Since Twitter launched in 2006, the micro-blogging platform has become the social network of choice of countless celebrities, tired Facebook folks, and people who enjoy dishing out subtweets and other random thoughts. If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to read a book of tweets that catalogs every post from the very beginning, Topsy has your back.
By accessing Topsy’s APIs or by having a free Topsy or Topsy Pro account, users can now enjoy reading older tweets all the tweets ever posted on Twitter, starting from the very first one ever:
just setting up my twttr
— Jack Dorsey (@jack) March 21, 2006
Topsy – a San Francisco-based company founded in 2007 – has always been a great tool for analyzing social Web trends, and this recent update only solidifies the company as a contender that can provide a service that Twitter’s own functions cannot. Although Twitter allows you to search the platform for tweets relevant to a hashtag, username, or keyword provided by a user, it usually produces recently published results – going back to the beginning is nearly impossible, unless someone isn’t an active user or hasn’t been using the service that long. Having access to more-than-a-year-old public tweets can certainly enrich any person or business’s social data gathering endeavor. Topsy’s index includes over a 425 billion tweets, videos, images, and blog posts, according to CNET. In fact, Topsy provides is significantly more Twitter data than what even Google has to offer, whose dealings with the popular micro-blogging site reportedly expired in 2011.
“At scale, social participation, engagement metrics, and insights are an effective proxy for what the world cares about, creating what amounts to a real-time focus group,” says Jamie de Guerre, Senior VP of Product & Marketing for Topsy. “We believe by indexing every tweet back to 2006, we’re providing a complete historical context that helps Topsy users to understand and deliver on what audiences want, fuel better marketing campaigns, and make better business decisions.”
Interested in finding out what your tweets sounded like when you first started? You can use Topsy for free to check out your earliest posts by typing “from:[your username]” in the search field. Sort results by oldest and choose “All Time” on the left sidepanel. This tool is incredibly practical and fun to use, especially if you use to site to fangirl on the celebrities you idolize. Check out early tweets from some of Twitter’s elite:
she rocks in the tree top all day long rockn and a boppn and a singn her song all the little birds on jay bird street love to hear the robin
— ashton kutcher (@aplusk) January 16, 2009
On my way to disneyland…first time
— Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) June 7, 2009
right..gaga turned 22..in a mirrored panty humping a miami gogo dancer at 2 am to the beat of my first single “just dance” best birthday …
— Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) March 28, 2008
@TeamKardashians OMG your background is FIRE!!!! I want my pics bigger I think, will u help me?
— Kim Kardashian (@KimKardashian) October 25, 2008
Trying, but can’t seem to make many friends on Twitter :-( http://robo.to/justin
— Justin Timberlake (@jtimberlake) May 6, 2009
Yes, reliving celebrities’ early Twitter days is entertaining. Your own, however, will probably range from boring to hilariously inept.
is trying to write her thesis, but is busy blogging instead. :) http://jamdaily2009.blogspot.com
— Jam Kotenko (@MrazGal) February 6, 2009
chipping away at her to do list: genocide paper, ethos photos, photo story…and perhaps even study for that econ final.
— Molly McHugh (@iammollymchugh) March 11, 2009
Yikes. Our own Kate Knibbs was obviously a born comedian, however:
Would you rather have a massive, patchouli-scented 70s bush or nipples that look like latkes?
— Kate Knibbs (@KateKnibbs) March 21, 2011
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