Here is a problem with Mastodon. I wanted to search for Chernihiv (to where our Ukrainian guest has bravely returned to look after her ill father). I got nothing here, but found lots on Twitter. The search here is very limited,
@david_colquhoun That’s a limitation by design. Mastodon’s #search is limited to #hashtags, usernames, user URLs and post (toot) URLs. This is why use of hashtags is strongly encouraged.
It’s more about finding connections than about finding content. For searching general information or #news, one would be better off with one of the larger search engines.
@david_colquhoun Indeed. Twitter invested heavily in enabling push-based promotion, both algorithmic and paid-for, so became well-suited to news-type content.
I don’t think that Mastodon serves that kind of content very well, being more akin to a traditional personal pull-based microblogging platform which is more ephemeral than the primarily promotional platform that Twitter later became.
@nullifidian Yes, I realise that it's by design. But it's a design that means it won't be useful to people looking for news. Perhaps that's why there are many journalists around (AFAIK)