Hashtag search result with REST API vs in twitter

[sherryjhuhe]

I’m working on searching hashtag with REST API with default settings. However, I noticed the search results are very different than what a direct hashtag search in twitter search bar would return, except for a few identical ones. Has anyone seen this? One response by episod at Why are the Search results in API search/tweet.json different from using Search bar on Twitter website? confirmed that “the website has a different set of search functions than the API.” Now, I wonder which one search mechanism is more ‘accurate’ for my application user. Also, what would be a good answer to my supervisor to explain the difference. Thanks!

[ePirat]

The Twitter Search on the Website goes back nearly for the full history. The API is only able to go back a few days and therefore will have limited results.
The access to all Tweets, even very old ones is provided through a paid service, but this seems like not a good option to you. The only possible way for you seems to be to use the Search API and agree it’s limitations.