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Twitter introduces 'Simpler Search' with autocomplete and related results

Twitter introduces 'Simpler Search' with autocomplete and related results

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Twitter introduced an update to its search function, adding several features, including autocomplete, spell check, related results, and the option to search just within the people you follow.

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Twitter announced some updates to its search function on its blog this afternoon. In a post titled Simpler Search, the company highlighted a number of changes. The search function will now have autocomplete, spell check, related results relevant to the search query, and show both real names and Twitter handles for each search. The last feature, in particular, highlights the company's continued focus on expanding Twitter to the mainstream, as it tries to ensure regular people don't have a hard time finding their favorite athletes and celebrities among all the bizarre Twitter handles.

The most interesting new development for hardcore Twitter users is a feature that allows you to search tweets just from the people you follow. For anyone who has tried to go back and find a tweet, but can't quite remember where they saw it, this could be a godsend. Instead of just showing you all results or the "top" tweets, Twitter search can now be limited to your own social streams.

This was not the major update to search, specifically the ability to do a deep search of all Twitter history, that had been speculated about following a tweet from one of Twitter's engineering staff about big changes coming to the company's search function.

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