Twitter has just recently released an important update to their trending topics by giving users the option to go local.

As explained on their blog, Twitter trends ‘began as a way to shed light on popular conversations’. It’s great being able to discover what’s happening in the world. It’s even better if you can only find out what is happening in your own backyard. Half the time trending topics were irrelevant, mainly because the Australian Twitter community is so much smaller compared to the US or the UK. Big news & events that took place in Oz (or even just in Sydney) were reduced to a whisper in a sea of voices. But this latest functionality sends this whisper right next to your ear. Hear! Hear!

Twitter Local Trends vs Google Social Search

As the next step towards social search, Local Trends on Twitter can be more relevant than Google’s Social Search, where search engine results are personalized based on your social circle of friends.

Twitter local trends taps into the national consciousness. When you’re looking for current events that are taking place locally, it doesn’t help if Google is pulling information from Facebook profiles where half your friends may live somewhere else.

Applications of Twitter Local Trends

Just yesterday, the train tracks across Sydney experienced heavy delays during peak hour due to multiple signal failures and lightning strikes on the Blue Mountains line. This had to happen on the day where all my tasks were completed before close of business which meant leaving work 15 minutes early. But eventually the ride home took longer than expected.

If only Local Trends had rolled out a day earlier. If only Twitter’s trends already had targeting abilities to Sydney, Australia (they are still working on this, by the way). There would have been a chance of hearing about the train delays before leaving work. I can imagine the trending topics on Twitter just before shutting down my computer:

• #Cityrail
• #Trainfail
• ‘I dislike Cityrail very much’
• The list goes on.

Drinks at the pub would have been a better use of my time instead of waiting on a cramped platform only to stand in a stuffy, overcrowded train.

Suggested Improvements to Twitter Trends

As a platform that aims to be an information network and not just another social network, it will be exciting to see what further improvements will come moving forward.

Additional relevancy is possible if the conversations themselves could be filtered specifically to the location selected, either through the user’s profile information or through the IP address where the tweet was sent.

Using #Haiti as a resonant topic in the local, national and global sphere, it is challenging for one in Australia to discover on Twitter what people were doing locally to help those in need.

The tweets about Haiti written in Spanish or Japanese are not relevant to a native English speaker either. Being able to filter by language, would also be helpful.

What other improvements do you think can be made to Twitter Local Trends?