Nerdy Science Blog

Twitter is no doubt a social network wherein emerging trends can be easily tracked. In case of any major event, user twitter tweets about it and thus the story ends up at the top of Twitter Search and becomes a top trend . The more people tweet about it greater is the possibility of it ending as a top trend. A wide variety of web applications, Twitter accounts, and iPhone applications enable people to track recent tags and thus track recent twitter trends. This gives valid input on what is quite popular with the people.

The web based apps mentioned above include Web-based Applications such as :

Twitter Search : Recent trends on Twitter usually appear on the Twitter homepage or on it’s official search page. By clicking on these, the user can bring up feeds on public conversations on twitter.

Twist : Twist is an interesting application which enables the user to see trends and keywords on Twitter through a graphical interface. It is more of visual based application which lists trends for hours, days or weeks for the user. This not only enables comparison of different trends but also provides embeddable charts to compare them.

Monitter : Using these trends can be tracked in real time. Just by typing keywords, this impressive application will all by it update the latest tweets containing those keywords. To access the right information the user can add or remove columns.

Hashtags.org : This is one of the most popular webpage on Twitter. It provides graphs on the use of hashtags. Though it’s up time reliability is low, these show the latest and the most viewed hastags.

Tweetmeme : This is one of the best solutions to provide access to the most popular links on Twitter.

Plodt : Plodt website is a trend tracker. This is based on ranking the tweets. User is required to follow Plodt Twitter account to participate in Plodt. It features timelines, tags, and statistics.

Twitturly : Used to track top-shared URLs. All tweets that have shared a specific link can be viewed by the user.

Next category is the Twitter Accounts:

twithority : This is one of the easiest ways to tweet the trends on Twitter. Based on time and authority these links provide the user with latest Twitter trends.

TweetingTrends : It is considered to be the easiest way to track twitter trends. Links go directly to Twitter Search.

PowerSearch : It Tweets top weekly and daily trends along with other hot trends so that the user does not miss any of these.

gtrend : gtrend stands for ‘Google Trend’. Recent trends within Google Search can be easily accessed by the users. Though it does not track Twitter trends it can track trends across the web. Comparison of trends is also possible.

Another category is the iPhone Apps to track twitter trends:

Retweet : Priced at 99 cents, it provides simple iPhone interface for reading top retweets and links. Retweeting now has become a means for finding the best on Twitter. The users can share tweets of interest just by reposting a tweet and adding ‘RT’ plus the originator’s username.

TweetieTweetie reviews : This displays the current trends on twitter. The user can save these trends for further reference. Twitter Trend Emerging trends on twitter can be viewed though this free application.

Summizer : One of the advanced Twitter search tool is the Summizer. It is available as both paid and free version. Summizer enables users to view trends and tweets specific in nature. Tweets from a specific user or those not having a specific search keyword can be viewed though this.

Education in Malaysia:

A professor from UiTM in the faculty of chemical engineering has informed us of an opportunity for students looking to pursue their PhD in the field. We are publishing this notice as a public service for interested students, and this should not be taken as an endorsement of the programme. The details:

Ph.D. studentship opportunities

Master’s degree holders interested to pursue Ph.D. in any of the following research themes at Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA are invited to forward their CVs to yinyang@salam.uitm.edu.my and yinyang@streamyx.com. A stipend will be provided for the suitable candidate to support his/her study.

The research themes are:

1) Hazardous waste treatment (e-waste; soil, water and air decontamination).
2) Synthesis and application of nanoporous materials.
3) Life cycle assessment
4) Clean technologies
5) Brownfield management

Candidates that show excellent progress during their study shall be considered for paid short-term research placements in either Japan, South Korea, Australia or Germany. The selection criteria for this Ph.D. studentship are listed in the following:

1) Good written english;
2) Published at least an ISI-indexed journal article as the first author (preferably – not essential);
3) Graduated either cum laude or has at least an Upper Second Class Honours undergraduate engineering or science degree.