March 5, 2007 42 Comments

How to make custom Twitter groups

How to make custom Twitter Groups

See that RSS link at the bottom of your Twitter page? Copy it.

Head over to Yahoo Pipes.

Start a new pipe. Paste in the URL of your RSS as a Fetch pipe.

Add a filter pipe. Put the real names of the people you need to follow most as part of the title, or if you only know their Twitter name, use that in the guid field. Make sure the pipe is set to permit any meeting these conditions.

Connect everything, preview your output.

Publish to the world, and check the public URL of the pipe output. Bingo – you have a Twitter custom group. Here’s an example.

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Filed Under: New media

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  • http://ryanpricemedia.com Ryan Price

    I can’t believe nobody has included a link to 30boxes’ excellent tool that does this without knowing Yahoo Pipes. I don’t work for them or anything, I just love their services.

    http://m.30boxes.com/twapper

    It’s designed to be viewed from a mobile browser, but works really well in a desktop browser. Just throw in the names of up to 6 friends (I think, I’ve never done more than 4) and it gives you a page you can bookmark right away. The usernames are passed in the URL, so it’s very flexible.

  • http://ryanpricemedia.com Ryan Price

    I can’t believe nobody has included a link to 30boxes’ excellent tool that does this without knowing Yahoo Pipes. I don’t work for them or anything, I just love their services.

    http://m.30boxes.com/twapper

    It’s designed to be viewed from a mobile browser, but works really well in a desktop browser. Just throw in the names of up to 6 friends (I think, I’ve never done more than 4) and it gives you a page you can bookmark right away. The usernames are passed in the URL, so it’s very flexible.

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  • trythiscolor

    Christopher, your idea sounds great! However, when I went to view your sample, the result said “No pipe results for Twitter filter.”

    Is this a twitter issue, or a Yahoo pipes issue?

  • trythiscolor

    Christopher, your idea sounds great! However, when I went to view your sample, the result said “No pipe results for Twitter filter.”

    Is this a twitter issue, or a Yahoo pipes issue?

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  • http://www.aworldwideweb.ws RB

    Nice post and has brought another “thing” to do on my list of things to do:)

  • http://www.aworldwideweb.ws RB

    Nice post and has brought another “thing” to do on my list of things to do:)

  • http://timbond.cnc.net Tim

    the “with friends” RSS feed is no longer provided by Twitter:
    http://status.twitter.com/post/37217014/with-friends-tab-and-feeds

    So this will no longer work.

    I wanted to create a custom Twitter group to aggregate all of the NASA mission tweets:
    http://pipes.yahoo.com/timbond/twitter_group

    This is my first attempt at Pipes, so this sample isn’t finished.

  • http://timbond.cnc.net Tim

    the “with friends” RSS feed is no longer provided by Twitter:
    http://status.twitter.com/post/37217014/with-friends-tab-and-feeds

    So this will no longer work.

    I wanted to create a custom Twitter group to aggregate all of the NASA mission tweets:
    http://pipes.yahoo.com/timbond/twitter_group

    This is my first attempt at Pipes, so this sample isn’t finished.

  • http://www.infomercialscams.com/scams/jeff_paul_complaints satellite tv

    Buy satellite tv.Nice blog speciallty the colour combination

  • http://www.pixelgirl.me krystyn

    @Tim: The RSS link is still at the bottom of my page, maybe they're supporting it again?

    BUT.

    Requires username and password. Couldn't figure how to add that in pipes, unfortunately.

  • http://www.pixelgirl.me krystyn

    @Tim: The RSS link is still at the bottom of my page, maybe they're supporting it again?

    BUT.

    Requires username and password. Couldn't figure how to add that in pipes, unfortunately.

  • http://www.pixelgirl.me krystyn

    @Tim: The RSS link is still at the bottom of my page, maybe they're supporting it again?

    BUT.

    Requires username and password. Couldn't figure how to add that in pipes, unfortunately.

  • http://www.pixelgirl.me krystyn

    @Tim: The RSS link is still at the bottom of my page, maybe they're supporting it again?

    BUT.

    Requires username and password. Couldn't figure how to add that in pipes, unfortunately.

  • http://www.pixelgirl.me krystyn

    @Tim: The RSS link is still at the bottom of my page, maybe they're supporting it again?

    BUT.

    Requires username and password. Couldn't figure how to add that in pipes, unfortunately.

  • http://www.pixelgirl.me krystyn

    @Tim: The RSS link is still at the bottom of my page, maybe they're supporting it again?

    BUT.

    Requires username and password. Couldn't figure how to add that in pipes, unfortunately.

  • http://www.pixelgirl.me krystyn

    @Tim: The RSS link is still at the bottom of my page, maybe they're supporting it again?

    BUT.

    Requires username and password. Couldn't figure how to add that in pipes, unfortunately.

  • robert0118ac

    best article on the internet sir

  • RUAK0876ac

    It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes. But the half-wit remains a half-wit, and the emperor remains an emperor.

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  • silverwanderer

    Found a problem. Select by 'usernameA' does give all Tweets by 'usernameA' in the Title, BUT also gives other Tweets uplodaed by other friends with '@usrenameA' in the Title. They are there because Twitter does that when user A sends a 'reply' to user B. Pity, as I find the Fetch Feeds difficult to identify individuals

  • silverwanderer

    Found a problem. Select by 'usernameA' does give all Tweets by 'usernameA' in the Title, BUT also gives other Tweets uplodaed by other friends with '@usrenameA' in the Title. They are there because Twitter does that when user A sends a 'reply' to user B. Pity, as I find the Fetch Feeds difficult to identify individuals

  • silverwanderer

    Found a problem. Select by 'usernameA' does give all Tweets by 'usernameA' in the Title, BUT also gives other Tweets uplodaed by other friends with '@usrenameA' in the Title. They are there because Twitter does that when user A sends a 'reply' to user B. Pity, as I find the Fetch Feeds difficult to identify individuals

  • silverwanderer

    Found a problem. Select by 'usernameA' does give all Tweets by 'usernameA' in the Title, BUT also gives other Tweets uplodaed by other friends with '@usrenameA' in the Title. They are there because Twitter does that when user A sends a 'reply' to user B. Pity, as I find the Fetch Feeds difficult to identify individuals

  • http://astusa.com/staffing-blog Everett Reiss

    This is an awesome post – really helps me out as I'm looking to make a custom pipe for the industry I service using a whole bunch of different sources

  • http://astusa.com/staffing-blog Everett Reiss

    This is an awesome post – really helps me out as I'm looking to make a custom pipe for the industry I service using a whole bunch of different sources

  • http://astusa.com/staffing-blog Everett Reiss

    This is an awesome post – really helps me out as I'm looking to make a custom pipe for the industry I service using a whole bunch of different sources