“The Black IPs” lol. I follow nerds on Twitter, so rather than just the latest pop stars and sports games, I was delighted to see a nerdy hashtag in my Trending Topics. It’s thanks to Twitter’s new Tailored Trends that launched on Tuesday and shows you personalized trends based on who you follow.
“Creedence ClearRecentHistory? Revival” brilliant. In just a few days Tailored Trends has shown algorithms can beat back the stupidity of the Internet. Here’s why this matters, and a look at the best of #FailedTechBands.
The sad fact is that there’s a bag full of idiots for every genius on Twitter. Worse yet, smart people respect those who follow them and don’t flood their streams with a thousand repetitive tweets — dumb hashtags for example. Meanwhile, the imbeciles of the world post a flurry of tweets oblivious to it drowning out more sensible content.
That meant intelligent hashtags and topics were less likely to reach the volume necessary to break into the Trending Topics list. As a result, Trends was often filled with inane, offensive, and downright stupid hashtags and phrases because of this difference in tweeting behavior. But now if I see idiotic trends, it’s my own damn fault for following idiots. Well done, Twitter.
Well done because advertisers are probably a lot more willing to pay for a Promoted Trend now that it’s less likely to sit next to “#BlameTheMuslims” “#BigDickProblems” and other racist, sexist, childish, and otherwise offensive content I’ve seen become Trends. Twitter should avoid censorship of actual tweets at all costs. But when it comes to repurposing content within the service, focusing on relevancy might incidentally keep things a little cleaner, smarter, more productive.
So what did my delightful discovery of a truly relevant hashtag win me? These awesome #FailedTechBands:
https://twitter.com/HannahHarland/status/213739694205317120
https://twitter.com/KiernanProud/status/213702400656158721
https://twitter.com/KiernanProud/status/213702871332556800
And our favorite tech conference speaker / new Microsoft employee: