Ever want to hunt for the same thing across all the social networks at once?
I do, so I built a tool to do it: Multi site search – try it out.
The findings of a standard Google Search or artificial intelligence query are limited. It is not even clear what sources are, or are not, trawled. Plus there’s no simple way to unearth more from each source. Meanwhile social channels are a mine of information and opinions on all conceivable topics. There’s a lot being missed.
I manage social network accounts for a few charities. I often want to find if/where people, groups and organisations have a presence online or have posted about a very specific subject.
It’s laborious to:
- open a browser tab for each site in turn
- type/paste in the keywords
- submit.
I wanted a way to do it quickly and easily. I used JavaScript to make a form on my site where I can type a query once, then open tabs with the results found by each site’s native search system.
Using this I can hunt for a topic, name or handle across:
- Bluesky
- Threads
- X
- YouTube.
Then I can scroll though the results as deeply as I need to.
Easy!
It’s not quite what I envisaged. I hoped to click one button, and all the tabs would open simultaneously. Turns out JavaScript cannot reliably open several links in the background. Nevertheless, it’s a time saving, useful way for me to seek things out.
You are very welcome to use it too.
Comment to share:
- what you think of this
- what would you use it for?
- what other sites would you like added?