Searches not returning too many results

[frangarcia]

I was wondering if anybody knows the reason for a tweet to not be returned when using the twitter search REST API. I know that twitter states this

Please note that Twitter’s search service and, by extension, the Search API is not meant to be an exhaustive source of Tweets. Not all Tweets will be indexed or made available via the search interface.

but I would like to know why some tweets are excluded from this endpoint.

[andypiper]

There are a lot of possible reasons:

• an account may not be indexed for a lot of reasons, including age of the account (too new), spammy behaviour, or other reasons that may cause it to be excluded.
• individual Tweets may have been flagged for exclusion based on being repeatedly reported for abuse or spam
• hashtags may be identified as spammy or as under abuse, so Tweets including them may not be returned
• malicious URLs in Tweets may cause them to be excluded from the index
• in the case of a geo search, only a very small percentage (~2%) of Tweets include an explicit location selected by the user, so result sets can be sparse.

This is not a complete list of reasons. Our antispam systems are automated and constantly learning from new behaviours on the platform. That’s why our documentation is more vague on the issue, as it is sometimes difficult to be exact as to the reason for an individual user or Tweet not to appear in the search index.

[yeikel]

If this is the case , why do you only limit the API? I am a able to get as much as results as I want using the search

[andypiper]

The public Search API is limited to a 7 day index (and always has been). Search results may also be omitted from the web UI if Tweets are marked as spammy etc.

[yeikel]

I understand. I did not know the 7 days limitation. Thank you

[andypiper]