# Threads keyword search rules: why can This page explains how keywords are matched in [Search](/en/web/search/) in the Throk web app. To jump straight to examples, see [Search examples: does searching "AI" find "paid"?](/en/web/guides/search-examples/). [Inspiration](/en/web/inspiration/) matches by meaning, so the rules on this page don't apply to it. ## In short Each keyword is treated as **one whole phrase**: a post is found only if its text contains that phrase. What counts as "contains" depends on the language: | Language | How it's matched | Found | Not found | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Chinese | Character by character; the characters must be next to each other | `蛋白` → 高**蛋白**質早餐 | `減脂` → 減少脂肪 | | English posts | By word, case-insensitive; singular, plural and other word forms match each other | `app` → **apps**, **App** Store | `AI` → OpenAI | | English and numbers in other posts | Whole words, case-insensitive | `AI` → **AI**設計, #**ai**, 用 **AI** 寫文案 | `AI` → paid, Taiwan, OpenAI; `app` → apps | | Japanese (kanji, hiragana) | Same as Chinese, character by character | `お金` → **お金**持ち | — | | Japanese (katakana) | Whole katakana words | `コーヒー` → **コーヒー**を飲む | `コーヒー` → アイスコーヒー | | Korean | Whole words separated by spaces | `꿀팁` → 오늘의 **꿀팁** | `꿀팁` → 꿀팁을 공유 | ## Chinese: character by character Every character in a Chinese keyword must appear in the post **in order and next to each other**. - `減脂` (cutting fat) finds "**減脂**餐" and "我在**減脂**" - `減脂` doesn't find "減少脂肪" (the characters aren't next to each other) - `蛋白` (egg white / protein) also finds "**蛋白**質" (protein), because those two characters do appear together in it A few details that are easy to miss: - **Traditional and Simplified Chinese don't match each other.** `減肥` doesn't find "减肥". To find both, search each one. - **Punctuation and spaces are ignored.** `減脂` also finds text like "減，脂" or "減 脂", where punctuation or a space sits between the characters. - **A single character matches very broadly.** `貓` (cat) finds every post containing "貓", including "熊貓" (panda) and "貓咪" (kitty). Use at least two characters. ## English and numbers: by word English doesn't look for "these letters somewhere in the text". It matches **by word**, and it's case-insensitive. - `coffee`, `Coffee` and `COFFEE` return the same results - `AI` finds "**AI**設計", "#**AI**" and "**AI**-generated": English right next to Chinese, in a hashtag or before a hyphen still counts as a separate word - `AI` doesn't find "paid", "said" or "Taiwan", nor "OpenAI" or "ChatGPT", because each of those is a whole word of its own - `gram` doesn't find "Instagram" or "Telegram" For a keyword made of several English words, the words must appear in order: `work from home` finds "**Work From Home** 一年心得", but not "#workfromhome" written as one word. **If a name can be written several ways, search each one.** ### English posts When the post language is **English**, each word in the keyword and the post is reduced to its base form before matching: - **Singular, plural and other word forms match each other**: `app` also finds "**apps**", and `post` also finds "**posts**" and "**posting**". - **Common words such as the, a and of are ignored**, so they don't affect matching. ### English in Chinese, Japanese and Korean posts English inside Chinese, Japanese and Korean posts matches **whole words**, and singular, plural and tenses aren't merged: `app` doesn't find "apps". ## Japanese - **Kanji and hiragana**: Same as Chinese, character by character. `お金` (money) finds "**お金**持ち" (rich person). - **Katakana**: Matched by **whole katakana word**. `コーヒー` (coffee) finds "**コーヒー**を飲む" and "**コーヒー**豆" (the katakana word ends there), but not "アイスコーヒー" (iced coffee) or "コーヒーショップ" (coffee shop), because each of those is one longer katakana word. To cover compound words, search the common combinations too, for example `コーヒー`, `アイスコーヒー` and `コーヒーショップ`. ## Korean Korean is matched by **whole words separated by spaces**. In Korean, particles attach directly to the end of nouns, so: - `꿀팁` (handy tip) finds "오늘의 **꿀팁**" and "**꿀팁**!" - `꿀팁` doesn't find "꿀팁을 공유합니다" or "꿀팁이": `꿀팁을` and `꿀팁이` are each a whole word of their own Search the common particle forms separately, for example `꿀팁`, `꿀팁을`, `꿀팁이` and `꿀팁은`. :::note[Planned] We're improving how katakana and Korean are matched, so that `コーヒー` also finds "アイスコーヒー" and `꿀팁` also finds "꿀팁을". We'll update this page when it ships. ::: ## One phrase per search Everything in the search box is treated as **one phrase**, and spaces don't mean "or": entering `減脂 減肥` only finds posts where "減脂 減肥" appears in that order. To cover several spellings, search each one separately, or ask [Throk Agent](/en/web/agent/) to query several keywords at once, for example "Find trending posts from the past week for AI, OpenAI and 人工智慧". ## Hashtags A post's hashtags are searched along with its text, and you don't need to type `#`: `減脂` and `#減脂` return the same results. A post tagged "減脂" is found even if the text itself doesn't say "減脂". ## Which posts are searched - **Chinese, English, Japanese and Korean posts.** Posts in other languages aren't searched. - **Replies are searched too.** Results include both top-level posts and replies. Use the "Is reply" column in the export to tell them apart. - **Post languages**: choose **Traditional Chinese**, **Simplified Chinese**, **Cantonese**, **English**, **Japanese** or **Korean**, the same options as the Post language setting in the header. Each search only finds posts in the language you chose. ## Search time range - Search covers the **last 7 days** by default. Paid plans can pick dates up to **30 days** back. The Free plan is fixed to the last 7 days. ## How fresh are likes and replies The likes and replies in search results are the numbers from the last time Throk fetched that post. New posts and posts going viral are updated more often. Older or less popular posts are updated less often, so their numbers may be lower than what you see on Threads. Open the post or account details page to see live numbers.