What I did is opened up three separate normal browser tabs in Firefox,
each using the Twitter search web interface to search for three
different hashtags ("#ces", "ces11", and "nfl" -- examples of three
tags that should have decent ongoing traffic).
At the same time I have an application capturing tweets from the same
three hashtags using the streaming API ("filter.json?
q=#ces,#ces11,#nfl", with appropriate URL encoding).
Irregardless of the amount of time, the streaming application captured
about 25% fewer tweets. Detailed analysis of the tweet IDs captured by
the browsers vs. those captured by the standalone application
retrieving tweets via the streaming API verified that there were
tweets delivered through the browsers that did not appear through the
streaming API. There were no tweets delivered through the streaming
API that did not also appear in the set of tweets delivewred through
the browsers.
I would love it if anyone else would try a similar experiment and
report back results. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, or maybe this is
an anomaly, or maybe the streaming API just doesn't capture as much --
impossible for me to say.
I note that the streaming API documentation doesn't claim an intent to
match accuracy with the search API (nor vice versa). At this point I'm
thinking to get the greatest accuracy I should be collecting tweets
from *both* APIs.
Brian Maso
On Jan 7, 5:08 pm, Bess <bess...@gmail.com> wrote:
> This is hard to believe. Streaming API is an approved API that should
> not have any limit. It should give you everything without any limit.
> On the other hand Search API has rate-limitation.
>
> Did you use any filter?
>
> On Jan 6, 9:42 pm, Brian Maso <br...@blumenfeld-maso.com> wrote:
>
> > Hi All,
>
> > Using the Streaming API, I'm noticing about a 25% loss rate when
> > tracking multiple hashtags vs. using the good old Search API. I'm
> > fouind it hard to believe this is true, so I tested over and over, but
> > I keep getting the same results. The Streaming API just seems to not
> > provide a fair number of tweets.
>
> > Note that I have the lowest rate limit with the Streaming API --
> > perhaps highest rate limits have lower loss rates.
>
> > Has anyone else noticed the rate loss Streaming vs. Search API? Or am
> > I on crack?
>
> > Does the loss rate get lower with the higher Streaming API account
> > limits?
>
> > Brian Maso
>
>
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