How to Use the Location Based Social Media Search Engine
Learn how to find location-based social media content using DigitalStakeout’s real-time geo-tagged and geo-inferred public data.
How to Use the Location Based Social Media Search Engine
The Location Based Social Media Search Engine (formerly known as Locus) enables real-time discovery of public content with inferred or embedded location data. It is used for geofenced monitoring, incident response, and event intelligence.
Use Cases
- 🛡️ Public Safety & Emergency Monitoring — Track chatter around crisis zones
- 🎯 Executive Protection & Site Security — Geofence sensitive locations and detect proximity threats
- 🧭 Travel Risk Management — Monitor high-risk areas before/during missions
- 📍 Event Monitoring — Follow content from concerts, protests, or conferences
- 📊 Geo-Social Research — Analyze trends and narratives tied to locations
Running a Location-Based Search
1. Select a Location
- Choose from map view, address input, or known place names
- Define radius or geofence manually
2. Apply Filters
Use filters to refine content:
- Time Range — from last 5 minutes to 30 days
- Keywords — one or more relevant words or phrases
- Entity Types — such as screen names, links, domains, or hashtags
- Facets — filter by country, language, platform, etc.
3. Run & Review Results
Once search criteria are set:
- Results stream in real time
- Use map or grid view to explore data
- Each result includes geo context, source platform, timestamp, and extract
View Types & Tools
| View | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Map | Visualize results over time in spatial context |
| Collage | Media-centric layout showing images, text, and video |
| Insights | Aggregated patterns such as word clouds or frequencies |
| Alerts | Save criteria and receive notifications on new hits |
| Bookmarks | Save searches for repeat use or investigations |
You can edit any saved search using Edit Bookmark, or create new ones from scratch.
Pro Tips
- Use Boolean + keyword combos to fine-tune noise reduction
- Stack geo + entity filters (e.g. by screen name or language)
- Enable alerting for real-time surveillance of hot zones
- Combine with Profile Tracker for persistent actor monitoring
Compliance & Data Integrity
- DigitalStakeout uses public and dark web sources for real-time content.
- Location is inferred using AI geo-tagging and metadata matching.
- This tool does not verify individual records and should not be used for decisions covered by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) or other legal frameworks.
Looking for features, datasets, and real-world applications?
Visit the Location-Based Social Media Search Engine product page on our main site.
Updated about 16 hours ago