Middle East tops list of Twitter hot topics

TWITTER USERS were most interested in the Arab Spring last year, according to an analysis of usage by the micro-blogging site.

The list of top keywords and hot topics is broken down by category and highlights the diverse nature of Twitter’s 100 million users who logged on.

While users were most interested in topics related to the turmoil in the Middle East, celebrity gossip also featured highly.

The most searched for hashtag was #egypt while the second most popular search term was #tigerblood – a reference to a comment made by US actor Charlie Sheen after he was sacked from a US television show.

The # symbol or hashtag is used by Twitter users to denote keywords or topics of interest in a tweet. Users can then search for other tweets related to the topic by clicking on a hashtagged word.

President Hosni Mubarak’s resignation in Egypt was the most popular topic under world news and Cairo was the most searched for term under the cities and countries category.

The McLobster – a McDonald’s dish offered as a seasonal menu item in some US regions featured as the top most searched food item. Guinness made it to number five on the list of seven most searched topics in the food and drink category.

Rapper Nate Dogg, Gerry Rafferty and Gil Scott Heron – all of whom died in 2011 – featured in the top five list of musicians searched for on Twitter.

“Among other things, we saw history unfold in the Middle East, mourned the passing of Elizabeth Taylor, celebrated national whipped cream day, and cheered for the Dallas Mavericks, Texas Rangers and Wayne Rooney,” the Twitter blog said.

“We wondered about Charlie Sheen, speculated about the Sony NGP, and raved (or raged) about Rebecca Black. And we tYp3ed LyK tHi5.”

#HASHTAGS TWITTER'S TOP 8:

1 #egypt

2 #tigerblood

3 #threewordstoliveby

4 #idontunderstandwhy

5 #japan

6 #improudtosay

7 #superbowl

8 #jan25