TweetDeck gets better search and filtering tools

TweetDeck has just introduced a new set of search filters for columns.

The official Twitter client for desktops’ new features, a Twitter rep said via email, “make it easier for you to find the exact content you’re looking for — be it tweets and certain words or phrases, or images and videos.”

With the new filters, you can set up columns to contain or exclude keywords, media types, and retweets.

Say you’re running a Twitter photo contest for a legal services company using the hashtag #yolonolo. You can set up a new column to show only tweets — no retweets allowed! — containing the term “yolonolo” and containing images, so you to quickly see all your contest entries in a single column with no clutter.

Then, when a ring of trolls co-opts the hashtag for an Anonymous hack called #OpNoYo, you can tell TweetDeck to exclude the term “OpNoYo” from the column and boom! Your column once again is filtered to contain just the photo entries for your contest.

You can also filter for video content and for tweets with links. The new features are available now in TweetDeck’s Chrome and desktop apps.

Here’s a look at the new column filters:

“Today’s release, as well as our recent release of content filters for search columns, is part of our ongoing efforts to bring the features and capabilities of our AIR app to TweetDeck web,” said a TweetDeck rep today on the company blog.

“We’ve pushed regular updates each of the last 24 weeks, squashing bugs and introducing oft-requested functionality such as real-time updating of tweets in columns, keyboard shortcuts and navigation, search improvements including type-ahead and people search, a new interface and the options to change font size and column width, a more extensive quick actions menu on each Tweet, performance upgrades, full profile header images, and more.”

Twitter acquired TweetDeck, previously an independent Twitter desktop client, in mid-2011. Since then, the company has placed restrictions on the use of its API by third-party developers; these restrictions make it difficult or impossible for third-party developers to introduce and maintain Twitter clients. Thus, TweetDeck as an official Twitter client is in a sweeter position than ever before.