Haiti, FIFA, iPad and Justin Bieber trump discussions on social networks in 2010
Social network giant
Facebook and micro-blogging site
Twitter have announced the top trending topics of the last year. Only four topics* appeared in both sites Top Ten list, namely the Haiti earthquake, FIFA World Cup, Apple?s iPad and teen pop sensation Justin Bieber.
This year was the second year that Facebook has conducted its ?Memology study?, which was published on the site?s blog by Facebook data scientist Lars Backstrom. He comments, ?For our second
Facebook Memology study, we looked at what terms grew the most in status updates in 2010 compared to the year before. The results reflect the highs and lows of world events that started a global conversation, new uses of language online and the sharing of popular culture between friends.?
The most discussed ?term? on Facebook during 2010 was HMU, an abbreviation for ?hit me up? which grew in use from approximately 20 posts per day at the start of 2009 to 80,000 per day at the end of Q3 this year. Which Backstrom explains, "Whether looking for something to do or just getting off work, people began to add "HMU" to their status updates when they were ready to meet their friends. Standing for "hit me up," the acronym was barely used last year but grew suddenly and steadily throughout 2010, especially during summer breaks and weekends."
Posted on the
Twitter blog by Jodi Olson from Twitter?s corporate communications team, the 25 billion plus tweets throughout 2010 were analysed and organized into eight categories: news events, people, movies, television, technologies, world cup, sports and hashtags.
Olsen comments, ?These Trends indicate the things that are most meaningful in our lives. Each day on Twitter, people tweet about news, sports, entertainment and cool new technology--and everything else in between. The list of 2010 Twitter Trends reflects what?s happening in our world, demonstrates the power of turning any event or story into a shared experience, and underscores Twitter?s value as a real-time information network.?
Two movies, namely Inception and the latest in the Harry Potter series, made the Top 10 Twitter Trends. In Facebook's more generally grouped 'Movies' category, Harry Potter didn't get a look in to the top 5 list, which were Toy Story 3, Twilight Eclipse, Inception, Alice in Wonderland and Iron Man 2 in order of popularity.
Facebook?s Memology 20101. HMU (Hit Me Up)
2. World Cup*
3. Movies
4. iPad and iPhone*
5. Haiti*
6. Justin Bieber*
7. Games on Facebook
8. Miners
9. Airplanes
10. 2011
Twitters Top Trends 20101. 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
Image credit: Twitter Year In Review