Twitterfall

A website developed by two students from the University of York is transforming the way people use the micro-blogging site Twitter.

Thousands of people use Twitter everyday to post news, views and information online in short messages known as tweets.

David Somers and Tom Brearley have developed Twitterfall, a website that allows users to filter that stream of information and find people writing about topics they are interested in.

The second-year students in the Department of Computer Science launched Twitterfall earlier this year and the website has become hugely popular, attracting tens of thousands of users.

Somers said: 'The success of Twitterfall has taken us completely by surprise but we are really pleased that it has received such a positive response in such a short space of time. We are now working with a major media company to see how it might use Twitterfall as part of its own websites.'

Brearley added: 'Twitterfall is a useful tool for anyone who wants to know what people are saying about a particular subject. For example, companies can use it to monitor their brand image or journalists can use it to monitor reaction to a particular news story.'

In the coming months the entrepreneurial pair will be looking at how they can develop the website further and adapt the same approach to work with other social networking sites.

In addition to searching tweets by topic, Twitterfall also allows users to search for Twitter posts made from specific locations.

The two students are also currently working on making the site suitable for use on portable devices.