Twitter tweaks search results to show tweets older than a week

MICROBLOGGING WEB SITE Twitter will roll out an update across its Android, iOS and mobile web apps so that users can find older tweets in search results.

At the moment Twitter search results display tweets for about a week.

"We've developed a way to include older tweets, so you can see content that goes beyond the more recent tweets," Twitter's search infrastructure engineer Paul Burstein said in a blog post on Thursday.

Twitter said the update will make it easier for its users to find relevant content when they are on the go, with the tweets that are seen in search results representing a small percentage of total tweets ever sent.

"We look at a variety of types of engagement, like favourites, retweets and clicks, to determine which tweets to show," Burstein added. "We'll be steadily increasing this percentage over time, and ultimately, aim to surface the best content for your query."

The update is due to be rolled out across mobile apps "over the coming days". Burstein said the history search update will also hit twitter.com, but didn't say when.

Perhaps the update is an attempt to regain users' favour after the social network was infiltrated by hackers last week, who gained access to the personal data of around a quarter of a million Twitter users.

Twitter reset the log-in details for anyone whose account was compromised and sent out emails notifying those users that they need to change their passwords to access their accounts. However that doesn't mean that some users won't be put off using the service from now on as a result. µ