January 5th, 2010 | By: Garin Kilpatrick

The following ten trending topics are being tweeted about every few minutes and this trend suggests to me that that these topics will continue to buzz for the months to come.

In this article I have linked to Twitter real time searches that show in just how lively the conversation is surrounding these topics. If you have something to say about one of the topics below simply send a tweet my on twitter @Gar1n, or better yet, voice your take by logging into our commenting system with your Twitter account and leaving a comment!

1. #iTablet

The Apple #iTablet computer will hit the market in 2010. Perhaps Amazon will respond with an improved #kindle e-book reader, with a color display, instead of monochrome. The kindle has already sold an estimated 1.5 million units, but since Amazon has not released this number, this is only an estimate and noone really knows how many Amazon has really sold. Steve Jobs is betting that people will find more value in a fully functional machine, especially when emblazoned with the Apple brand. Competitors to Apple and Amazon will likely be entering the tablet market with cheaper alternatives, but for now there is plenty of hype around the Tablet. Yesterday Ben Parr of Mashable posted an article stating that the Tablet would be released in March for around $1,000, and MG Siegler of TechCrunch posted an article stating that this was completely untrue.

2. #Apple

The Apple community continues to thrive and eat into the worldwide smartphone market, where RIM (#Blackberry) is a powerhouse. Applications Expect plenty of Tweets during Macworld 2010 from gebuary 9th-13th in San Franciso this year. I was in SF during Macworld 2009 and it was a very exciting time. A new Apple phone is rumored for release mid-2010, and of course there is the Tablet. Perhaps swipe keyboard technology will become available for more phones with software based keyboards, such as the iPhone, or the Blackberry Storm.

3. #Twitter

In 2010 expect for plenty of talk on Twitter to continue to be about Twitter, and I predict Twitter will continue to grow.

Currently there are about 18,000,000 Twitter users who tweet at least once a month, and I am predicting this number will double to 36,000,000+ users by the end of 2010.

4. #Vancouver2010

With just over a month left until the 2010 Winter Olympics talk on Twitter is already heating up. Twitter is poised to change the way we engage with the Olympics and celebrate Olympians. Vancouver 2010 will be the most tweeted about Olympic games ever, since Twitter is bigger than ever. If you are interested in the 2010 games check out my Vancouver 2010 Twitter list.

5. #Obama

Barack Obama’s successes in 2010 will continue to make waves if he is able to better engage the ongoing social media revolution and create meaningful conversations to hasten the changes he hopes to make. In 2009 #Obama was just getting warmed up. There was plenty of talk on Twitter and else ware about the 2009 #NobelPrize he won for peace. Despite winning this prestigious award, when asked to evaluate his performance so far in office Obama said he would give himself a B+.

6. #Facebook

Facebook will continue to expand their user base around the world. I will not be surprised if Facebook reaches 400,000,000 users. Tech pundit Jason Calacanis is predicting that Facebook will announce their IPO and that this stock market inclusion will make Mark Zuckerberg very rich, and “save silicon valley”. I was not aware that silicon valley needed saving, but the facebook IPO will certainly make waves due to the massive user base and social value facebook has.

7. #aplusk

In 2010 the giants of Twitter will continue to have significant influence in setting the trends in 2010. I am predicting that Ashton Kutcher @aplusk will be dethroned as the “king” of Twitter in 2010. Two serious contenders Ashton will have to worry about in 2010 are Ellen Degeneres @theellenshow and Britney Spears @britneyspears.

8. #Geolocation

MG Siegler thinks Geo location will become an increasing factor in 2010 on the web, and I agree. Twitter may become more financially viable as they offer enhanced super tweets featuring geographical information. Foursquare and Gowalla are two mobile Geo tagging apps that I see tweets from every day. I think Gowalla is iPhone only, but Foursquare has functional apps for Android, iPhone, Blackberry, and Palm platforms. I have downloaded both iPhone apps and I prefer Foursquare. I heard one Gowalla user who sent a tweet complaining that he was receiving ads from Gowalla via push notifications.

9. #Google

Google is poised to increase their dominance of the Internet with Wave becoming more mainstream, search becomes more real time, and the Chrome web browser continuing to increase market share. Google is also entered into direct competition with Microsoft in the Operating System industry when they announced a Chrome OS, optimized for web browsing, earlier this year. My thoughts about Google are that as long as they are the most traffic heavy site on the web, they will continue to expand their business activities successfully into other areas of the tech industry. As long as Google continues to generate revenue and receive new investments they can continue to pour cash into new innovative products like the Droid and the new Google phone Nexus One.

10. #AugmentedReality

Augmented reality is the process by which a real life situation is augmented with additional graphics or information to create a mixed reality of a physical and a digital environment. This concept has been increasingly implemented in apps for smartphones with cameras, but was also applied in a very innovative and cool way by GE to demonstrate the new smart grid they are implementing.

Three of my favorite examples of augmented reality are:

• GE Ecomagination Smart Grid, which you need to see to appreciate.
• Gunman, an iPhone app that turns iphones into a game of virtual paint ball.
• Google Goggles, a way of augmenting information onto pictures.

Google Goggles especially is a very cool mobile app that augments information of storefronts and products from pictures snapped from a mobile phone. Below is a video created by Google explaining the new service, which is only available on Google’s Android platform for smart phones. The potential for this technology to develop is profound, so expect plenty of tweets as Google makes updates to their software in the months to come.

Feedback

What was your favorite trending topic of 2009? What trending topics do you expect to see in 2010? What do you think will be the most tweeted about topic from the list above?