14 DAY TRIAL // Twitter is continuing its 2010 review with a couple of charts to summarize the year for the site. The top 10 most powerful tweets, according to Twitter, have now been revealed and there's some pretty interesting, though predictable, stuff in there. Twitter also revealed the top 10 most retweeted tweets or the year ending and the picture here is a bit different with less presidents and more rap stars.
"From a cry for help in the woods to a call for aid for a nation, the Most Powerful Tweets tell ten different stories about Twitter’s value in people’s daily lives," Twitter explains.
"At the top of the Most Powerful Tweets list, journalist Ann Curry used Twitter to gain permission for a Doctors Without Borders plane to land in Haiti to assist the earthquake victims," Twitter announced the most powerful tweet of the year.
There were plenty of memorable moments. A tweet from the White House welcomed Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to the site; a state of emergency was instituted in Ecuador via Twitter and the list goes on.
Twitter looked at the biggest stories of the year and how they related to the site. But it was much easier for the next chart in Twitter's #Hindsight2010, which simply counted the most retweeted messages this year.
"American TV personality Stephen Colbert (@StephenAtHome) tops the list with a wry Tweet about the Gulf Oil Spill, the year’s biggest Trend on Twitter," Twitter announced.
"To commemorate the honor, Twitter is awarding Colbert --the titan of 'Truthiness'-- the first-ever Golden Tweet award for the year’s Most Retweeted Tweet. Twitter co-founder Biz Stone personally presented Colbert with the award tonight on The Colbert Report," it explained.
The rest of the top 10 is filled by celebrities and comedy accounts, a sharp contrast to the tweets the Twitter team picked as the most powerful of the year. This doesn't necessarily mean that Twitter users are much more interested in celebrity gossip than they are in world politics, but it's an interesting view.