An astounding 25 billion Tweets were sent in 2010. We analyzed all those Tweets to identify the year's Top 10 Trends, as well as the leading Trends in eight categories: News Events, People, Movies, Television, Technology, World Cup, Sports and Hashtags. Each Trend in the Top 10 list includes multiple related terms, to give the most accurate view of the topics that people cared about most in 2010.
10. Pulpo Paul
Paul the Octopus became a global internet sensation after correctly predicting all of Germanys FIFA World Cup results before correctly predicting the outcome of both the 3rd/4th play-off and the World Cup Final- picking Spain over the Dutch.
After his fateful -- and accurate -- predictions that Germany's football team would lose to Spain in the World Cup semifinal, Facebook, Twitter and the Internet were swimming in recipes for octopus.
Paul retired from the celebrity limelight shortly after the World Cup finished in July and passed away peacefully in his tank on the 26th October 2010.
9. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
The no-longer teenage stars returned to cinemas in October for the first half of the final instalment of the most successful film and literature franchise in history.
Another dark and gritty adventure takes the young wizards on a scenic camping trip around the UK, where they bump into a selection of Britain's finest thespians, in another epic battle of good versus evil.
8. Justin Bieber
The worlds favourite singing teenage Canadian mono-brow had a sensational year, topping the music charts and beating the likes of Lady Gaga to be the most tweeted about celeb of 2010.
7. Google Android
Google Android, the phone nobody knows anyone who has. Remarkably its beaten the launch of major competitors including the iPhone 4 onto the most tweeted about charts.
6. Apple iPad
Apples oversized version of the iPod was popular at the start of the year and is likely to fill thousands of stockings this Christmas as prices are slashed in advance of the launch of the iPad2 in early 2011.
5. Vuvuzela
The French football team blamed their poor performances on the field and mutiny off the field on the continual drones generated by the traditional South African trumpet which they likened to the sound of a swarm of angry bees.
Apart from annoying the French and millions of TV viewers, the Vuvuzela was also credited with a spate of horrific injuries including a ruptured throat and perforated ear drums.
4. Haiti Earthquake
The world watched in horror as the tragedy in Haiti unfolded, arguably made worse by the dozens of well-meaning, attention craving celebrities who jetted in to offer their support, leading to long delays for emergency aid deliveries which were refused permission to land on the island due to a back log of lear jets at the national airport.
Despite the turmoil of the disaster and subsequent Cholera outbreak the people of Haiti are slowly emerging from the ruins of the devastated island. If pledges of international aid are met, 2011 will hopefully be a year that defines the rebuilding of this nation.
3. Inception
A film best watched with friends with either a warped-mind or a PhD in psychology. If you are in a dream, in a dream, about you dreaming then you can defy gravity and morph the world around you...I think.
2. FIFA World Cup
Many said South Africa 2010 wouldn't be ready on time. As it turned out it was a host of big name, pre-tournament favourites such as England and France that were in disarray.
Played out in front of a global audience of billions, the month long football extravaganza delivered some memorable performances and some moments of controversy as Spain emerged victorious.
The FIFA World Cup was one of the most bet upon sporting events in history, but for all the pundits talk of an England victory it turns out we should have listened to the octopus!
1. Gulf Oil Spill
In terms of PR disasters, nothing in recent memory can quite compare to BP's handling of what initially appeared to be a minor incident in the Gulf of Mexico.
An incompetent response, which included trying to blast golf balls into a hole in the damaged oil pipeline and the looming environmental disaster, potentially affecting the entire US southern coast kept this disaster in the news for months.
With a clean up bill and compensation costs running into the tens of billions, 2010 was a year for BP to forget.
