You’re at a party and overhear lots of conversations about: a sporting event, a famous musician, a hot new electronics gadget, and whatever hot TV show was on last night. You gravitate toward the conversation that interests you, whatever it may be.
For some people, that might be the sporting event going on. And there might be a lot of people that find that particular topic interesting. But maybe not you. Maybe the musician topic doesn’t suit you either, even though they’re popular, it’s not your kind of music. And the hot TV show is something you want to watch, but you’re not caught up and don’t want it spoiled.
If you’re like me, maybe you want to hear about the new magical device that was just released. That’s the people you want to talk to.
It might be one of the smaller groups of people talking, but you’re likely to find some friends here who like the same things as you. This isn’t to say you wouldn’t make friends in the other conversations, but you’re probably more likely to find friends where you can engage about the topic.
Twitter currently handles Trending Topics as the most popular topics worldwide, without considering what’s trending in your personal circle.
Wouldn’t it be better if the party was specific to the topics that interested you? We could have this on Twitter. Trending Topics could be a lot better if it didn’t assume that everyone is interested in the most popular topics.
Considering who you follow, Twitter could generate a list of topics that interest you. Even if lots of people are talking about the World Cup (which I don’t care about), if the people I follow are talking about iPhone or Pixar’s latest movie, those are the topics I’d see.