Top Twitter topics of 2009

Last updated 12:10 16/12/2009

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What have people been tweeting this year? Twitter has released 2009's top topics on the microblogging website.

Iran and the country's election scored the top spot in the news category. The media blackout on coverage of protests following the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad meant Twitter was one of the few ways news could reach the outside world from Iran. Protestors seized on it to spread news and organise.

Michael Jackson, whose death made headlines around the world, topped the People category, while Harry Potter and Twilight were the most tweeted movie topics.

US sports dominated the Sport category, but Liverpool and Wimbledon made the top 10.

Google Wave and the new Mac operating system, Snow Leopard, topped the Technology category.

The most popular hashtag, used to easily categorise tweets, was #musicmonday. Twitterers use this to share music they like.

Top Twitter Topics of 2009

News Events
1. #iranelection
2. Swine Flu
3. Gaza
4. Iran
5. Tehran
6. #swineflu
7. AIG
8. #uksnow
9. Earth Hour
10. #inaug09

People
1. Michael Jackson
2. Susan Boyle
3. Adam Lambert
4. Kobe (Bryant)
5. Chris Brown
6. Chuck Norris
7. Joe Wilson
8. Tiger Woods
9. Christian Bale
10. A-Rod (Alex Rodriguez)

Movies
1. Harry Potter
2. New Moon
3. District 9
4. Paranormal Activity
5. Star Trek
6. True Blood
7. Transformers 2
8. Watchmen
9. Slumdog Millionaire
10. G.I. Joe

TV Shows
1. American Idol
2. Glee
3. Teen Choice Awards
4. SNL (Saturday Night Live)
5. Dollhouse
6. Grey's Anatomy
7. VMAS (Video Music Awards)
8. #bsg (Battlestar Galatica)
9. BET Awards
10. Lost

Sport (Teams, Events, Leagues)
1. Super Bowl
2. Lakers
3. Wimbledon
4. Cavs (Cleveland Cavaliers)
5. Superbowl
6. Chelsea
7. NFL
8. UFC 100
9. Yankees
10. Liverpool

Technology
1. Google Wave
2. Snow Leopard
3. Tweetdeck
4. Windows 7
5. CES
6. Palm Pre
7. Google Latitude
8. #E3
9. #amazonfail
10. Macworld

Hash Tags
1. #musicmonday
2. #iranelection
3. #sxsw
4. #swineflu
5. #nevertrust
6. #mm
7. #rememberwhen
8. #3drunkwords
9. #unacceptable
10. #iwish