Is something wrong with trending topics in Twitter?

I observed trending topics of Twitter for about one  and half hour (Dec21, 2009 between 6:35 a.m. and 8:00 a.m.) and found some serious irregularities. Maybe a bug or something else. During this time I opened all 10 of trending topics and compared it with what I really received in real-time. In two 15- minute  interval I started over and registered all numbers and captured related images. Here is some of my findings.

According to what I observed, during this time period Christmas and Xmas were respectively No. 1 and No.2 but in Twitter’s list they never made a ranking better than 6. Again RIP Brittany Murphy was constantly No.1 in the trending topics but according to my observation it never actually made a ranking better than No.4 during this time period. Again  one of  #Iranelection and montazeri were No. 9 or No.10 during this time period but they never entered the trending topics list. There have been  more irregularities and  anyone suspicious to my finding could easily examine it.

I could imagine somebody sitting behind a desk in Twitters office and looking at the trending topics. Thinking,… “Christmas” ??? NO!!! It’s too early for “Christmas” to be NO.1.  “Christmas” becomes No.6 and then thinking  … Brittany Murphy’s death is a tragedy. She was so young to be dead. Moreover it just happened yesterday. “Brittany Murphy” deserves to be No.1 and it becomes No.1. Thinking …. Iran has got enough attention and moreover that was just a few days ago that “Iranian cyber army” hacked Twitter … putting them in the trending topics may arises some problem. Better to be more conservative in political conflicts and then “#iranelection” and “montazeri” are expelled from trending topics.

I am not sure about extensive manipulation of  trending topics and they have said will do it to some extent but this much irregularities that I have observed is unbelievable and for the sake of people’ trust. Twitter should do something about it. And maybe I am wrong and will be pleased to learn from you.

Twitter is over capacity

This is the message I received from Twitter On Monday Dec 21, 2009 12:25 A.M EST

Twitter Message

44+ homepages reviewed

I use Netvibes as my homepage. It has very good features. Multi tab, multi page, highly customizable in look, drag and drop, lots of widgets, social networking widgets, reliable and … much more. Although I appreciate these feauteres, it is not perfect (or almost satisfying) and it bothers me. For example the way it handles my bookmarks which I wish it could handle it like Pageflakes (at least). I am not happy with its feed reader either (Feedly is much better). Therefore, In search of a replacement, I  reviewed all available homepage sites and this post is the result of my findings.

Full-featured start pages

Netvibes

Image via CrunchBase

http://www.netvibes.com

***Highly Recommended – Full-featured start page – First and up to now the best start page. lots of users, lots of widgets. drag and drop, muti tab, multi page and more. Latest news is that it now uses Wasabi feedreader. I tested Wasabi and it is an amazing experience. The best of all now is inside Netvibes including a real-time (the exact term is near real-time), webpage view inside feedreader, and more.

Pageflakes
http://www.pageflakes.com/default.aspx

Full-featured start page – It could be as good as Netvibes but it seems after it was aquired by Live Universe they have not been developing it.

schmedley
http://schmedley.com/

***Take a look – Full-featured start page. Beautiful but not complete.

Image via CrunchBase

iGoogle
http://www.google.com/ig

Full-featured start page. It lacks social networking widgets (Twitter, Facebook , …) but as it is a Google’s service, one can expect to see interesting features coming.

News-oriented start pages

feedly

***Recommended -  Not a real start page but a magazine-like one. If you like Google Reader you will like Feedly more and appreciate its features.

Google Reader
http://www.google.com/reader

***Recommended -  Famous  feedreader by Google. Previously I used it a lot,  reading articles and sharing with friends. Recently I don’t see a single reason to use it.  In comparison with Feedly and recently Lazyfeed and Wasabi by Netvibes there is no advantage in using it.  Slow, Buggy and more important for real-time era, the news is  1-3 hours old.

Lazyfeed
http://www.lazyfeed.com

***Recommended -   A new player in the field . It is a real-time feedreader. Unfortunately it is not fully customizable.

Streamy
http://www.streamy.com

***Take a look- It is not a typical startpage but as it could gather lots of different activities together it could be used as a start page. Activities such as reading feeds, Twitter, Facebook, collaboration … etc.

My Yahoo!
http://my.yahoo.com

News-oriented start page which mostly promotes Yahoo

Netscape
http://netscape.aol.com

News-oriented start page.

My MSN
http://my.msn.com

New-oriented start page which mostly promotes Microsoft services.

Interesting ones

Alefo
http://www.alefo.com/

“Alefo is the only web based application that enables you to crop out any portion from any website and have it as a live widget (we call it SiteShots) on your Alefo page.” Unfortunately it seems that they are not developing it anymore.

Symbaloo
http://www.symbaloo.com/

***Take A look. It is more a search-oriented start page.The interface is very beautiful  but it needs more features and lots of polishing to compete with Netvibes. Good for light use.

Startlike
http://www.startlike.com

It allows you to select a channel of interest. Everyday a new photo. You can customize your bookmarks and feeds. You have access to mail and … it is relatively simple.

Bookmarking start pages

Xerpi
http://www.xerpi.com/

***Recommended. I think it is best in its class – It is a good online bookmark manager which could be used as a start page. Supports drag and drap for blocks of link and even links among blocks. Unfortunately it seems xerpi team is not active anymore although the site is running.

FAVVYS
http://www.favvys.com

It is a simple bookmark manager and news reader which could be used as a start page. Nothing so special expect its look, which is better than the competition in Bookmarking start pages category.

start.io
http://start.io

A simple bookmark manager as a start page. It Is developing at the moment.

EasyBM
http://www.easybm.com

It is a simple bookmarking service by which you could have organized and private bookmarks on a page ( your private start page). Nice thing is that you could have those bookmarks on your smartphone too.

43marks.com
http://43marks.com

Right now is a simple bookmark manager and news reader.

Thumbnail  (speed-dial) Start Pages

Hyperigo
http://hyperigo.com

It shows thumbnail of sites with tab support.

SpeedyMarks
http://www.speedymarks.com

Put thubmnail of your favorite site in your start page.

Only2Clicks
http://www.only2clicks.com/index.php

It puts a thumbnail of your favorite sites to speed up your browsing.

Fav20
http://www.fav20.com

Save your favorite websites as tumbnails in your strat page

Speedtile
http://www.speedtile.net

“Save and organize your bookmarks in a -visual environment (thumbnails), always up to date with daily snapshots”

Flyapp
http://www.flyapp.com

A simple start page which puts thumbnail and a brief description of your favorite sites.

Tizmos
http://www.tizmos.com

“It lets you see thumbnails of your favorite sites”

3x3Links
http://www.3x3links.com

“Speed-Dial-Style Browser Start Page”. It uses logos instead of thumbnails of the sites.

Other start pages (old – not active – no more development)

Homepage Startup
http://www.homepagestartup.com/

It seems that this project is not active. It puts thumbnails of your favorite sites in your start page.

Go Do
http://www.godotoo.com

Old – Simple start page – nothing special

mysurfpad
http://www.mysurfpad.com/portal/index.php

Basically it has been a startpage like Netvibes and Pageflakes. The developer team doesn’t seem to be active.

protopage
http://www.protopage.com

Full featured start page. No way to compete with Netvibes.

Gritwire
http://my.gritwire.com

News oriented start page. It seems depreciated

Eskobo
http://www.eskobo.com

Old -a simple online news reader.

Favoor
http://www.favoor.com

A normal, simple start page. Nothing specific.

24eyes
http://www.24eyes.com

Old – RSS Dashboard on the Internet.

Nowsy
http://www.nowsy.com

Old – news and info dashboard

Transferr
http://www.transferr.com

Old – “Transferr takes pictures of your favourite sites and presents them as icons on your home page.”

Qrowd
http://www.qrowd.com

Limited for free users. It seems the project is dead.

Webwag
http://www.webwag.com/startup

It seems outdated and Nothing special. It is mostly like pageflaes except it has a mobile version.

Conclusion: It seems that there is not a perfect or near perfect startpage site. At the moment Nevibes seems to deliver the best possible features. But,  isn’t it something strange that, from 2005 till now (which is a very long time these days), a better service has not emerged? Take into account the potential for millions of users.  Tell me what you think. Do you know a better service? Am I wrong that a good startpage service is much needed? Do they have a problem in monetization of their service? Give us your thoughts.

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