Twitter reveals top trends of 2009

Twitter "helped us understand what was happening around the world, showing us that people everywhere can be united in concern," chief scientist Abdur Chowdhury said.

Twitter was born just three years ago from a day-long brainstorming session by the board members of a podcasting company, Odeo, but found its breakthrough at the South by Southwest music festival a year later.

Last year, businesses, media and celebrities latched onto the system, skewing the demographic toward older adults.

But as 2008 unfolded, Twitter took hold during the U.S. presidential election and as a disaster communications tool during the attacks in Mumbai. CNN declared social media "came of age" in Mumbai as people used the medium to track victims and injuries.

Then in June 2009, protesters angry with the results of the presidential elections in Iran used Twitter to organize demonstrations and tell the rest of the world what was happening.

"Twitter users found the Iranian elections the most engaging topic of the year," said Chowdhury.

These are Twitter’s top Trending Topics across several categories—an interesting time capsule of what was happening as this decade came to a close.

News Events

1. #iranelection
2. Swine Flu
3. Gaza
4. Iran
5. Tehran
6. #swineflu
7. AIG
8. #uksnow
9. Earth Hour
10. #inaug09

People

1. Michael Jackson
2. Susan Boyle
3. Adam Lambert
4. Kobe (Bryant)
5. Chris Brown
6. Chuck Norris
7. Joe Wilson
8. Tiger Woods
9. Christian Bale
10. A-Rod (Alex Rodriguez)

Movies

1. Harry Potter
2. New Moon
3. District 9
4. Paranormal Activity
5. Star Trek
6. True Blood
7. Transformers 2
8. Watchmen
9. Slumdog Millionaire
10. G.I. Joe

TV Shows

1. American Idol
2. Glee
3. Teen Choice Awards
4. SNL (Saturday Night Live)
5. Dollhouse
6. Grey’s Anatomy
7. VMAS (Video Music Awards)
8. #bsg (Battlestar Galatica)
9. BET Awards
10. Lost

Sports (Teams, Events, Leagues)

1. Super Bowl
2. Lakers
3. Wimbledon
4. Cavs (Cleveland Cavaliers)
5. Superbowl
6. Chelsea
7. NFL
8. UFC 100
9. Yankees
10. Liverpool

Technology

1. Google Wave
2. Snow Leopard
3. Tweetdeck
4. Windows 7
5. CES
6. Palm Pre
7. Google Latitude
8. #E3
9. #amazonfail
10. Macworld

Hash Tags

1. #musicmonday
2. #iranelection
3. #sxsw
4. #swineflu
5. #nevertrust
6. #mm
7. #rememberwhen
8. #3drunkwords
9. #unacceptable
10. #iwish

To read the list in full, click here

http://blog.twitter.com/2009/12/top-twitter-trends-of-2009.html

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