Scaling Synthesis

Search IconIcon to open search

Twemex

Last updated April 28, 2022

Authored by:: Brendan Langen

Twemex is a Twitter search overlay that enables deeper exploratory and focused search. Twemex aims to help users construct a memex within their own accounts.

Another tool to assist with Search Behavior.

Created by Geoffrey Litt, whose philosophy lives on the twemex.app site.

As a researcher, I love using Twitter as a memex: a tool for thinking and making connections between related ideas. I’ve used it to find so many fascinating people, thoughts, and discussions. But using Twitter this way has always felt like fighting the natural design of the tool. The Twitter product is trying to get me to refresh the feed, not grow my thoughts. That might make sense for most casual users, but I wanted something more powerful. So I started building a browser extension to make Twitter a better place to think. It all started out with a lightweight search UI, so that I could seamlessly search through tweets to reference while I was writing new threads, weaving together old ideas with new ones. Then I added a way to see people’s best tweets, so I could get more from coming across an interesting user’s profile. I used this extension myself for about 6 months, and after a while I couldn’t live without it. Other people started asking me to share it, so I decided to turn it into a product. My hope is to build Twemex into a high-quality tool that makes Twitter a better memex for everyone.