Disasters and Justin Bieber: Top Twitter Trends of 2010
What was all the tweeting about this year?
Twitter has posted its list of the top trends of 2010, based on an algorithm that calculates rapidly-emerging topics among the tens of millions of tweets sent every day.
It also posted top trends in several categories, including News Events, Movies, Technology and Sports, revealing what Twitter calls "things that are most meaningful in our lives."
Approximately 25 billion Twitter messages were sent this year.
The overall Top 10 Twitter Trends of 2010 were:
1. Gulf Oil Spill
2. FIFA World Cup
3. Inception
4. Haiti Earthquake
5. Vuvuzela
6. Apple iPad
7. Google Android
8. Justin Bieber
9. Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows
10. Pulpo Paul
Top Trends in Technology were: Apple iPad, Google Android, Apple iOS, Apple iPhone, Call of Duty Black Ops, New Twitter, HTC, RockMelt, MacBook Air and Google Instant.
Among News Events the biggest trends were: the Gulf oil spill, the Haiti earthquake, Pakistan's floods, the Korean conflict, the Chilean miners' rescue, Chavez Tas Ponchao (an anti-Hugo Chavez movement), Wikileaks Cablegate, Hurricane Earl, Prince Williams' engagement, and World AIDS Day.
And what a mix among the top trending people: teen pop star Justin Bieber, Brazil's President-elect Dilma Rouseff, singer Lady Gaga, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, actor-director Mel Gibson, rapper Lil Kim, Zilda Arns (a Catholic relief worker killed in the Haiti earthquake), royal fiance Kate Middleton, Korean pop star Kim Hee Chul, and Canadian figure skater Joannie Rochette.
Top Trending Movies may be reflective of quantity, not quality: "Inception," "Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows," "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World," "Despicable Me," "Karate Kid," "The Last Airbender," "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse," "The Expendables," "The Chronicles of Narnia" and "Paranormal Activity 2."
The Top Trends among hashtags are more inscrutable:
1. #rememberwhen
2. #slapyourself
3. #confessiontime
4. #thingsimiss
5. #ohjustlikeme
6. #wheniwaslittle
7. #haveuever
8. #icantlivewithout
9. #thankful
10. #2010disappointments
Watch a video report by CNET.com's Natalie Morris below.