Great news! Search Setup in TRAC is now simpler, faster, and significantly more streamlined. No more repeating keywords across platforms. No more Instagram tokens. No more keyword limits for sources like Instagram, Facebook, or Threads. One query, all your sources, zero friction.

With the new experience, a single query now flows seamlessly across every major platform on TRAC. Build it once, run it everywhere.

We've taken a less-is-more approach to creating searches on Pulsar, stripping out the repetitive, time-consuming steps that used to slow you down. Below, we'll walk you through exactly what's changed and what to expect the next time you set up a search on TRAC. The result is a workflow that's significantly faster, with none of the duplication or unnecessary complexity that used to come with it. You define the keywords and TRAC handles the rest.

Here’s a sneak peek!

Source-specific keyword fields and separate boolean operators are gone for the vast majority of sources, including Facebook, Threads, and Instagram Hashtags. Your General Keywords or Boolean now apply automatically across all of them, so no more juggling separate queries per source.

Previously, keeping searches consistent across platforms meant duplicating your query and tweaking it for each source. The smallest discrepancy could quietly snowball into inconsistent results, gaps in coverage, and hours spent maintaining searches that were all supposed to be doing the same thing. Not anymore. Build your boolean once and it runs consistently across the majority of sources in your search, giving you a more complete dataset, and far less to manage as your research scales.

A small group of specialised sources: Pinterest, Twitch, and Instagram Tagged Account Mentions, are not included in this consolidation. Due to their unique requirements and extended access permissions, these sources will keep their dedicated input fields or operators in both the Wizard and Boolean editor, and an Instagram business token is still needed for Instagram Tagged Account Mentions. Everything else is now unified.

Love the flexibility of separating keywords by platform? Don't worry, in June we'll be introducing a new SOURCE Operator that lets you target specific data sources with different terms, for any source you choose. You'll get the simplicity of a unified query by default, with the option to go more granular when you need it.

The 20-keyword limit for sources like Facebook and Threads has also been removed, giving you more flexibility when compiling your searches. The previous cap often meant making tough trade-offs: cutting terms, creating duplicate searches, or accepting that some corners of a topic simply wouldn't be covered. That's no longer the case. Additionally Instagram data collection is no longer a separate workflow, data collection from this channel has now been baked into your standard query, whether via the Wizard, or via Boolean. You can now build as comprehensive a query as your research demands, with no limits getting in the way. Whether you're tracking a broad cultural conversation or a complex topic with lots of moving parts, your search can now reflect the full scope of what you're looking for, right out of the box.

You read that right! We're doing away with Instagram Tokens for TRAC Topic Searches. Tokens added friction to the setup process, often requiring multiple steps before Instagram data would flow into your search and creating a point of failure if a token expired or dropped off. From now on, when you set up a new Instagram search, your keywords will work without needing to add a token or separate out hashtags. Even better: Instagram collection is no longer limited to hashtags. You can now search for pretty much anything on Instagram.

These changes are part of a broader push to make search setup intuitive and more powerful. You can now build a single query and trust it's working consistently across all your data sources, without having to manage platform-specific variations. We'll continue rolling out improvements throughout the year, including the new SOURCE Operator coming in June for those who want more granular control, increased limits and of course, a plethora of new data sources.

As part of the new search setup experience, we will also be gradually consolidating and migrating your existing searches to this new experience. You do not need to do anything, migration will happen in the background for all your searches. However, in the event that you edit a search that has not yet been migrated to the new search experience, we will migrate that search on the fly, ensuring that the transition from the old search experience to the new one is seamless and automatic.

When we begin consolidating and migrating your search queries, we’ll use two main approaches:

Click here to learn more about consolidating and migrating your existing searches to the new search experience

At its core, this update is about giving you back time and confidence. We built the new Search Setup because we heard the same story over and over. Too many steps, too much complexity, too much manual upkeep just to keep coverage consistent across platforms. Every minute spent duplicating keywords or renewing expired tokens was a minute not spent on the work that actually matters; uncovering insights, spotting trends, and telling sharper stories with your data. By collapsing that complexity into a single, unified query, we've unlocked more comprehensive datasets, more reliable results, and more headspace for strategic thinking. This is a search setup the way it should have been all along, and it's only the beginning of what's coming to TRAC this year.

As always, if you have any questions, reach out to your Customer Success Manager or our support team, we're happy to help.