove it later, it may be just a bookmark to refer back to later.

      Second thing is, not many people are using favourites much and thirdly Im not 100% sure that making a tweet a favourite means it becomes “permanent”.

      Tweets have a shelf life and expire eventually (couple of months I believe) and favourites may make the tweet last longer, or forever, or have no effect at all, im not 100% sure.

    • liamalexander

      That's true, in fact I remember some people telling me they'd added my tweets to favourites so your theory might well hold some water. (Either that or they are complete liars!) Thank you; I feel so much better now ;-)

    • http://www.justinparks.com justinparks

      If I get any confirmation on this (god knows how) I will update in a post. Glad you feel a little better now!

    • Pingback: How to Search Twitter « O Lago | The Lake

    • Pingback: Como Pesquisar o Twitter

    • Pingback: Using Google Search to find interesting Twitter Users | Social Media Stuff | Justin Parks

      • HateSocialMedia

        Doesn't work. Also, frankly, most people do NOT star social media whore tweets. We consider you guys bottom feeders and prefer to avoid you altogether. I usually block you when you follow me, or at the very best consider you distasteful and would never follow you back. You should read what people are tweeting about and understand your follower base before just randomly following strangers. And, if they don't follow you back, you should stop following us and leave us the hell alone.

    • HateSocialMedia

      Doesn’t work. Also, frankly, most people do NOT star social media whore tweets. We consider you guys bottom feeders and prefer to avoid you altogether. I usually block you when you follow me, or at the very best consider you distasteful and would never follow you back. You should read what people are tweeting about and understand your follower base before just randomly following strangers. And, if they don’t follow you back, you should stop following us and leave us the hell alone.

      • http://www.justinparks.com Justin Parks

        @HateSocialMedia

        “most people do NOT star social media whore tweets”

        eh? What are you on about. Its any tweet.

        “We consider you guys bottom feeders”

        who is we?

        “You should read what people are tweeting about and understand your follower base before just randomly following strangers.”

        Yes I know. If you had bothered to read more before mouthing of you would have seen that.

        “And, if they don’t follow you back, you should stop following us and leave us the hell alone.”

        Maybe Im actually interested in what you have to say, who said anything about having to follow back. I didnt.

        I think you have the wrong end of the stick mate.

        • http://www.sensei-winbeforehand.co.uk/ Dawn Baird

          Justin, I recommend you hire a translator for this comment… be easier to figure out what their point was if they spoke in English. Or, even Spanish!

    • http://www.justinparks.com justinparks

      @HateSocialMedia

      “most people do NOT star social media whore tweets”

      eh? What are you on about. Its any tweet.

      “We consider you guys bottom feeders”

      who is we?

      “You should read what people are tweeting about and understand your follower base before just randomly following strangers.”

      Yes I know. If you had bothered to read more before mouthing of you would have seen that.

      “And, if they don't follow you back, you should stop following us and leave us the hell alone.”

      Maybe Im actually interested in what you have to say, who said anything about having to follow back. I didnt.

      I think you have the worng end of the stick mate.

      • http://www.sensei-winbeforehand.co.uk/ Dawn Baird

        Justin, I recommend you hire a translator for this comment… be easier to figure out what their point was if they spoke in English. Or, even Spanish!

    • http://annetteholland.com daNanner

      Favrd (http://favrd.textism.com/) has been doing this for a while. I’m signed up, not sure if you have to be, but the syntax to see what tweets of yours have been favrd and by whom is http://favrd.textism.com/favorites/person/username

      • http://www.justinparks.com Justin Parks

        Just tried it and it works fine, seems pretty cool actually and saves using the search string. Thanks for that daNanner.

    • daNanner

      Favrd (http://favrd.textism.com/) has been doing this for a while. I'm signed up, not sure if you have to be, but the syntax to see what tweets of yours have been favrd and by whom is http://favrd.textism.com/favorites/person/user…

    • http://www.justinparks.com justinparks

      Just tried it and it works fine, seems pretty cool actually and saves using the search string. Thanks for that daNanner.

      • http://www.justinparks.com justinparks

        Just tried it and it works fine, seems pretty cool actually and saves using the search string. Thanks for that daNanner.

    • http://www.justinparks.com Justin Parks

      Just tried it and it works fine, seems pretty cool actually and saves using the search string. Thanks for that daNanner.