I’ve been working on a ReTweet mapping system for a while, in fact, I’ve already published some data I accumulated while building it. The idea is to index all ReTweets and map them to each other so that visual display and programmatic analysis can be done on the structure of viral messaging on Twitter.
Now, I can finally publish a rough beta version of the mapping system. Click on the images to use the features. Please keep in mind: this all very beta still, and rough around the edges.
The ReTweet mapper is the core of the system, it indexes ReTweet streams into hierarchical structures that can be displayed visually as they are here. It also allows for further analysis as seen below.
The search feature allows you to search for ReTweet streams that match keywords, phrases, usernames or links. The search results page shows the original Tweet that started the stream that matched your query. Clicking on the Tweet brings you to the ReTweet map of that stream.
The most ReTweeted page shows a leaderboard of those users who were ReTweeted the most in the last day, hour or week. Clicking on the name of a user leads to a search for that user’s name.