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So on the Twitter website, underneath the post there's a timestamp, but it's not very specific - it will just say something like Jul 10, or 11 hours ago or something like that. Is there any way to find the EXACT time a tweet was posted? Like to the second? I want to avoid messing around with programming or dealing with the API if possible, but I've looked all over, and haven't been able to find anything.

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2 Answers

up vote 5 down vote

It is not possible without getting down in HTML or using an extension that does what I am going to do. It was most likely formatted this way to be more friendly to the wider audience.

Right click the time link and inspect the source with an approriate browser.

Web Inspect with Chrome

You should see something similar to the following.

<div class="stream-item-header">
<small class="time">
<a href="/codinghorror/status/94410540117536768" class="tweet-timestamp js-permalink" title="10:16 AM - 22 Jul 11">
<span class="_timestamp js-short-timestamp " data-time="1311344201" data-long-form="true">22 Jul</span></a>

data-time has all the information you need. For example, you can use Wolfram Alpha to convert it.

Input Format

Converted time

Quicker ways include

  • using a JavaScript console and Date() (new Date(1311344201000);)
  • the show API method
  • Use another Twitter application and use ChrisF's method to rollover to see:

Blackbird embed

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Does this method still work? When I tried on sample URL twitter.com/petermortensen/status/88211587667738625 (known to posted on 2011-07-05, within Unix time range 1309755600 - 1309928400) I could not locate anything resembling the expected Unix time in the HTML source. – Peter Mortensen Mar 11 '12 at 15:21
@PeterMortensen Twitter decided to remove it for reasons that leave me staring at the wall with long blank stares. The only way now would be either via the API or a Third Party. Wrong move by Twitter imho. – phwd♦ Mar 11 '12 at 17:38
@PeterMortensen I found it again. It's there. – phwd♦ May 27 '12 at 19:23
up vote 1 down vote

Hover over the "23 seconds ago" link. It will bring up a tooltip with the exact date and time it was posted.

However, this is only to the minute, not the second.

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That just gives the time to the minute, not the second. I'm pretty sure there's a way to do that though, I just don't remember. – Shravas Jul 23 '11 at 17:22
@Shravas - oh, missed that in your question. – ChrisF♦ Jul 23 '11 at 17:23

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