Lark Birdsong's List: Trends

Real-time tools have sparked a new sociological phenomenon where nearly everyone is routinely reporting information. From audience members tweeting about meetings to individuals reporting on an illness, the collective result is a plethora of new possibilities for finding information.

hat the Trend helps you find out what's trending on Twitter and why. We are "The front page of the real-time web™"

For each trend, we give you a quick explanation of WHY it's trending (these blurbs are edited by you!)

Currently tracking over 100,000 trends. We welcome anyone to define a new trend or redefine an existing one. Click on a trend to get started!

"Society & culture"
In contrast, nations with higher percentages of young people can be more turbulent. When large groups of reasonably well-educated young men coincide with high unemployment, censorship and corruption, this can be a recipe for revolution, especially if one adds rising food prices and easy internet access. For example, in Afghanistan the median age is just 15.6, in Syria it is 21.9, and in Egypt it is 24.4. Contrast this to a median age of 37.1 in the US, 39.8 in the UK and 44.9 in Japan.

"Google has announced the winners of a contest that will give out $10 million to people with futuristic ideas."

"Leading global analyst firm Gartner has released its annual Hype Cycle report and it's thought provoking to see where these high-end specialists think various emerging technologies are in their path to mainstream adoption. Tablets, microblogging, cloud computing, machine/brain interfaces (!) and many more are included in this year's report. Gartner believes that emerging technologies get hyped, overhyped, then face crashing disillusionment and are later finally understood as productive, mainstream parts of the world."

"At this time of year I watch closely for the usual year-end wrap-ups and trend watch articles, though I keep an eye open all year for evidence of emergent trends in the seemingly endless tide of industry news. As usual, the trends seem to present an interesting mix of opportunities and challenges. In this fast-paced, increasingly online world, things are certainly never dull"

"Looking back on the year in Web technology, we can see that several product categories have evolved significantly over 2010. We've already written about App Stores and eReaders. Another market that progressed in 2010 was Internet TV. Among the developments: Apple announced a major overhaul of Apple TV, Google launched its Android-powered Google TV platform and partnered with Sony, Boxee and Roku continued to improve their set-top box products, startups like Clicker innovated new types of web services for Internet TV, and content platforms like Hulu captured more viewers."

"As part of our ongoing year-end analysis of what shaped the Web this year, we've created a report - The Top 5 Web Trends of 2010 - that looks at the most important topics: mobile, the Internet of Things, location-based social networks, the real-time Web, and structured data. Using Adobe's new PDF Portfolio, we take you back through the year's news and events and then describe what the key issues to watch in 2011 will be."

"Every year ReadWriteWeb selects the top 10 products or developments across a range of categories. The latest installment is the top 10 stories of the culture of technology"

" Gartner, Inc. has revealed its top predictions for IT organizations and users for 2011 and beyond. Analysts said that the predictions highlight the significant changes in the roles played by technology and IT organizations in business, the global economy and the lives of individual users. "

"As we’re approaching the end of the 2010 there are numerous developments with businesses using social media. I had predicted that brands will need to figure out how social fits into their overall brand strategy by identifying where the leverage is with social media and how to manage it."

"One of the world's leading trend firms, trendwatching.com scans the globe for emerging consumer trends, insights and related hands-on business ideas. Its free monthly Trend Briefings get sent to more than 160,000 business professionals in 180+ countries."