Gulf Oil Spill Tops 2010 Twitter Trends

Top 5 Twitter Clients Revealed

From serious life-changing events such as the Gulf oil spill and the earthquake in Haiti, to entertainment icons like Justin Bieber and Harry Potter, Twitter has become an indicator of what's hot in today's world.

In 2010, people sent 25 billion tweets, according to Twitter. The company analyzed the tweets to identify the top 10 overall trends, as well as the leading trends in news events, people, movies, television, technology, sports, and hashtags.

"Each trend in the Top 10 list includes multiple related terms, to give the most accurate view of the topics that people cared about most in 2010," wrote Jodi Olson, of the corporate communications department at Twitter, in a company blog. "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."

About one in 10 online Americans use Twitter, but only about half tweet daily.

In order, the top 10 Twitter trends of 2010 were: