Tool Tip: What The Trend?

How many times have you looked at the Twit­ter tren­ding topics list and said, “Huh?” That’s assu­ming, of course, that you’re on the Twit­ter web site and that tren­ding topics are visi­ble in your sidebar!

No need to scratch your head in won­der any lon­ger, howe­ver. Book­mark WhatThe­Trend? to see the top tren­ding topics on Twit­ter as well as a short expla­na­tion of why the topic is trending.

Yes, this is a human-powered tool, with all the short­co­mings that implies. It is a “per­so­nal web expe­ri­ment by Matt Mayer, a Shanghai-based Bri­tish web deve­lo­per for RIA agency Reign­De­sign.”

The WhatThe­Trend? page does not auto-refresh in Fire­fox 3.5.2 (Mac), but a quick command+r will solve that nit.

And the web site is not always going to have an expla­na­tion, as the intro­duc­tory screenshot reveals. Also, the site may not pre­sent the latest trends in the order that they appear on Twit­ter­Search.

Howe­ver, click through any tren­ding topic and you’ll find repre­sen­ta­tive tweets, news head­li­nes and ima­ges. That’s adding a bit of value! Those links take you, in turn, to the appro­priate Twit­ter search, Goo­gle News search, and Flickr search.

Tagged as: trending topics, WhatTheTrend?