Twitter Trends in 2009: A Retrospective

Although the daily trends on Twitter over the past year have often been silly or even obscene, hindsight has proven to be much more interesting.

WhatTheTrend has compiled a great overview of Twitter hashtags and trending topics. Their Twitter Zeitgeist 2009 gives us food for thought as we move into a new, hopefully less gaming-prone era of examining and measuring what real users are really talking about on the social web. Now, let's talk about Twilight and Michael Jackson. Or, in the choose-your-own-adventure model of blog posts, you can skip to the part where we talk about tech-related trending topics instead.

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One of the most notable uses of any social network to date was the role of Twitter in the Iranian election/debacle/bloodbath. The U.S. State Department even made a call when Twitter was scheduled for maintenance downtime during the pursuant protests because the messaging service had proven so vital to the democratic process in that country. The worldwide buzz - and the sudden surge of green-tinted user icons and locations changed to "Tehran" - make iranelection the number one Twitter trend of 2009.

In an interesting convergence between mainstream Internet use and high-tech geekery that only Google could engineer, Wave appears in the number four spot for top Twitter trends. And we have a pretty good idea that Twitter users' out-and-out begging for an invite provided the bulk of that talk. As our loyal readers know, the ReadWriteWeb team is divided on whether Wave is a win or a fail so far, but there's no doubt that this tech launch was one of the hottest this year.

In a stunning and welcome upset, musicmonday pulled ahead of followfriday, besting the well-known but spam-heavy hashtag by four places (Monday landed in the second position, Friday in the sixth). Is Follow Friday, a charming concept created with the most harmless intentions by our dear friend Micah Baldwin, simply a trend that has seen its day? Or is there something about taste-making and multimedia content curation that draws users to simply participate more?

Also, there are the films. New Moon, the second in the Twilight franchise, earned a number five spot in the rankings. We are grateful that our sole experience of these tweets are a brilliant collection of snarks from professional lampooner, newly minted TV pretty boy and TheOnion.com web editor Baratunde Thurston. Also-rans are Paranormal Activity, a horror flick that turned a $15,000 budget into around $80 million in box office receipts, and the latest Harry Potter movie. Finally, as a longtime Trekkie, I am happy to report that the new Star Trek film beat out Bruno by around 20 places in these rankings.

Both the Palm Pre and BlackBerry were mentioned in the top 100 trends, and one of our top ten international apps, Spotify, earned a number 63 spot on the list for consistent chatter and news throughout the year. Bing and Google Voice each earned a spot lower on the list, coming in at 81 and 100 respectively.

Finally, to nod graciously in the direction of our good-natured rivals at Mashable, their Open Web Awards were the 27th most talked-about thing on Twitter this year. For a topic that didn't appear until mid-October (and for a topic generated by a tech blog, no less), this is a great measure of success for which Pete Cashmore and his team are to be congratulated.

To get the full list, send an email to the folks at WhatTheTrend.

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Imprisoned, Attacked & Dead Bloggers Increases Worldwide in 2009

According to a report released today [PDF] by Reporters Sans Frontières, the number of bloggers around the world arrested because of their online work jumped from 59 to 151 between 2008 and 2009, an increase of 155%. Additionally, one blogger died in prison and 61 were physically assaulted. The most infamous cases perhaps occurred during the violent unrest in Iran following Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed reelection. But RSF said the number of overall arrests and attacks can actually be traced to crackdowns in at least 10 countries.

"The number of countries affected by online censorship has doubled from one year to the next - a disturbing tendency that shows an increase in control over new media as millions of netizens get active online," said Lucie Morillon, head of the group's Internet and Freedoms Desk.

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The report is a profoundly depressing read. As tech journalists writing from the soft comfort of our homes, it's easy to forget that in many places of the world, the simple act of posting something to a blog has lethal repercussions.

Elections, politics and the economy were the primary reasons bloggers ended up in jail. While China is the worst, Iran, Tunisia, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam and Uzbekistan also frequently monitor or block websites and blogs.

From the report:

"Two Azerbaijani bloggers, who were sentenced to two years in prison for making a film mocking the political elite.The Turkmen Internet remains under total state control. Egyptian blogger Kareem Amer is still in jail, while the famous Burmese comedian Zarganar still has 34 years of his prison sentence to serve. Victims of Internet policing also include such leading figures in the defence of online free expression as China's Hu Jia and Liu Xiaobo and Vietnam's Nguyen Trung and Dieu Cay.

"In South Korea, a blogger was wrongfully detained for commenting on the country's disastrous economic situation. Around six netizens in Thailand were arrested or harassed just for making a connection between the king's health and a fall in the Bangkok stock exchange."

In March, Reporters Sans Frontières will launch what it's calling the Enemies of the Internet campaign to highlight the countries affected by online intimidation and censorship.

Photo by Amir Darafsheh, Tehran, Iran.

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Top 5 Web Trends of 2009: Internet of Things

This week ReadWriteWeb is running a series of posts analyzing the 5 biggest Web trends of 2009. So far we've explored these trends: Structured Data, The Real-Time Web, Personalization, Mobile Web / Augmented Reality. The fifth and final part of our series is about the Internet of Things, when real world objects (such as fridges, lights and toasters) get connected to the Internet. In 2009, this trend has ramped up and is adding a significant amount of new data to the Web.

In this post we'll see how companies as big as IBM and as small as Pachube are building up this new world of Internet data and services.

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Editor's note: This story is part of a series we call Redux, where we'll re-publish some of our best posts of 2009. As we look back at the year - and ahead to what next year holds - we think these are the stories that deserve a second glance. It's not just a best-of list, it's also a collection of posts that examine the fundamental issues that continue to shape the Web. We hope you enjoy reading them again and we look forward to bringing you more Web products and trends analysis in 2010. Happy holidays from Team ReadWriteWeb!

What is The Internet of Things?

The Internet of Things is a network of Internet-enabled objects, together with web services that interact with these objects. Underlying the Internet of Things are technologies such as RFID (radio frequency identification), sensors, and smartphones.

The Internet fridge is probably the most oft-quoted example of what the Internet of Things will enable. Imagine a refrigerator that monitors the food inside it and notifies you when you're low on milk. It also perhaps monitors all of the best food websites, gathering recipes for your dinners and adding the ingredients automatically to your shopping list. This fridge knows what kinds of foods you like to eat, based on the ratings you have given to your dinners. Indeed the fridge helps you take care of your health, because it knows which foods are good for you.

However, we're not quite at that level of sophistication yet in the Internet of Things. As we discovered in our Internet Fridges State of the Market in July, current Internet fridges are more about entertainment than utility.

IBM and The Internet of Things

One of the leading big companies in Internet of Things is IBM, which offers a range of RFID and sensor technology solutions. IBM has been busy working with various manufacturers and goods suppliers in recent months, to introduce those solutions to the world.

For example IBM announced a deal at the end of June with Danish transportation company Container Centralen. By February 2010, Container Centralen undertakes to use IBM sensor technology "to allow participants in the horticultural supply chain to track the progress of shipments as they move from growers to wholesalers and retailers across 40 countries in Europe." Specifically this refers to transportation of things like flowers and pot plants, which are very sensitive to the environment they travel in. Having sensors as part of the entire travel chain will allow participants to monitor conditions and climate during travel. Essentially it makes the travel process very transparent.

Pachube: Building a Platform for Internet-Enabled Environments

IBM is a leading bigco active in the Internet of Things. At the other end of the spectrum is a small UK startup which has impressed us a lot this year: Pachube. It was one of 5 Internet of Things services that we profiled in February and we followed up with an in-depth look at the service in May.

Pachube, (pronounced "PATCH-bay") lets you tag and share real time sensor data from objects, devices, buildings and environments both physical and virtual. In a blog post by Tish Shute, Pachube founder Usman Haque explained that Pachube is about "environments" moreso than "sensors." In other words, Pachube aims to be responsive to and influence your environment - for example your home.

Conclusion

What's the point of all this new object data from the Internet of Things? As well as the new types of functionalities it will enable, such as health monitoring by Internet fridges, the sheer amount of new data about an object should lead to better quality goods and better decision-making by consumers. For example when you buy a loaf of bread from the grocery store, it will have its own RFID tag - which theoretically can tell you when it was produced, when it was packaged, how long it traveled to get to the store, whether the temperature during its travel was optimal, the pricing history of the product, what the precise ingredients are and associated health benefits (or dangers), and much more information.

That ends our look at the 5 biggest trends of the Web in 2009. First thing next week we will post a round-up, along with a downloadable presentation.

ReadWriteWeb's Top 5 Web Trends of 2009:

1. Structured Data


2. The Real-Time Web


3. Personalization


4. Mobile Web & Augmented Reality


5. Internet of Things

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Dem Holiday Greetings vs Repub Holiday Greetings

Reposted from Texas GOP Vote

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

• By Texas GOP Vote

TexasGOPVote recieved the following holiday message through e-mail and thought you would enjoy to hear the message too!

To all my Democrat friends:

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of other, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2009, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere. Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.

To all my Republican friends:

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

• By Texas GOP Vote at 2009-12-25 16:59

• Texas GOP Vote's blog
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• Restore Families

Five Ways......

Repost from Readwriteweb

Using Google Apps? 5 Ways to Avoid Getting Hacked

Security is one of the biggest concerns for business owners when deciding whether to use an online service like Google Apps.

So what are the best ways to protect yourself when using it?

Amit Agarwal is a professional blogger and technology columnist. He writes digital inspiration, a world-class technology blog. But Amit got hacked this week. He wrote about it on his blog, providing some excellent advice on how to protect yourself from a similar kind of attack.

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Amit wrote that he often receives false requests to change his password. He received a similar message this week, but ignored it. A few minutes later he started getting error messages. He could not get to his accounts.

Amit had been hacked. He thinks that a hacker accessed a backup email that he had set up for his accounts.

Amit had his service restored in about three hours, after some calls to Google. He felt obviously relieved, but also had that feeling of emptiness when you suddenly realize you have no control over your accounts.

To help others avoid this kind of calamity, Amit summarized in five points how to make sure something like this does not happen to you:

1. Log-in to your Gmail / Google Account and associate it with a phone number: It's a simple set up. You will get confirmation via SMS. If you do get attacked, a notification will go to you that someone is trying to get to your password.

2. Create a new email address: Set up the email to act as a backup and as a secondary email for your Google Apps account. Good advice by Amit: do not auto-forward your email as the whole purpose of setting it up will be defeated.

3. Write it Down: Get out that old-fashioned pen and paper. Write down the following information so you can verify your identity just in case you do get hacked and your secondary email gets compromised, too.

From Amit:

• The month and year when your created your Gmail / Google Account.
• If you created a Gmail account by invitation, write the email address of the person who first sent you that invite for Gmail.
• The email addresses of your most frequently emailed contacts (the top 5).
• The names of any custom labels that you may have created in your Gmail account.
• The day/month/year when you started using various other Google services (like AdSense, Orkut, Blogger, etc.) that are associated with the Google account that you are trying to recover. If you're not certain about some of the dates, provide your closest estimate.

4. Run a Test! Log-out of all your Gmail / Google Accounts. Start the password recovery process. This guarantees that what you set up actually works. You want to be absolutely certain your SMS settings and secondary email addresses are configured correctly.

5. Check your IP Address: From time to time check out the IP address in the footer of your Gmail Inbox. If you see an odd one, change your Google password immediately. Knowing IP addresses may seem too technical to some but it's good information to know.

You should not have to be overly concerned about Google Apps security. If people take these kinds of basic steps, the chances of getting hacked decrease considerably.