Twitual.com - Analyzing Twitter Profiles

You might have a lot of followers, and you might follow a lot of people on Twitter. However, do you ever stop to wonder what your actual mutual friends are, and who you follow that does not follow you back? If that is so, you are going to love a site like Twitual, as it basically lets you access that very same information at a flick of a wrist.

All you have to do in order to have your profile (or anybody’s profile, in actuality) analyzed is input his or her name into the provided box. Five different figures will there and then be produced. These include the number of followers the individual has, the number of people that he follows, and those who are followed by him and who follow him in return. The other two figures that are produced go by the names of “Fans” and “Idols”. The former are tweeps that follow him, but that he doesn’t follow himself, and the latter include those whom the user follows even though they do not follow him back.

This service is still in a very early stage, and any user that you look up that has more than 5,000 combined followers and friends can not be analyzed. Removing this restriction is the first item on the agenda of the team behind Twitual.

“So, you follow some people on Twitter. And some people follow you. But which people do you have mutual friendship with? Who doesn't follow you back? Who follows you that you don't follow back? Let's find out…”

It is an instant way to realize the standing of any twitterer.

How is the search itself carried out from a technical viewpoint? What APIs are employed?