Mashable reports that Twitter has confirmed they changed their trending topics algorithm last week. Twitter’s Trending Topics, which later allowed localize trends, shows the most popular subjects being talked about on Twitter.

Twitter said they now not only look at what is most popular, but what is “immediately” most popular on Twitter. Meaning, the Twitter Trends is not just about popularity but also about what is breaking right now on Twitter. Twitter told Mashable:

The new algorithm identifies topics that are immediately popular, rather than topics that have been popular for a while or on a daily basis, to help people discover the ‘most breaking’ breaking news from across the world. (We had previously built in this ‘emergent’ algorithm for all local trends, described below.) We think that trending topics which capture the hottest emerging trends and topics of discussion on Twitter are the most interesting.

Do you find the new trending topics fresher?

Related Topics: Twitter

About The Author: Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here. For more background information on Barry, see his full bio over here. See more articles by Barry Schwartz