Twitter has released the top Trends for 2010 - that is, the top topics discussed or Tweeted on its feed. Fresh off of explaining how exactly topics or subjects make it into the Trend feed, there was perhaps more interest than usual in this year’s roundup. Some of the entries make sense, of course: the Gulf oil spill was the top subject, not surprisingly, along with the Haiti Earthquake, Apple iPad and Google Android.

Advertising on Twitter Does Work

Other top trends point to the influence of advertising on the top trends, with two of the top movies being "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" and "Despicable Me". These were promoted at their release with campaigns to purchase trends on Twitter, CNET noted. Scott Pilgrim did not do well despite the promotion.

But How Relevant is the Data?

While this is positive news for marketers, the Trends do raise eyebrows among some people that see the data as a way to parse larger trends. For starters, Marketing Pilgrim points out, these trends are only reflective of the Twitter users with active accounts - a subset, in other words, of an already small 8% of Americans that have a Twitter account. And Twitter does not provide that data. Consider the fact that Pulpo Paul was among the top overall trends, Marketing Pilgrim notes - an octopus whose feeding behavior was used to predict the winner of each of Germany's seven matches in the 2010 World Cup.