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Twitter Trending Topics: Are They Useful?

In: web2.0

5 Aug 2009

Twitter's new home page

The usefulness of Twitter trending topics has declined for me personally. All too often, I see people trying to “game” or “manipulate” the system to gain popularity. To me, the whole thing is null and void if it is contrived. Now that Twitter has brought these terms to the forefront, it seems the quest to make “the list” has a renewed purpose. I asked my Twitter followers if they utilized Twitter trends and here’s what they said:

Bwana: How many of you utilize Twitter trending topics? [I don't]
about 21 hours ago
Tue Aug 04 19:30:00 +0000 2009
wanyal: Not me.
about 21 hours ago
Tue Aug 04 19:30:44 +0000 2009
mattbebich: I don't even look at them
about 21 hours ago
Tue Aug 04 19:31:03 +0000 2009
tchachra: They are useless since they provide no valuable information…its usually people just trying to get followers.
about 21 hours ago
Tue Aug 04 19:32:22 +0000 2009
EricJD: I don't use them either. Usually when I do glance at them, I'm thinking to myself, “why in the world is that a trending topic?”
about 21 hours ago
Tue Aug 04 19:32:47 +0000 2009
Seshan: I don't. president #iranelection Bill Clinton Wal-Mart AT&T Google Voice White House Jay-Z
about 21 hours ago
Tue Aug 04 19:34:46 +0000 2009
shardayyy: I utilize the trending topics this way :) http://twitter.com/shardayyy/status/3129450085
about 21 hours ago
Tue Aug 04 19:34:48 +0000 2009
iPhoneMacUser: I do not
about 21 hours ago
Tue Aug 04 19:36:58 +0000 2009
muchobueno: i do.
about 21 hours ago
Tue Aug 04 19:41:17 +0000 2009
applemacprofan: i dont.
about 21 hours ago
Tue Aug 04 19:42:40 +0000 2009
cluteman: Trending topics aren't fun anymore with spam and “Why is ____ trending?” tweets.
about 21 hours ago
Tue Aug 04 19:53:54 +0000 2009
D_Ames: “How many of you utilize Twitter trending topics? [I don't]” Me neither! For the same reason I don't follow Ashton Kutcher.
about 21 hours ago
Tue Aug 04 19:55:52 +0000 2009
dcfemella: I don't, but I have been thinking more and more that maybe I should.
about 21 hours ago
Tue Aug 04 20:04:31 +0000 2009
jcdeuce: i have not used the trending topic search
about 20 hours ago
Tue Aug 04 20:50:19 +0000 2009
lhuxley: I never do, maybe sometimes if its a movie or something but normally its just crap. :(
about 20 hours ago
Tue Aug 04 21:00:08 +0000 2009
rfrontuto: I take a look at the trending topics every so often, but I don't use them on a regular basis.
about 18 hours ago
Tue Aug 04 23:22:16 +0000 2009

This begs the question: “How can we easily get value out of Twitter’s data?” It’s hard to say now that Twitter has officially become a spam platform. I’m looking for new and innovative ways to quickly find nuggets of info from Twitter. Each time, I’m led back to FriendFeed.

Yes, you knew it was coming.

It’s no secret that tweets supply a great deal of FriendFeed’s potent database. I’ve found that FriendFeed’s real-time search, plus the community, provide a great way to quickly get value out of Twitter’s data:

The above search considers all tweets in FriendFeed and only shows those which have the word “disagree” in the comments. It’s a juicy search :) I set the like and comment thresholds to 2, but that’s easily adjustable.

Now, you might be thinking “You have to be on FriendFeed in order for your tweets to be considered“. This is true, but I’d rather have a subset of Twitter’s database on FriendFeed, than Twitter’s full database with a lackluster search and spammy trending terms. The data is richer.

The downside of this? There is no date or language filtering. In some cases, you have to wade through languages you don’t know and sometimes older posts which you’ve already read. As you can see from the results, some of the results are older than desired. The point of Twitter trends (at least to me) is to get a snapshot of what’s happening now. So while I have a make-shift solution to get the valuable data from Twitter, it’s not a replacement for an effective trends search.

So what do you use? How do you get value out of Twitter’s data? Let me know. You can find me on Twitter as @Bwana.

Related posts:

Post written by

  • http://friendfeed.com/jschrep johnny

    No
    This comment was originally posted on FriendFeed

  • http://twitter.com/sjmr sjmr

    Twitter Trending Topics: Are They Useful? | Bwana.org: It’s no secret that tweets supply a great deal of FriendF.. http://tr.im/vDbd
    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

  • http://friendfeed.com/metalerik metalerik

    don’t use twitter trending topics anymore. Also, I like the point you made about language and date filters. I use Micah’s translation script so I can read most of the posts regardless of original language. Being able to set time parameters and maybe even location ones would be so great.
    This comment was originally posted on FriendFeed

  • http://friendfeed.com/bwana Bwana

    When I looked at the translation script, it seemed to only work with one language at a time… is that still true?
    This comment was originally posted on FriendFeed

  • http://friendfeed.com/bwana Bwana

    My issue is, I get at least 5 different languages sometimes, and if I have to switch, it seems like it’s a lot of work you know?
    This comment was originally posted on FriendFeed

  • http://friendfeed.com/dannyminick Danny Minick

    That whole page is not useful. I never see it. Always logged in and I have Twitter clients.
    This comment was originally posted on FriendFeed

  • http://twitter.com/dregar dregar

    Twitter Trending Topics: Are They Useful? http://bit.ly/3urOgb
    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

  • http://friendfeed.com/dregar Andre P. Siregar

    It’s still useful because there’s nothing else like it for most users. Where else would you find what people are talking about right now? Friendfeed search is powerful but it doesn’t point out the trend. Yes, it is gamed and you see a lot of stupid topics often. But looking at the screenshot above, it’s informative to know why Bill Clinton/Euna Lee/Laura Ling are trending. Why Paula Abdul is being discussed, etc.
    This comment was originally posted on FriendFeed

  • http://www.danohart.com/ Dano

    I like looking at trending topics for whats “currently” going on. However, since there are so many people that game the system and just add all trending topics to one tweet, or people saying “Why is (insert trending topic here) a trending topic?” I find myself scrolling down rather far to find what really is going on.

  • http://www.danohart.com Dano

    I like looking at trending topics for whats “currently” going on. However, since there are so many people that game the system and just add all trending topics to one tweet, or people saying “Why is (insert trending topic here) a trending topic?” I find myself scrolling down rather far to find what really is going on.

  • http://www.openspirituality.blogspot.com/ william

    Hiya, I follow you on twitter already and love your fab vidz on youtube. Was wondering what video screen recording software you use to get those lovely magnifications (such as in a circular shape)?

    my twitter handle: @williamdoust

    would appreciate your help – if not Open Source, do you know an alternative? – I currently use OS Screen Cam with no magnification ;-(

    thanks ;-)

  • http://www.openspirituality.blogspot.com william

    Hiya, I follow you on twitter already and love your fab vidz on youtube. Was wondering what video screen recording software you use to get those lovely magnifications (such as in a circular shape)?

    my twitter handle: @williamdoust

    would appreciate your help – if not Open Source, do you know an alternative? – I currently use OS Screen Cam with no magnification ;-(

    thanks ;-)

  • http://www.mytweetopics.com/m/user/raggarwa Rahul Aggarwal

    Doing more with Twitter data, categorizing and filtering tweets better could add so much value to the Twitter experience. There is a new service that allows you to track the topics that you are tweeting about: mytweetopics.com. Currently it does so based only on #tags of the tweets – which is limiting. However its value comes from the fact that it segregates a users’ tweets by topics. It adds value on top of Twitter data in a novel manner. Would like to see if you think such an approach has potential?

    [Disclaimer - I contributed to the service]

  • http://www.mytweetopics.com/m/user/raggarwa Rahul Aggarwal

    Doing more with Twitter data, categorizing and filtering tweets better could add so much value to the Twitter experience. There is a new service that allows you to track the topics that you are tweeting about: mytweetopics.com. Currently it does so based only on #tags of the tweets – which is limiting. However its value comes from the fact that it segregates a users’ tweets by topics. It adds value on top of Twitter data in a novel manner. Would like to see if you think such an approach has potential?

    [Disclaimer - I contributed to the service]

  • Pingback: About The Twitter Campaign | Alexz Johnson Island

  • http://www.twitter.com/nat_mich Natalie Michelson

    I think the trending topics can be interesting but I don’t spend a whole lot of time reading through them. I mostly just do a quick glance every once in a while and if there is something particularly interesting (like #robotpickuplines) I’ll check it out.

  • http://www.twitter.com/nat_mich Natalie Michelson

    I think the trending topics can be interesting but I don’t spend a whole lot of time reading through them. I mostly just do a quick glance every once in a while and if there is something particularly interesting (like #robotpickuplines) I’ll check it out.

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About Bwana

  • Host of Bwana.TV. Minister, gamer, movie lover, faithful husband, and certifiably crazy. He is all over the internets if you look closely