People have grown to rely on being in the know for the very latest news. Both Twitter and Google harness the online buzz to compile their top trending topics, yet surprisingly the trends have little to no overlap during the same time.
Here is what one can learn from Google (via its Blog Search or its ‘Trends’ product): trends include a tragic plane crash that just occurred, Super Bowl-bound teams, and Angelina Jolie’s alleged split with Brad Pitt. Overall, the trends are truly top/breaking news, albeit ones that range in gravity.
In comparison, Twitter’s trending topics at the exact same time seem somewhat of a mess, or at least more of a Twitter specific echo-chamber. ‘Nowplaying,’ ‘Music Monday,’ ‘idothat2’,’ perfectbody’ are hardly relevant as newsworthy; rather, they are Twitter community-specific themes.
Google definitely has the upper hand in terms of consistently staying on top of the news, even though Twitter for over a year has received coverage regarding breaking stories. Obviously, with so much happening in the world, there is a lot of opportunity to break stories. Overall, it seems Google is a better bet because it incorporates social and search buzz from the entire web, but not just from one single, albeit very large, community.
For those who are still interested in the Twitter’s #perfectbody trend, apparently it’s important to ‘keep it top’ of the rankings for the next 12 hours. Good luck!
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