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India election results top Twitter trend worldwide |
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By: IANS |
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Date:
2009-05-17 |
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Place: NEW DELHI |
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The excitement of the Indian elections has transferred online to one of its most popular social messaging sites Twitter where it emerged as the top topic posted Saturday.
The Twitter tag "#indiavotes09" was the number one topic on the trends list of Twitter search, demonstrating once again the strength of Indians using these new technology tools.
Congress winner from Thiruvananthapuram, Shashi Tharoor, was keeping track of the margin level of his victory through Twitter. "Looking good! My lead has crossed 30,000 with half the votes counted," he tweeted from his Blackberry.
An hour later, he messaged: "A lead of over 59,000 now! It's almost a done deal".
Finally, the triumphal message: "I have won with a majority greater than any Congress candidate in Tvm in 30 years...Truly humbling. Now the real work begin". (sic)
At 2.35 pm, he again tweeted: "Still sinking in a majority of over 100,000 votes!"
Twitter is a micro-messaging tool, which became a global phenomenon in 2008, growing by an estimated 900 percent last year.
The 26/11 Mumbai attacks had been the major turning point for Twitter in India, with Mumbai residents flashing the latest news from television or eyewitnesses on the social media channel.
India's election result becoming the top trend did solicit puzzled reactions from other Twitter users around the globe, but most of them were positive. 'Jill H' from Indianapolis wrote: "i personally love seeing #indiavotes09 as the top trending topic as it shows how much we are a global community!!"
A few minutes later, an Indian, 'abhijitkumar' wrote: "It also shows how Indians are taking to social media seriously! First time an Indian topic is trending!"
Meanwhile, Twitter was used to broadcast news from television and other media sources, and there were instant analysis and opinions in 140 words.
"No surprise in loss of BJP. they had no leader, agenda, aim, nothing. they looked lost. BJP says they are shocked. im not," said 'amit3d'
Seeing the interest online, 'indreshtwit' wrote: "Just how many of you twitter birds voted anyway? Just curious".
As per ViziSense, which analyses web visitor statistics, there are about 5,33,000 India-based users of Twitter.
In fact, according to Alexa, India ranks third after the United States and Germany in the number of twitterers.
Apart from Tharoor, independent candidate from Gandhinagar Mallika Sarabhai had used Twitter in her campaign.
On Google trends Saturday, "India elections results 2009" was the top search term on Google India, which peaked at 10.20 am. As per statistics, 16% searches were done by Chennai net users, followed by 10% each from Delhi and Mumbai.
The top 20 search items in Google India were all related to the elections, with media sites featuring prominently in them. |
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