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Topsy.com is a new search engine that returns results from sites such as Twitter, Blogs, Flickr, Digg, Yelp, Identica and others. The site returns search results that are up to the minute, so users get the latest news from the social networking world. Results are shown in page form, in order of the number of “Tweets” each result has received on Twitter. The results page displays the option of viewing All Results, or results that were written in the last Hour, Day, Week or Month. Results can also be viewed by the top authors. Authors with the most results on the topic searched are shown first.

The Topsy home page is dominated by a large search bar. Users may also enter a Twitter username in the search bar, and the search engine will return all the results posted by that user. The home page also has links to an About Us page, to the Topsy blog, a link to follow Topsy on Twitter, a link to Send Feedback, a link to Terms (terms of usage for the site) and a link to Privacy (the site’s privacy policy).

San-Francisco-based Topsy.com was launched in May 2009 by Vipul Prakesh, Rishab Ghosh, Gary Iwatani and Justin Foutts. Vipul Prakesh is currently CEO. Rishab Ghosh is currently VP Research. Gary Iwatani is currently COO/CFO. The company has 42 employees. In March 2011, the company has raised $15 million from BlueRun Ventures, Western Technology Investments, Ignition Partners, Founders Fund and Scott Banister, brining Topsy's total funding to $30 million.

Competition to Topsy comes from sites such as Collecta.com. Collecta.com differs in that it actually returns real-time results. It goes out and searches the major social networking and blogging site when you type in the search string. As long as you are viewing the search page, the engine continues to perform a real-time search, updating the results. The main advantage to Topsy is that searches are returned much more quickly.

The home page features a large search bar, in addition to some text showing what the site is currently “trending” – these “trends” are the most popular search terms at present. The site is very responsive, with search results being returned in 1 or 2 seconds. Filtering the results by time or by top authors is also very responsive. There is no advertising displayed on the Topsy site.

There is no membership to the Topsy site required or available. Users simply use the site.

It’s not clear what the profit model for the site is, as there is no advertising displayed and there is no premium membership offered.

The Topsy site is recommended to anyone wishing up to date search results from the social networking and blogging world. The site does a very thorough job of searching and is very easy to use. Search results are returned very quickly and are displayed in a pleasing format.

• Search engine searches the major social networking and blogging sites, especially Twitter
• Search results are ordered according to the number of Tweets they have
• Users can filter the results to show results written in the last hour, day, week or month
• Users can filter the search results by top authors
• Search results are very up-to-date

Topsy video

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