Question

Is there any way to programatically access, through the Twitter API or otherwise, the data from the list of handles from the similar_to page? (e.g. https://twitter.com/#!/similar_to/aplusk).

Scraping as always is least desirable with dynamic javascript sites like Twitter.

Answer 1

It’s there, it’s just currently undocumented:

https://api.twitter.com/1/users/recommendations.json?user_id=783214

Looking at the request, these parameters are supported:

• connections: Includes extended network connections in the data structure. For example, connections=true
• limit: Limit the number of entries. For example, limit=3
• user_id: The user ID to get recommendations for. For example, user_id=783214

Twitter Web options:

• cursor: Unclear. I’d assume this removes the selection cursor in Twitter Web. For example, cursor=-1
• display_location: The location to display the results (for Twitter Web). For example, display_location=st-view-all-stream
• pc: Unclear. I’d assume this is just user-agent checking. For example, pc=true

It doesn’t require authentication to hit against. I’m not sure if this is rate-limited, because I can’t find any further information at the time of this writing.

While no documentation has been given by Twitter on this API, it’s in current use by Twitter Web and Twitter Mobile for iOS, and it otherwise appears to be production-ready. Obviously, no guarantees can be had until Twitter officially releases it.

Good luck!