Twitter Trends
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What's Trending on Twitter?
One aspect to immersing yourself within Twitter is by following up on words, people, places, events, or phrases which seem to be "trending". Trending topics appear on the right side of the main Twitter page and change frequently. Twitterfall is another medium to follow up on current Twitter trends. It automatically displays the top 10 current trends, and add updates to the trend or trends as they happen.
Dom Sagolla calls this the "twitter effect", or an epidemic of attention on a particular topic within a relatively short amount of time. The twitter effect of trends usually originate in response to major current events.--Pfrigon 19:01, May 29, 2010 (EDT)
The problem with these trends, is that many of them are similar to an inside joke. Some trends are extremely confusing and make little to no sense for anyone viewing it for the first time. Not only does this make it hard to understand what other Twitter users are "tweeting", but it makes it difficult to add your own input on the trend. If one finds themselves confused on what a trend means, an excellent resource is whatthetrend.com--Pfrigon 19:43, May 29, 2010 (EDT)
A Snapshot of Twitter Trends and Definitions
To better understand the twitter effect, this snapshot has been taken on 5/29/2010. Notice that more than one trend can be in relation to one current event.
#thingsbrokepeopledo A compilation of things people with no money tend to do.
#junewish People tweeting their wishes for June of 2010.
Songcontest (or) #esc2010 (or) Lena hat gewonnen (or) Uribarri The annual Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) in which Lena from Germany had won on 5/29/2010. 25 Songs from 25 different countires had competed against eachother. Uribarri, from Spain, had hosted the competition.
BrazilThanksDemi Disney star, Demi Lovato, performed a concert in Brazil. Brazil is thanking her using this twitter trend as a medium.
BR♥HayleyWilliams The band, Paramore's, lead singer, Hayley Williams, accidentally sent a nude of herself to TwitPic, then tried to say it was a hack. Brazilian (BR) fans are tweeting in their support for Hayley.
Kat Stacks Kat Stacks is a Hip Hop groupie who had explicitly blogged about her sexual relationships with a few rappers. An internet video is now circulating that shows several men abusing her.
Dennis Hopper Dennis Hopper is an actor who died of prostate cancer on 5/29/1010
Saratusperson Saratusperson is an Indonesian band that combines traditional Indonesian instruments and modern western instruments that produce a modern twist on traditional Indonesian music. This is a trend on United Kingdoms list.
Middleclassfootballchants Middleclassfootballchants is for coming up with original chants to shout at football(soccer) games. Many of them rhyme others are just taunts to the opposing team. This is a trend from the United Kingdom.
--Pfrigon 19:38, May 29, 2010 (EDT)
Recent Changes in Trending Topic Algorithm
In May 2010, Twitter modified its news algorithm, resulting in more frequent changes in what is trending. This change also prevents a single topic (such as Justin Bieber) from remaining constantly on the list.
"Twitter is about what is happening right now, and we have recently updated our trending topics algorithm to reflect this. The new algorithm identifies topics that are immediately popular, rather than topics that have been popular for a while or on a daily basis, to help people discover the 'most breaking' news stories from across the world," Twitter reps wrote in the blog post.
References
Dom Sagolla, 140 Characters: A Style Guide for the Short Form (pg 56)
