The main content of a post. For example, if the input object is a Tweet, interaction.content contains the text of the Tweet.

It is a general-purpose target. Use it to filter across all the data sources we have rather than restricting your search to just one.

NoteThe filtering engine ignores links and Twitter @mentions. Use the interaction.link target to filter for links and interaction.mentions to filter for @mentions.

The latitude and longitude from which a post was sent.

See also: twitter.geo.

A direct link to an individual post. For example, if a post came from Twitter, interaction.link points to the individual page for the Tweet.

By default, a stream in DataSift looks at all of the input objects that arrive from your chosen data sources. For example, this filter looks at every input object sent to DataSift along the Twitter Firehose:

In situations where you are performing statistical analysis on data, you can use the technique of sampling.

The interaction.sample target is an internally generated floating-point random number between 0 and 100.

This filter samples 5.25 percent of the incoming input objects and ignores the rest:

Rate Limiting:

Twitter limits your to 500,000 Tweets in a 24-hour period. You can use interaction.sample to reduce your data consumption.

The application that was used to generate and send a post.

This target can take a wide range of values. Here are some examples:

• A.plus for BlackBerry
• Google2Tweet
• LG Phone
• MySpace
• Samsung Mobile
• Tweet Button
• TweetDeck
• Tweetbot for iPhone
• Twitpic
• Twitter for Android
• Twitter for Mac
• Twitter for iPad
• Twitter for iPhone
• UberSocial for BlackBerry

The title associated with a post. If the post is a blog, for example, it is meaningful to filter by title. If the post is a Tweet, there will be no title.

The data source that supplied a post.

A URL linking to the author's avatar.

The author's id on the service from which they generated a post.

A link to the author's main page on the service from which they generated a post.

The author's real name on the service from which they generated the post.

For example, if the post is a Tweet, interaction.author.name contains the string you would find in twitter.user.name.

The author's username on the service from which they generated a post.

For example, if the post is a Tweet, interaction.author.username contains the string you would find in twitter.user.screen_name.

List of user IDs for users mentioned in an interaction.

This target will match interactions otherwise matched by twitter.mention_ids and twitter.retweet.mention_ids as well as facebook.to.ids.

List of users/usernames mentioned in an interaction.

This target will match interactions otherwise matched by twitter.mentions and twitter.retweet.mentions as well as facebook.to.names.

A list of the domains from links mentioned in a Tweet.

Remember that Twitter has an automated link shortener which converts links mentioned in a Tweet into links belonging to the t.co domain. The twitter.domains target contains the unwrapped version of the link, not the t.co shortened version.

The author of the Tweet might have shortened a link already; they might have converted apple.com, for example, into a bit.ly shortened link. Twitter's automatic shortener might, in turn, convert that bit.ly link into a t.co link. In this example, the twitter.domains target unwraps the t.co link to a bit.ly link, but it does not resolve that bit.ly link all the way back to the original apple.com link. In other words, if a link has been shortened, the process always performs one unwrap but no more.

DataSift has a powerful link aggregator of its own, the Links Augmentation, which fully resolves links back to the page they point to. Take a look at the links.domain target.

The geographical location information for a Tweet represented by a pair of longitude and latitude coordinates.

Learn more about longitude and latitude.

CSDL offers three geographical operators:

• geo_box
• geo_radius
• geo_polygon

See also: interaction.geo.

If a Tweet is a reply, twitter.in_reply_to_screen_name contains the username of the author a Tweet is replying to.

Otherwise it is not populated.

A list of the links mentioned in this Tweet.

Note that DataSift also has a powerful link aggregator of its own, available via the Links Augmentation.

A list of the Twitter usernames mentioned in a Tweet.

Take care to use the correct operator with this target. As the examples show, use == if you are filtering for just one username and use in if you are filtering for a list of two or more usernames.

The source of the Tweet. For example, "Twitter for iPad" or "TweetDeck".

The 140-character text of a Tweet.

DataSift's filtering engine strips URLs and @mentions from the text of the Tweet so make sure you select your target carefully:

You can write a filter that looks for "bitly" in twitter.text like this:

   twitter.text contains "bitly"

It matches this Tweet: "Have you used bitly today?"

However, to filter for the link in this Tweet: "Take a look at http://bitly.com/r6pmP0"

you would use the twitter.links or twitter.domains targets or the Links augmentation.

Similarly, to look for Tweets that refer to a specific user like this one: "Have you tried @DataSift yet?"

you would use the twitter.mentions target.

The biography information from the Twitter user's Profile page. Twitter limits this field to 160 characters.

The number of followers the author of a Tweet has on Twitter.

The number of people who follow this Twitter user divided by the number of people the user follows on Twitter.

The number of people an author follows on Twitter.

Summary

A user's unique id on Twitter. For example, the Twitter id for @DataSift is 155505157.

The id is not exposed on the Twitter website but can be used if you write code to access the Twitter API.

Note that Twitter treats user IDs and Tweet IDs differently.

Example

Filter for all Tweets from a list of accounts you specify by their user id.

The language the Twitter user selected from the drop-down list on their Settings page.

It is an indication of their primary language but it might be misleading. For example, a user might select French as their mother tongue but compose their Tweets in English. DataSift offers an augmentation called Language which determines the language based on a statistical analysis of groups of characters.

The drop-down list shows the full name of the language (English, French, German, and so on) but the twitter.user.lang target contains the code for the language.

Take a look at the list of languages that Twitter supports.

The number of Twitter lists on which the author of a Tweet appears.

The string description of the Twitter user's location. This is supplied by the Twitter user in the Location field on their Profile page. It is a freeform field, so they can type anything they choose:

• America
• Greenwich
• Example Road
• Number 42
• With my family

A Twitter user's 'real' name. Since this is a free-text entry field in the Twitter settings, it could contain anything. It could be the user's genuine name, perhaps augmented with a title (such as Dr or Professor), a suffix (such as "BA" or "Jnr" or "III"), or a post nominal (such as "FRSC" or "FAIA") indicating membership of an organization or professional body.

The range of possibilities is wide and includes obvious parody accounts, and accounts that are run by companies or organizations. For instance, the @climagic account, which Tweets about Unix-based computer operating systems, has a "real name" of Command Line Magic.

Note that a Twitter user can adjust their real name over time. They can change their screenname (for example @LadyGaga) too, but their Twitter id cannot be changed.

The number of days since this user joined Twitter.

An author's Twitter username. For example, the screenname for the @DataSift account on Twitter is "DataSift".

Note that Twitter users can adjust their screenname over time so @LadyGaga could change to @LadyG, for example, if that screenname were available. A user's Twitter id cannot be changed so, for consistency over time, we recommend this procedure:

1. Filter on a screenname until you have collected at least one Tweet.

2. Examine the output JSON data to determine the Twitter id that corresponds to the screenname.

3. Rewrite your CSDL filter to use the id instead of the screenname.

The total number of Tweets and Retweets a Twitter user has posted.

The time zone that a Twitter user selected in their Twitter Settings.

Note that Twitter uses city names to specify timezones. For example, using this target, your filter might match against Edinburgh and against London, but these both represent a single timezone.

NoteTwitter location data is available only if a Twitter user chooses to activate it. For each individual Tweet, they can choose whether or not to include location data and which location they want to specify, regardless of their real location. For example, a user in New York City could select Edinburgh, Scotland as the purported origin of a Tweet. If they choose not to include location data, all the twitter.place.* targets are unpopulated for that Tweet.

The country from which a Tweet was sent. 

See also twitter.place.country_code.

NoteTwitter location data is available only if a Twitter user chooses to activate it. For each individual Tweet, they can choose whether or not to include location data and which location they want to specify, regardless of their real location. For example, a user in New York City could select Edinburgh, Scotland as the purported origin of a Tweet. If they choose not to include location data, all the twitter.place.* targets are unpopulated for that Tweet.

The two-character country code that corresponds to the location the Twitter user supplied for an individual Tweet.

You can learn more about country codes at this International Standards Organization page.

See also twitter.place.country.

NoteTwitter location data is available only if a Twitter user chooses to activate it. For each individual Tweet, they can choose whether or not to include location data and which location they want to specify, regardless of their real location. For example, a user in New York City could select Edinburgh, Scotland as the purported origin of a Tweet. If they choose not to include location data, all the twitter.place.* targets are unpopulated for that Tweet.

Full details of the location the Twitter user supplied for an individual Tweet. For example:

• York, Ontario
• Division No. 11, Alberta
• Greater Vancouver, British Columbia
• Halifax, Nova Scotia

See also: twitter.place.name.

NoteTwitter location data is available only if a Twitter user chooses to activate it. For each individual Tweet, they can choose whether or not to include location data and which location they want to specify, regardless of their real location. For example, a user in New York City could select Edinburgh, Scotland as the purported origin of a Tweet. If they choose not to include location data, all the twitter.place.* targets are unpopulated for that Tweet.

Typically, a shortened version of twitter.place.full_name. For example:

Note that a twitter.place.full_name maps to a unique twitter.place.name but, in the reverse direction, one twitter.place.name might correspond to many different twitter.place.full_name values.

In other words, this filter:

    twitter.place.full_name == "London, England"

always produces objects with twitter.place.name set to "London".

But this filter:

    twitter.place.name == "London"

produces objects with twitter.place.full_name set to "London, England" or "London, KY" and, almost certainly, other values too.

NoteTwitter location data is available only if a Twitter user chooses to activate it. For each individual Tweet, they can choose whether or not to include location data and which location they want to specify, regardless of their real location. For example, a user in New York City could select Edinburgh, Scotland as the purported origin of a Tweet. If they choose not to include location data, all the twitter.place.* targets are unpopulated for that Tweet.

The place_type supplied by Twitter. Consult Twitter's documentation for further details. Typical values are:

• admin
• city
• country
• neighborhood
• poi

The poi value indicates a point of interest such as Stonehenge or Niagara Falls.

NoteTwitter location data is available only if a Twitter user chooses to activate it. For each individual Tweet, they can choose whether or not to include location data and which location they want to specify, regardless of their real location. For example, a user in New York City could select Edinburgh, Scotland as the purported origin of a Tweet. If they choose not to include location data, all the twitter.place.* targets are unpopulated for that Tweet.

For a Tweet with location information, this string contains a link to the Twitter API to retrieve further information about the location.

The total number of Retweets for this Tweet.

See also links.retweet_count. Note that the Links augmentation handles the concept of a Retweet count as an overall count, not on a Tweet-by-Tweet basis.

List of domains from links in the Tweet that was Retweeted.

The time interval measured in seconds between posting of the original Tweet and posting of this Retweet.

A list of links mentioned in a Tweet that was Retweeted.

The source of the Retweet; for example: "web" or "Tweetdeck".

The 140-character text of a Retweet.

DataSift's filtering engine strips URLs and @mentions from the Retweet so make sure you select your target carefully:

See also: twitter.text

The biography information from the Profile page of the Twitter user who Retweeted a Tweet. Twitter limits this field to 160 characters.

The number of followers the author of a Retweet has on Twitter.

The number of people who follow a Retweeting user divided by the number of people the user follows on Twitter.

This information relates to the Retweeting user and has nothing to do with the author of the original Tweet.

The number of people a Retweeting user follows on Twitter.

The Retweeting user's unique id on Twitter. For example, the Twitter id for DataSift is 155505157.

The id is not exposed on the Twitter website but can be used if you write code to access the Twitter API.

Note that Twitter handles user ids and Tweet ids differently.

Twitter's estimation of the importance of a Tweet. This target can take these values:

• none
• low
• medium
• high (right now, this one's reserved by Twitter for future use)

The medium and high entries roughly correlate to the "Top Tweets" results for searches on twitter.com.

Here's how it works. Twitter assigns a filter level to each Tweet. For example, I might write a Tweet that Twitter decides to mark as "low", which means that they don't see it as particularly significant. A moment later, you write a Tweet and they mark it as "medium" which is the highest level currently possible.

This DataSift filter will deliver both of our Tweets:

While this one will find yours but not mine:

A list of Twitter hashtags mentioned in a Tweet. 

When using this target for filtering, ensure that you use the correct operator with this target:

• For one hashtag, use the == operator 
• For a list of two or more hashtags, use the in operator

Since this target is an array and we are filtering for a list of values, we are using the == or in operator (not contains or contains_any).

The language a Tweet was written in, as identified by Twitter's machine language detection algorithms. The values are valid BCP 47 language identifiers, and may represent any of the languages listed on Twitter's advanced search page, or "und" if no language could be detected.

DataSift already has a language detection mechanism, of course, offered by our Language augmentation. But remember that there is a third way to find out which language a user prefers, by examining the language an author selected in their Settings page on Twitter. You can filter against this using twitter.user.lang, twitter.retweet.user.lang, or twitter.retweeted.user.lang. Take care, though, because users select their language from a drop-down list. They might make a mistake, or select a langauge that is not their own, or perhaps Tweet in more than one language. The bottom line here us that there might be a discrepancy between the language of the Tweet and the main language the user specified in their profile.

A string displayed in place of the URL to an image included in a Tweet.

When an author uploads an image to attach to their Tweet, Twitter automatically assigns it a unqiue display URL that is included in the Tweet, instead of the actual URL to an image. You can use this target to filter for content if you know the display URL of an image attached to a Tweet. This target is useful when you need to find out what people are saying about an image posted by a particular celebrity or brand.

The URL of an image attached to a Tweet.

A Tweet can include usernames, hashtags, media, and the author's location. At the time of writing, the only type of media available is images. Authors can use Twitter's Upload Photo feature to attach an image to their Tweet. You can use this target to filter for content if you know the URL of a media file included in a Tweet. 

Remember, the URL of an image is different than the display URL visible in the Tweet itself. To view the full URL, click on the display URL of an image in a Tweet. Then right-click on the image and click View Image. The full URL is then visible in the address bar of your browser. 

The type of media included in a Tweet.

A Tweet can include usernames, hashtags, media, and the author's location. At the time of writing, the only type of media available is images. Authors can use Twitter's Upload Photo feature to attach an image to their Tweet. 

Ensure that when you use this target, you filter for the media type 'photo'. For instance, you can use this target to filter for Tweets that contain an image and mention a particular keyword.

A list of the ids of Twitter users mentioned in a Tweet.

Take care to use the correct operator with this target. As the examples show, use == if you are filtering for just one username and use in if you are filtering for a list of two or more usernames.

This target allows you to filter against the locality information that is visible in the JSON output embedded within the twitter.place.attributes element.

The twitter.place.attributes target can be difficult to filter against unless you know exactly what is in there. The twitter.place.attributes.locality attribute is a lower-level target. Since it is more specific, it is more valuable in filters.

In the US, this target typically contains the name of a city.

This target allows you to filter against the locality information that is visible in the JSON output embedded within the twitter.place.attributes element.

The twitter.place.attributes target can be difficult to filter against unless you know exactly what is in there. The twitter.place.attributes.region attribute is a lower-level target. Since it is more specific, it is more valuable in filters.

In the US, this target typically contains the name of a state.

This target allows you to filter against the street address information that is visible in the JSON output embedded within the twitter.place.attributes element.

The twitter.place.attributes target can be difficult to filter against unless you know exactly what is in there. The twitter.place.attributes.street_address attribute is a lower-level target. Since it is more specific, it is more valuable in filters.

Twitter's estimation of the importance of a Retweet. The values are:

• none
• low
• medium
• high (right now, this one's reserved by Twitter for future use)

The medium and high entries roughly correlate to the "Top Tweets" results for searches on twitter.com.

Here's how it works. Twitter assigns a filter level to each Tweet. For example, I might post a Retweet that Twitter decides to mark as "low", which means that they don't see it as particularly significant. A moment later, you post a Retweet and they mark it as "medium" which is the highest level currently possible.

This DataSift filter will deliver both of our Retweets:

twitter.retweet.filter_level in "low, medium"

While this one will find yours but not mine:

twitter.retweet.filter_level in "medium"

A list of Twitter hashtags mentioned in a Retweet. 

When using this target for filtering, ensure that you use the correct operator with this target.

• For one hashtag, use the == operator 
• For a list of two or more hashtags, use the in operator

Since this target is an array and we are filtering for a list of values, we are using the == or in operator (not contains or contains_any).

The language a Retweet was written in, as identified by Twitter's machine language detection algorithms. The values are valid BCP 47 language identifiers, and may represent any of the languages listed on Twitter's advanced search page, or "und" if no language could be detected.

DataSift already has a language detection mechanism, of course, offered by our Language augmentation.

Remember that there is a third way to find out which language a user prefers. That's by examining the language the author of a Tweet selected in their Settings page on Twitter. You can filter against this in twitter.user.lang, twitter.retweet.user.lang, or twitter.retweeted.user.lang. Take care, though. Users usually choose a language from a drop-down list, and it's usually their main language. There's no guarantee that this is actually their real one or, most importantly, that this is the language of the current Tweet: many users in fact write messages in different languages, so there might be a discrepancy between the language of the tweet and the main language of the user as specified in their profile.

A string displayed in place of the URL to an image included in a Retweet.

When an author uploads an image to attach to their Tweet, Twitter automatically assigns it a unqiue display URL that is included in the Tweet, instead of the actual URL to an image. The display URL is also included in Retweets. You can use this target to filter for content if you know the display URL of an image attached to a Retweet.

The URL of an image attached to a Retweet.

A Retweet can include usernames, hashtags, media, and the author's location. At the time of writing, the only type of media available is images. You can use this target to filter for content if you know the URL of a media file included in a Retweet. For instance, suppose a celebrity or brand share an image on Twitter, you can use this target to filter for Retweets of the image and find out what people are Tweeting about it.

Remember, the URL of an image is different than the display URL visible in the Retweet itself. To view the full URL, click on the display URL of an image in a Retweet. Then right-click on the image and click View Image. The full URL is then visible in the address bar of your browser. 

The type of media included in a Retweet. 

A Retweet can include usernames, hashtags, media, and the author's location. At the time of writing, the only type of media available is images. Ensure that when you use this target, you filter for the media type 'photo'. For instance, you can use this target to filter for Retweets that contain an image and mention a particular keyword.

Financial ticker symbols (cashtags) identify stocks in Tweets. For example, Google stock is $GOOG and Apple stock is $AAPL.

The twitter.symbols target makes it easy to filter for these.

See also: twitter.symbols.

The language a Retweeting user selected from the drop-down list on their Settings page.

Note that the value may be misleading. For example, a user might select French as their mother tongue but compose their Tweets in English. DataSift offers an augmentation called Language which determines the language based on a statistical analysis of 3-letter groups of characters.

The drop-down list shows the full name of the language (English, French, German, and so on) but the twitter.user.lang target contains the two-character code for the language.

Take a look at the list of languages that Twitter supports.

Allows you to filter for Retweets by authors whose accounts have been verified. The verification process typically applies to individuals and organizations in the public eye, and serves to confirm that the person really is who they claim to be. For example, if you visit Lady Gaga's Twitter page, you'll notice a white checkmark over a blue cloud next to her name. This is Twitter's icon for a verified account.

Additional location information about a Tweet that has been Retweeted.

A URL containing a Twitter API call to retrieve additional place information about the place of origin of a Tweet that has been retweeted. For example, if twitter.retweeted.place.url contains http://api.twitter.com/1/geo/id/d9ebaeaac39060be.json, the Tweet originated from the town of Ourense in Northern Spain.

If you make that API call, Twitter returns a set of points representing a polygon around the town, plus additional meta data.

Allows you to filter for Retweets of Tweets by authors whose accounts have been verified. The verification process typically applies to individuals and organizations in the public eye, and serves to confirm that the person really is who they claim to be. For example, if you visit Lady Gaga's Twitter page, you'll notice a white checkmark over a blue cloud next to her name. This is Twitter's icon for a verified account.

If the object is a status message from Twitter, this target contains its type. It can take these values:

Please refer to our Twitter User Status Messages documentation for guidelines on how to process each of these messages.

Financial ticker symbols (cashtags) identify stocks in Tweets. For example, Google stock is $GOOG and Apple stock is $AAPL.

The twitter.symbols target makes it easy to filter for these.

See also: twitter.retweet.symbols.

The number of Tweets a user has favorited.

Twitter use the UK spelling, "favourite_count" in their output, and we follow their convention, both in our target name and our output.

Allows you to filter for Tweets by authors whose accounts have been verified. The verification process typically applies to individuals and organizations in the public eye, and serves to confirm that the person really is who they claim to be. For example, if you visit Lady Gaga's Twitter page, you'll notice a white checkmark over a blue cloud next to her name. This is Twitter's icon for a verified account.

The number of Twitter lists that the person making a Retweet appears in.

The string description of the Twitter user's location. This is supplied by the Twitter user on their profile page. It is a free-form field, so they can type anything they choose to:

• America
• NYC
• New York City
• NY, NY
• With my family

A Retweeting user's 'real' name. Since this is a free-text entry field in the Twitter settings, it could contain anything. It could be the user's genuine name, perhaps augmented with a title (such as Dr or Professor), a suffix (such as "BA" or "Jnr" or "III"), or a post nominal (such as "FRSC" or "FAIA") indicating membership of an organization or professional body.

The range of possibilities is wide and includes obvious parody accounts, and accounts that are run by companies or organizations. For instance, the @climagic account, which Tweets about Unix-based computer operating systems, has a "real name" of Command Line Magic.

Note that a Twitter user can adjust their real name over time. They can change their screenname (for example @LadyGaga) too, but their Twitter id cannot be changed.

The number of days since a Retweeting user joined Twitter.

The Twitter username of the person who made the Retweet.

The number of Tweets/Retweets a Retweeting user has posted.

You can use this, for example, to filter for Retweets from users who have posted more than 20,000 messages.

The time zone that a Retweeting user selected in their Twitter settings.

The URL a retweeting user added in their Twitter profile.

The unique ID of the Tweet that was Retweeted. It is stored as a string.

Note that Twitter treats user IDs and Tweet IDs differently.

A list of Twitter usernames mentioned in a Tweet that was Retweeted.

A list of Twitter user ids mentioned in a Tweet that was Retweeted.

Take care to use the correct operator with this target. As the examples show, use == if you are filtering for just one username and use in if you are filtering for a list of two or more usernames.

NoteTwitter location data is available only if a Twitter user chooses to activate it. For each individual Tweet, they can choose whether or not to include location data and which location they want to specify, regardless of their real location. For example, a user in New York City could select Edinburgh, Scotland as the purported origin of a Tweet. If they choose not to include location data, all the twitter.retweeted.place.* targets are unpopulated for that Tweet.

The country that corresponds to the location supplied for the original Tweet. This target holds no information about the Twitter user who made the Retweet.

When a Tweet is Retweeted, twitter.place.country is copied to twitter.retweeted.place.country.

NoteTwitter location data is available only if a Twitter user chooses to activate it. For each individual Tweet, they can choose whether or not to include location data and which location they want to specify, regardless of their real location. For example, a user in New York City could select Edinburgh, Scotland as the purported origin of a Tweet. If they choose not to include location data, all the twitter.retweeted.place.* targets are unpopulated for that Tweet.

The two-character country code that corresponds to the location for an original Tweet that is being Retweeted.

When a Tweet is Retweeted, twitter.place.country_code is copied to twitter.retweeted.place.country_code.

You can learn more about country codes at this Wikipedia page.

NoteTwitter location data is available only if a Twitter user chooses to activate it. For each individual Tweet, they can choose whether or not to include location data and which location they want to specify, regardless of their real location. For example, a user in New York City could select Edinburgh, Scotland as the purported origin of a Tweet. If they choose not to include location data, all the twitter.retweeted.place.* targets are unpopulated for that Tweet.

The full name of the location the Twitter user supplied for an original Tweet that is being Retweeted. The user chooses from a Twitter database of locations.

For example:

• York, Ontario
• Division No. 11, Alberta
• Greater Vancouver, British Columbia
• Halifax, Nova Scotia

When a Tweet is Retweeted, twitter.place.full_name is copied to twitter.retweeted.place.full_name.

See also: twitter.retweeted.place.name.

NoteTwitter location data is available only if a Twitter user chooses to activate it. For each individual Tweet, they can choose whether or not to include location data and which location they want to specify, regardless of their real location. For example, a user in New York City could select Edinburgh, Scotland as the purported origin of a Tweet. If they choose not to include location data, all the twitter.retweeted.place.* targets are unpopulated for that Tweet.

Typically, a shortened version of twitter.retweeted.place.full_name. For example:

Note that there is a one-to-one mapping from twitter.place.full_name to twitter.place.name but a one-to-many mapping in the reverse direction.

In other words, this filter:

    twitter.retweeted.place.full_name == "London, England"

always produces objects with twitter.place.name set to "London".

But this filter:

    twitter.retweeted.place.name == "London"

produces objects with twitter.retweeted.place.full_name set to "London, England" or "London, Ohio" or other values.

NoteTwitter location data is available only if a Twitter user chooses to activate it. For each individual Tweet, they can choose whether or not to include location data and which location they want to specify, regardless of their real location. For example, a user in New York City could select Edinburgh, Scotland as the purported origin of a Tweet. If they choose not to include location data, all the twitter.retweeted.place.* targets are unpopulated for that Tweet.

The place_type supplied by Twitter. Consult Twitter's documentation for further details. Typical values are:

• admin
• city
• country
• neighborhood
• poi

The poi value indicates a point of interest such as Stonehenge or Niagara Falls.

The source of an original Tweet that is being Retweeted. For example, "web" indicates that the original Tweet was posted via Twitter's website whereas "TweetDeck" indicates that it came from the TweetDeck Twitter client.

The biography information for a Twitter user who is being Retweeted.

The number of followers the author of a Retweeted Tweet has on Twitter.

Note that this data concerns the Retweeted author. It does not contain any information about the person who made the Retweet.

The number of people who follow a Retweeted Twitter user divided by the number of people the user follows.

The number of people the Retweeted user follows.

A Retweeting user's unique id on Twitter. For example, the Twitter id for the @DataSift Twitter account is 155505157.

The id is not exposed on the Twitter website but can be used if you write code to access the Twitter API.

Note that Twitter treats user IDs and Tweet IDs differently.

The language the Twitter user selected from the drop-down list on their Settings page.

Note that the value may not be reliable. For example, a user might select French as their mother tongue but compose their Tweets in English. DataSift offers an augmentation called Language which determines the language based on a statistical analysis of 3-letter groups of characters.

The drop-down list shows the full name of the language (English, French, German, and so on) but the twitter.user.lang target contains the two-character code for the language.

Take a look at the list of languages that Twitter supports.

The number of Twitter lists that the author of the original Tweet appears on.

This target holds no information about the person who made the Retweet.

The string description of the Twitter user's location. This is supplied by the Twitter user in the Location field on their Profile page. It is a freeform field, so they can type anything they choose to:

• America
• Greenwich
• Example Road
• Number 42
• With my family

The Retweeted user's real name.

The number of days since the author of the original Tweet joined Twitter.

Note that this target holds no information about the person who sent the Retweet.

The Twitter username of the author of the original Tweet.