Is_first Filter Use Cases

This article is relevant only for our News, Blogs, Forums & Reviews APIs and not for our dark and cyber web data APIs

The "is_first" filter in Webz.io’s open web API is a Boolean parameter that restricts searches to only the original post, excluding any comments or follow-up responses. This filter is useful in several contexts:

  1. Focused Content Analysis: By filtering out comments, analysts can focus solely on the main article or post content. This helps remove noise from comment sections, making it easier to analyze the core message, tone, or intent of the original content without interference from reader reactions or secondary commentary.
  2. Accurate Sentiment Analysis: For teams conducting sentiment analysis, the "is_first" filter ensures the sentiment reflects the author’s original post rather than potentially mixed opinions from the comments. This makes sentiment insights more reliable, particularly for assessing brand mentions, product feedback, or the impact of certain topics.
  3. Media Monitoring and Brand Tracking: Businesses tracking media coverage or social mentions of their brand or products can use this filter to find original posts by authors or journalists, filtering out any subsequent comments. This helps streamline brand tracking efforts by surfacing primary mentions rather than responses or discussions in the comment section.
  4. Efficient Topic Tracking: For monitoring specific topics or news stories, the "is_first" filter enables users to focus on the main posts that introduce or report on an event, trend, or issue. This is especially helpful for gathering initial information on a story without the distraction of reader responses.
  5. Content Curation for Aggregators: News aggregators and platforms that display only original content (not user discussions) can use this filter to curate feeds that highlight original reporting or posts. This ensures a cleaner, more curated feed for users seeking factual information rather than commentary.

The "is_first" filter simplifies content discovery by ensuring searches capture only the main post, helping users stay focused on primary content and reducing the impact of potentially off-topic or varying comment threads.

Example query: is_first:true
Will search only in the first post, i.e article and not the comments.