If you want an alternative to the specific Twitter search tools that have appeared in recent months, here’s how to search for relevant people on Twitter using our old friend Google.

Due to the amount of buzz surrounding Twitter (and the fear that human edited Twitter search may present a serious challenge to Google), all the new pages on Twitter are indexed rapidly, which means that Google is a good alternative to the range of Twitter search tools that are available.

If you already know some of the advanced search commands on Google, you have a great advantage. If you’ve never used the advanced Google search commands, just follow the examples and replace the sample search words with your own requirements until it becomes second nature.

When you’re looking for people on Twitter, there are four basic factors that you can search;

Name, Profile, Location and Tweets

1) Searching for Twitter users based on their name

site:twitter.com intitle:”james* * on twitter”

site:twitter.com intitle:”peter* * on twitter”

You can also search for a person’s full name, for example;

site:twitter.com intitle:”stuart laing * on twitter”

Shows there are only 3 Twitter users call Stuart Laing.

Just change the name in the search to suit your own needs.

2) Searching for Twitter users on the words used their bio profile

site:twitter.com intitle:”on twitter” “bio* * sport”

This will provide you with a long list of people who have used the word sport in their Twitter bio. Again, just alter the search term to suit your own needs.

3) Searching for Twitter users based on the location in their profile

site:twitter.com intitle:”on twitter” “location florida”

Google will return a list of Twitter users based in Florida.

It’s also possible to combine these search factors, for example, if you want to search for Twitter users based on their location and the words used in their profile, use this search formula;

site:twitter.com intitle:”on twitter” “bio* * pr” “location florida”

This will return a list of Twitter users based in Florida who have PR in their bio.

4) Seaching for Twitter users based on the words that appear in their tweets

site:twitter.com/*/statuses/* “golf”

This will return a list of all the Twitter messages containing the word Golf that have been indexed by Google.

If you prefer to use Twitter specific search tools, here are a few of the best options;

Twitter Search Is the main Twitter search engine

TweepSearch Allows you to search for people according to the words that appear in their Twitter profile

TwitScoop Allows you to keep up to date with the latest Twitter trends based on the popularity of keywords currently appearing in the main Twitter stream.

What tools do you use to find people on Twitter? Do you prefer to use tools that are specifically related to Twitter? Do you use Google? Or do you prefer using another method to find relevant people on Twitter? Please share your thoughts on the best way to search Twitter in the comments section below.

And finally, we’ve recently discovered a powerful technique that allows you to search any of these tools direct from your main browser address bar.

If you use the Firefox browser (and we recommend that you do), here’s what to do;

Step One: Select the Twitter search tool that you want to use.

We’ll start with the main Twitter search tool at http://search.twitter.com

Step Two: Type any word into the search box and click search.

Step Three: Add the search result page to your list of bookmarks.

You can click the star icon to the right of the main address bar or use the keyboard shortcut (control + D) then click done.

Step Four: Click the bookmarks menu in the browser toolbar at the top of the page and scroll down to the page that you just bookmarked.

Right click the entry, select properties from the menu and once the info box appears we have two changes to make. In the box labeled KEYWORD, enter a tag that you will use to open up the twitter search page in the future. For example, I use the letters ts, which are short for twitter search. From now on, whenever you type ts into your browser address bar and press enter, that search page from your bookmarks will automatically appear.

You can use this simple technique with any page and it will save you a great deal of time on the pages that you use regularly. However, it gets even better.

Step Five: As I just mentioned, to make our twitter search shortcut really interactive, we have to make a second change in the properties box for your bookmark. Just above the box labeled KEYWORD, you should see a box labeled LOCATION. This contains the address of the page bookmarked. So, if you typed sport into the search box before you originally bookmarked the page, the url will look like this;

http://search.twitter.com/search?q=sport

The page address now has a query string added to the end that tells the site the word to search for. We’re going to delete the search term and replace it with %s (percentage sign followed by the letter s). So the location url should now look like this;

http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%s

Click the save changes button and we’re ready to test our work.

From now on, whenever you want to search for something using Twitter search, all you have to do is type your key into the main browser address bar followed by a space and then the search term that you want to find.

For example if you selected ts for your key to the twitter search bookmark and you want to search for any mentions of motor racing on Twitter, all you have to do is type the following into your main Firefox address bar and press enter.

ts motor racing

The search page will automatically appear with your results. You won’t have to find the page then enter your search term. It may only save you a few seconds every time, but you can apply this technique to any pages that you use regularly and any other sites that you search frequently, for example, youtube, twitterholic, tweepsearch and even the Twitter Power System blog.

You could even program the Google based Twitter searches into your browser bar using this technique. Just perform the search, bookmark it, add your desired tag then replace your search term with %s (please note: you can only use this technique with searches that include one search variable).

As every day passes, the popularity of Twitter continues to grow. However, while the main focus is usually on the number of users or the volume of tweets, one area that most people overlook is the growing value of the network for the purposes of search.

In fact, there have even been suggestions that Twitter will eventually rival the power of Google search. This is based on the fact that most of the popular information (such as suggested links) on the network is human edited, unlike Google which has to rely upon its mechanical algorithm.

So if you want to get the maximum from Twitter, it’s important to harness the power of Twitter search. There’s a vast ocean of valuable information on the Twitter network just waiting to be discovered.

Twitter Search

Originally called Summize, this search tool was bought by Twitter in 2008. At the time it seemed a strange acquisition given the range of powerful third party Twitter tools that could have been acquired. However, that purchase is now beginning to look like an extremely far-sighted and shrewd purchase.

Twitter search has grown into an extremely powerful tool. If you visit the main Twitter search the functionality of the page looks similar to Google.

And like Google, the main Twitter search allows you to use various search operators to fine tune your search.

Plain Search

Searching for the words Twitter search will return posts containing either Twitter or search or both.

Exact phrase search

For example, “Twitter Search” will search for messages that include this exact phrase.

Negative Search

If you want to exclude messages with certain words, just include that word with the minus sign in front of it.

For example, Search -Twitter will return messages about search, but exclude those that also contain the word Twitter.

Hashtag Search

Hashtags are a powerful way for Twitter users to group messages around a certain topic. Twitter allows you to search for these hashtags.

For example, if you want to find information about the Twitter Power System, searching for #tps will return all of the messages that contain that hashtag.

You can add other modifiers to the end of this search to narrow down the results.

For a brief explanation of hashtags, check out our other post about #followfriday.

From Search

If you want to search the messages posted by a Twitter user, just enter from:USERNAME

For example, if you want to see all the messages that Jamesrivers has posted, just search for from:jamesrivers

To add even more power, you can add any search term after this from search. To see how many times James uses the word followers, just search for from:jamesrivers followers

To Search

Likewise, you can search for all the @replies sent to a specific user, for example, to:peterfrancis

@ Search

To find all the searches where a certain Twitter user is mentioned, just reach for @ followed by the username. For example, @stuartlaing will uncover all the messages that contain @stuartlaing

Location Searches

If you want to find how often the phrase internet marketing is sent by people near New York, just search for

“Internet Marketing” near:”New York”

This is great if you want to find people with similar interests in your part of the world.

If you want to narrow down the search, you can add a distance modifier, for example;

“Internet Marketing” near:”New York” within:20mi

This will return messages that refer to internet marketing sent from within a 20 mile radius of New York.

After Searches

twitter since:2009-02-25 will return all messages containing the word Twitter posted since 25th Feb 2009

Before Searches

twitter until:2009-02-25 will return all messages containing the word Twitter posted before 25th Feb 2009

You can then combine these two modifiers to search for posts within a specific period.

Attitude Searches

Adding : ) to your search will filter the results so that only messages with a positive attitude are displayed. Likewise, adding : ( to your search will return messages with a negative attitude.

For example, if you’re searching for reviews of a certain product or company, just search for the relevant name, then choose whether you want to see positive or negative mentions of the keyword.

dell : ) Will bring up positive posts about Dell.

dell : ( will bring up negative messages about Dell.

Question Searches

Add a question mark to your search and it will return posts that ask a question. This is great if you want to add value to the network and raise your profile by answering questions. If you’re a blog expert search for blog ? or blogging ? or wordpress ? to find questions that you can answer.

Link Searches

To filter your searches so that the results only include posts that contain links, just add the filter:links after your search term.

For example, if you’re looking for funny content, just search for funny filter:links or hilarious filter:links

Source Searches

To find messages posted from certain sources, just add source: followed by the Twitter source that you want to search for.

To find all the messages that mention weather posted by the cell phone software twinkle, just search for;

weather source:twinkle

Advanced Search

Alternatively, if you have more time and want to apply these search operators without using the shortcuts, click through to the Advanced Twitter Search and use the form to construct your search.

Choose the right type of search and you can find a host of valuable information that will help improve your Twitter experience and strengthen your network.

Please let us know if you have any Twitter search related questions or tips that will help your fellow readers.