We've discussed how scammers are utilizing Twitter to fill the Twitterverse with their junk. The kicker is that Twitter hasn't implemented solutions like filters that are standard on every email account. Luckily though, someone has stepped in and created a browser-based filter that removes spam from Twitter Search: Clean Tweets.
The Clean Tweets Solution
Twitter Search: would you like some more spam?
Clean Tweets, built by analytics provider BLVD Status, is an extension for Firefox that goes through your Twitter searches, either from Twitter.com or Search.Twitter.com, and erases a majority of the spam-based ones by essentially using only two filtering rules:
1. Delete all tweets from accounts that are less than 24 hours old
2. Delete all tweets that mention three or more Twitter trending topics
When you think about it, that's really the supermajority of spam. Most spam accounts are flagged and locked down by Twitter within a day, so blocking accounts less than a day old makes sense. Most scammers also utilize multiple trending topics so that curious onlookers spot their wares, thus, removing tweets with so many trending topics also takes care of most spammers. You can also adjust these values if necessary.
No, the Clean Tweets system isn't perfect, but no filter ever is. However, you're probably not going to miss out on the important tweets with these rules. And some spam will get past these basic rules, but luckily Clean Tweets has a feature where you can just click the X that appears next to an account. This will cast those scammers into spam purgatory.
There is one other concern we have with Clean Tweets: it plasters a giant and completely useless toolbar across your browser. I value my pixel space, and Clean Tweets is simply wasting it, a major turn-off to their product. A (far) better option would have been a bar that only appears when you are on Twitter Search. This product also seems simple enough to be implemented in a Greasemonkey extension.
Twitter: Fix the Spam Problem Already!
While Clean Tweets performs a much-needed service, it reminds us of a question we desperately want Twitter to answer: Why aren't you implementing these filters yourselves?
Creating a filter for Twitter Search shouldn't be a big engineering project in any way, and would remove this spam. Yes, spammers will adjust, but that is no reason to avoid taking the steps necessary to improve the quality of your service.