Free Social Media Search Tools

TOPSY

 

www.topsy.com

Provides a search engine for conversations on Twitter.  One nice feature allows you to see all conversations linking back to a particular website.

Twitter Search

http://search.twitter.com

Real-time search engine for status updates on Twitter.

Google Blog Search

http://blogsearch.google.com

Search millions of blog entries and filter results by date, URL, author and language.

Alterian SM2 - Free Edition

www.alterian-social-media.com

Allows you to track conversations, review positive/negative sentiment for your brand, clients, competitors and partners across social media channels such as blogs, wikis, micro-blogs, social networks, video/photo sharing sites and real-time alerts.

TweetDeck

www.tweetdeck.com

A personal browser for tracking Twitter and Facebook posts.  Provides a search tool for finding Twitter lists based on keywords.

Twitter Grader

twitter.grader.com

Provides a power ranking of any Twitter profile entered along with statistics such as number of followers, number following, and total updates.