Iran's elections topped Twitter's list of most popular topics of 2009, according to the microblogging site.
"Among all the keywords, hashtags, and phrases that proliferated throughout the year, one topic surfaced repeatedly," the company wrote in a blog post Tuesday. "Twitter users found the Iranian elections the most engaging topic of the year. The terms #iranelection, Iran and Tehran were all in the top-21 of Trending Topics, and #iranelection finished in a close second behind the regular weekly favorite #musicmonday."
The fact that Iran's elections rose to the top on Twitter is noteworthy because Twitter itself became a tool for organizing post-election demonstrations in Iran.
In the category of top news topics on Twitter, items related to the Iranian elections and swine flu took five of the top six spots for the year. They were followed by Gaza, AIG, and President Obama's inauguration.
A look at the top trending topics of 2009 on Twitter.
(Credit: Twitter)Among the most-discussed people of the year, Michael Jackson took the top spot. He was followed by singing sensations Susan Boyle and Adam Lambert, respectively. Kobe Bryant, Chris Brown, Chuck Norris, Joe Wilson, Tiger Woods, Christian Bale, and Alex Rodriguez rounded out the top 10 most-discussed people of the year on Twitter.
"Harry Potter" was the most engaging film of the year for Twitter users, followed by "New Moon," "District 9," "Paranormal Activity," and "Star Trek."
"American Idol" was the top television show on Twitter, followed by "Glee," the "Teen Choice Awards," "Saturday Night Live," and "Dollhouse."
On the tech side, it was Google Wave that engaged the most Twitter users, followed by Snow Leopard, Tweetdeck, Windows 7, and CES.
You think your local TV news guy, Mr. Perfect Hair, is always on top of things? Not so much. And when local and national news reporters mess up, chances are the cameras are rolling. That makes for great YouTube fodder. Here are the top 10 funniest news reporter bloopers on YouTube.
Before I get into the list, I do want to note that all of the following videos are safe for work and kids. There are a plenty of hilarious videos showing reporters messing up and using foul language (I'm looking at you, Bill O'Reilly), but since this is a family site, we thought it best to keep it clean. If you're looking for the R-rated stuff, it's not hard to find.
10. I was your boss once
It seems there are some hard feelings between this reporter and the news anchor as they argue over whether they should ask an eyewitness a few more questions. Hilarity ensues when the reporter gets pwned.
It may be a little too early to do a roundup of the best redesigns of 2008 like we did last year, but with Thursday's one-two punch of new looks for social sites Twitter and FriendFeed, it's a good chance to take a look back at some of this year's redesigns and talk about what was changed or fixed.
I've picked 10 of my favorites below, listed in no particular order. See also the honorable mentions section at the bottom of the post, which includes content sites or other places that didn't quite make the cut.
1. Twitter
Twitter's new look isn't all that different from its old look, except for a slightly more rounded feel and the inclusion of tabs on the right side.
Twitter's redesign was a twofold change: one part to simplify the interface, and another to reduce the resources needed to host the site. Now when users hop between various functions it doesn't reload the entire page, meaning a faster experience and less data to serve.
The most interesting part of the redesign is actually something we don't know about. The tabbed interface on the right was apparently set in place to make room for additional features as they become available. It could be the new things from Twitter itself, or the foundation for special developer-created applications users will be able to use without leaving the service.
2. Facebook
Facebook's new look blends in user chat with an applications start bar. More importantly it's made it easier to sort through and add content.
The "new" Facebook was one of the most drastic changes of any site this year. Like Twitter, tabs took center stage, as did the chat which shares screen real estate with what's essentially the "start" button on Windows. This new menu let users launch networked applications from any page they're on. The change also embraced widescreen displays, making use of the extra room to let users build out the experience horizontally instead of having to scroll up and down.
You can read more about it, and the user backlash, here.
Continue reading the rest of this article after the jump.
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