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Mashable: Latest 12 News Updates - including “Sony PlayStation Network Coming Back Online”

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Mashable: Latest 12 News Updates - including “Sony PlayStation Network Coming Back Online”

Sony PlayStation Network Coming Back Online

Posted: 14 May 2011 05:20 PM PDT


Sony has announced that it has just restored some PlayStation Network services after hackers forced Sony to take it down.

The announcement was made by Sony Corporation Executive Deputy President Kazuo Hirai. “The services are being restored in phases, and I am pleased to say that the first phase has been launched in most regions around the world,” Hirai said in a video statement.

Sony rebuilt the entire PlayStation Network following a breach of its security that resulted in the compromise of 24.6 million user accounts. The changes are being delivered in a new system update that is restoring online gaming and Qriocity services.

“We have greatly updated our data security systems,” Hirai noted in the video statement. “These changes were the result of an intensive investigation aided by some of the most respected forensic and security experts in the computer industry.” Those changes include more advanced security technology, advanced levels of encryption, additional firewalls and better early-warning systems, he said.

In addition to enhancing security, Sony is also giving PlayStation Network and Qriocity customers a free month of service. And while these measures are a good start, Sony has a lot of work to do to regain user trust. “Please know that we’re doing everything we can to fully restore network service around the world and to regain your trust in the days, weeks and months to come,” Hirai stated.

More About: acking, gaming, playstation, playstation 3, playstation network, securityh, sony

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33 Essential Resources for Developers & Designers

Posted: 14 May 2011 04:06 PM PDT


For months now, web developers and designers have flocked to Mashable to learn from and share our how-to guides, analyses, videos, lists, videos and galleries.

Below, we’ve assembled 33 of our favorite resources since January and separated them into three easily digestible lists: inspiration, design and development.

To keep up to date with news and resources about the topics listed below, feel free to follow Mashable‘s dev & design channel on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

Inspiration

Design

Development

For more news and resources on the topics covered in this post, you can follow Mashable‘s dev & design channel on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

More About: features, web design, Web Development

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What Have Gamers Been Doing During PlayStation Downtime? [POLL]

Posted: 14 May 2011 02:53 PM PDT


We at Mashable are wondering what PlayStation gamers are doing with their free time these days.

The PlayStation Network has been down (due to a huge, personal-data-compromising hack) for a grand total of three weeks and three days at the time of writing. That’s enough time to buy a different console, pick a new hobby, meet new people, or even entirely lose faith in your once-trusty gaming network.

Also, it can take between three weeks and two months to form or break a habit. If the PSN doesn’t come back online soon, a lucrative habit may have been broken for its 100 million or so users.

We invite you to take this poll, and please give us your specific reasons and rationale in the comments.



image courtesy of iStockphoto, Stalman

More About: gamers, gaming, hack, network, playstation, poll

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Gaining Authority in the Age of Digital Overload

Posted: 14 May 2011 02:01 PM PDT


We’re entering into a new era of the Internet, where users are now looking to find validated sources within the mix of information overload that we all experience, said Steve Rubel, EVP of Global Strategy and Insights for Edelman during his presentation at Mashable Connect 2011. This shift is changing the nature of authority.

“The reality is, there’s too much content and not enough time,” says Rubel. “More content will be created today than existed in entirety before 2003.” With limited time and attention spans, people are experiencing information overload as well as “people overload.” Rubel called it a “friending arms race,” referring to the Facebook phenomena in which “he or she who dies with the most ‘friends’ wins.”

While Facebook is known as the most intimate of the large social networks, the simple truth is that the average user doesn’t know 20% of his Facebook friends. Rubel pointed to this — and the fact that in 2009, the New Oxford American Dictionary‘s Word of the Year was “unfriend” — to propose that the new “Validation” era of Internet life has begun, as of 2010.

Prior to the Validation era, the Internet experienced two other distinct eras, says Rubel. The first was the era of “Commercialization” (1994-2002), in which publishing was “costly and inaccessible to the masses.” As a result, media companies and brands ruled the digital space and the dot-com boom gave rise to a few new players, including Yahoo, Amazon and Google.

With the dot-com crash, though, publishing costs decreased, enabling almost anyone to be a publisher — thus, the era of “Democratization” (2002-2010). Cue the entrance of mainstream bloggers and Twitter fiends, accompanied by the shift of authority and trust from brands to individuals.

Edelman publishes an annual “Trust Barometer,” which gauges attitudes about the state of trust in business, government, NGOs and media across 23 countries. In 2006, during the pinnacle of the era of Democratization, the study found that people trusted their peers most when forming opinions about companies. Rubel pointed to the rise of social media to explain this finding.

The 2011 Trust Barometer survey illustrated an essential shift in trust, with academics, experts and technical experts within companies rising to become the most trusted sources. Meanwhile, the authority of peers has notably declined 4% since 2009.

With this shift in authority, Rubel proposes that as of 2010, the Internet has entered the Validation era, in which Internet users are beginning to “find the signal in the noise” and hold on to only those pieces of information and people that are most important to them online. The rise of intimate social networks such as Path, and group messaging apps such as GroupMe, Beluga, Fast Society and Kik, is an indicator that “people want to be closer to people they care about and let all the riffraff set aside,” says Rubel.

How do brands gain authority in the age of digital overload, then? Rubel pointed to the “Media Cloverleaf” as a solution, calling it the brainchild of Edelman’s CEO Richard Edelman. The Media Cloverleaf features four distinct spheres of media which should all be utilized to engage the public on a regular basis, he said. This is the idea of transmedia storytelling. Here are the four spheres of media:

  • Traditional media encompasses the big media companies that have “survived and thrived.” This includes radio, TV and print media outlets.
  • “Tradigital” media includes “digitally native media companies that are largely blogs, sometimes niche-focused, sometimes horizontal,” explained Rubel. These outlets are characterized by having high social amplification, SEO sophistication and sometimes a blur between advertising and editorial, says Rubel.
  • Owned media was defined by Rubel via a quote from Andy Heyward, former President of CBS News: “Every company can be a media company.” This is the idea that every brand can create valuable content.
  • Social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter are driving increased engagement with brands and increased traffic to the other media spheres.

Consumers see these media channels as one, not as four distinct areas, Rubel warns. As a result, the opportunity for businesses is to “propagate new ideas across the Cloverleaf.” Here are Rubel’s five steps for success:

1. Elevate the Experts

Find your company’s subject-matter experts and empower them to “cultivate new ideas and engage in meaningful conversation around them,” advises Rubel. These experts could be employees or even your most valuable customers. Start by setting them up with press interviews or enabling them to represent your company on Twitter, Rubel suggests.

Cisco Together, for example, is an owned media project from Cisco that brings together subject matter experts to discuss how technology is connecting people in all new ways across various industries.

2. Curate to Connect

Rubel pointed out an unprecedented opportunity for companies and individuals to gain authority and become thought leaders by being the ones who “separate art from junk for people to understand it.” Curation is just as important as creation.

Social video king YouTube, for example, is finding new ways to curate the massive amount of videos that YouTube users upload on a daily basis. Most recently, the company partnered with curation startup Storyful to put together playlists for each day of the Egyptian protests.

3. Dazzle with Data

“People on the Internet do not read,” Rubel says. “They read 20% of a webpage before they move on; 57% never come back to that page; and we spend 15-20 seconds on a webpage before we move on. We are a global planet of fruit flies.”

The solution is to make data and information more visual and entertaining. The New York Times understands this idea and even employs a team specifically for data visualization. From visualizing America’s consumption of meat and how various groups of people spend their days, to making interactive maps of homicides in New York City and minorities in China, The Times has produced some of the most compelling graphics on the web.

4. Put Pubs on Hubs

Publish your company’s content, such as slideshows and white papers, on hubs like SlideShare and Scribd, so that interested parties can access it and “go deeper” when they want to.

Facebook, for example, is using Scribd to publish guides and case studies for developers, journalists and Facebook Page administrators.

5. Ask & Answer

“Be a source of knowledge,” says Rubel. Social media is a great outlet for doing just that. Rubel recommends that companies empower all of their employees to ask and answer questions via social media, instead of putting a few people in charge of that responsibility.

While at Mashable, I have sourced experts from “Help a Reporter Out,” Quora, Twitter, Facebook, blog comments and many other online outlets. Answering and asking questions online is just as valid as doing the same thing in person. The Internet is not just a playland; it is an extension of our offline lives, a place where individuals and companies can become highly influential and respected.

Which companies are best positioned to gain authority as we move into the era of Validation? Let us know what you think in the comments.

View Steve Rubel’s Mashable Connect presentation:

More About: business, cisco, content curation, curation, facebook, mashable connect, mashable connect 2011, scribd, steve rubel, the new york times, youtube

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New iPhone To Be Called iPhone 4S? [REPORT]

Posted: 14 May 2011 12:57 PM PDT


Speculation continues to swirl around the next iPhone, and now an analyst claims he has new information about the highly anticipated smartphone from Apple.

It will be called “iPhone 4S” when it’s released in September, according to Jefferies & Co. analyst Peter Misek. He adds that Apple will announce “distribution deals for the iPhone with Sprint and T-Mobile in time for the holidays.”

In addition, the new iPhone will have a dual-core A5 processor under the hood, helping it keep up with numerous dual-core smartphone competitors already on the market such as the Motorola Atrix 4G and HTC Sensation.

Misek added that the iPhone’s design will remain the same except for “minor” cosmetic changes, but he did write that its front and rear cameras will be improved to an unspecified extent.

If you're looking for higher speed, you’ll have to settle for HSPA+ connectivity; Misek says there won’t be any LTE support for the iPhone yet, because the anticipated LTE chipset from Qualcomm “is currently not achieving yields sufficient for inclusion” in the next iPhone.

More About: Analyst, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, Peter Misek, rumor, speculation

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Is Facebook Brand Tagging Creepy or Cool? [PICS]

Posted: 14 May 2011 11:41 AM PDT


Earlier this week, we asked if you've ever had the urge to tag that can of Coke you're holding in a Facebook picture. Apparently, many of you have.

Coca-Cola's Facebook Page now sports several pictures of fans posing with tagged Coke cans. Coke had encouraged fans to do so within hours of Facebook’s announcement last week. Starbucks‘s and Zappos‘s Facebook Pages have also posted pictures of fans with tagged products.

Facebook added the functionality on March 11. Such tagged photos appear in the Photos tab of a Page, rather than that Page's wall. While such tagging is so far voluntary, The Atlantic's Nicholas Jackson speculated that Facebook could monetize the feature by making it automatic. Instead of tagging the photo yourself, Coca-Cola could do it for you, resulting in what is, in effect, real-life product placement.

What do you think? Is this an increase in functionality or another example of Facebook grafting commerce onto social interactions? Let us know in the comments.


Coke Bottles




Facebook user Karl Mark Kormann posted this artistic shot of a Coke bottle.


Coke Chug 1




Diego De Pauw chugs Coke in this tagged photo.


Laughing Coke Fan




Amaya Thomas Toribio has a Coke and a smile.


Coke Chug 2




Andy Alejandro Espinosa chugs Coke in this photo.


Starbucks Fan




Toni Marie Holland posted this picture of Starbucks love.


Zappos Cats




Facebook user Brenda Gehrke posted this picture of curious cats and a Zappos delivery box.

More About: Coke, facebook, starbucks, Zappos

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How Brands Can Work With Startups

Posted: 14 May 2011 10:53 AM PDT


Brand marketers and startups may have little in common, but they have a lot to gain by working together.

Startups innovate fresh, new ways to reach customers that brands crave. Brands, meanwhile, bring financial resources and reach to startups.

Dave Knox has experience working on both sides of this proverbial table. He is both the CMO of digital agency Rockfish, which has a client list that includes big brands like Walmart, Procter & Gamble and EA Sports, as well as the co-founder of The Brandery, a seed-stage incubator.

Recently, Knox spoke at Mashable Connect about how brands and startups can make a relationship work despite working in different spaces at different paces.

Q&A With Dave Knox

Why should brands work with startups?

I see startups as the canary in the marketing coal mine … [developing the] types of things marketers need to be versed in today in order to connect with [the] consumers [of] tomorrow. I think that's the big reason for brands to work with them.

And then on the flip side, with startups, many of their business models are dependent on the brand world in some way. And by partnering in their early stages, they can avoid the need to waste precious resources on product development that might not be beneficial for brands.

What are the risks brands take when they work with startups?

One of the big risks is the fact that they just might not be able to execute together. Because brands obviously are used to being able to puts lots of dollars to work in a very short amount of time, [it might be difficult to] realize that might not be possible with startups.

There also is a risk that startups will follow a brand blindly off of a cliff instead of treating it like n=1, like it's a single use case. Startups should not make all of their decisions off of that single use case.

When is it too early to work with a startup?

I think definitely pre-product and pre-revenue its too early. For instance, if a company is in an accelerator, it's probably too early to do something in market. That's not too early to be talking to them. The problem is that a lot of brands won’t even talk to a startup until they've reached 1 million users, and I think that's way too late. You want to start the discussion early. That doesn't mean that the deal has to be done early.

A lot of people talk about, "Well Foursquare will never call me back." Well that's because people started calling Foursquare once they were already in the mass media, the trade press was covering them and they were overloaded. It was too late for a nimble, smart brand to talk to them early on.

How can brands find opportunities with startups?

I think one thing is playing in the same sandbox that startups play in. Don't expect them to be coming to your office all the time. Go out to where they are. Partner with venture capital firms, participate in accelerators.

What do brands and startups who partner each bring to the table?

I think the brands bring, of course, financial abilities, ability for great scale and reach, and probably an extremely strong knowledge of the consumer. Billions of dollars are spent by brands to understand consumers. They bring that.

Startups bring a new way of thinking — a new approach to leveraging technology and how to go to market in a different way and find a new way of connecting with people.

How do brands and startups work differently?

Most brands are not working at the speed of a startup. They're working off of fiscal years and marketing budgets, while most startups are making plans for the quarter ahead, at best.

There is a natural conflict in speed that exists. The legal nature of what has to get approved by a brand, the number of people who need to sign off is also different. Usually with a startup, the founder is the only person who needs to sign off.

Can brands truly work with startups? What has worked in your own experience? Let us know in the comments below.

Interested in more Startups resources? Check out Mashable Explore, a new way to discover information on your favorite Mashable topics.

More About: brands, business, Dave Knox, MARKETING, partnerships, startups

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Flickr: iPad 2 Camera Has Only 23 Active Daily Users

Posted: 14 May 2011 10:11 AM PDT


According to Flickr’s camera usage statistics, the iPad 2′s camera is used by very few people — only 23 active daily users. And so far, 12,811 photos have been taken and uploaded to Flickr with the device.

By comparison, the iPhone 4 has 4,402 daily active users; more than a million photos have been taken with the device.

We don’t have exact numbers of iPad 2 sales, but the tablet has been on the market since March 11. According to Apple, strong sales have resulted in a record-setting quarter, with analysts estimating that about half a million devices sold in during the iPad 2′s first weekend on the market.

The iPad 2′s camera has been one of the most criticized aspects of the device: At 0.7 megapixels, it’s only good for the most basic tasks. Still, with millions of iPad 2s in customers’ hands, one would expect that more people would be using the device. But the significantly low number of daily active users on Flickr shows that is not the case.

iPad 2 owners: Do you use the device’s camera? When was the last time you uploaded a photo taken on the iPad to a site such as Flickr or Facebook? Please, share your opinions in the comments.

Image courtesy of Flickr

[via Electric Pig]

More About: camera, flickr, ipad, iPad 2, photo

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Take a Seat: 5 Office Chair Alternatives

Posted: 14 May 2011 09:34 AM PDT


Even with the recent news that sitting down will kill you, most of us are unable to make major changes to our workspace set-up. To help you stay healthy, we’ve taken a look at some alternatives to the traditional office chair.

Trying to stay healthy despite a sedentary desk-based career is all about better posture, circulation and most importantly moving more.

We would of course advise seeking expert opinion before you make any major changes to your sitting setup, especially if you’re not in the best of health, but if you do decide to make a change, here are five options to inspire you.


1. Saddle Seats




A backless "saddle stool" stops you slumping back in your chair, lowers your thighs, opens up your hips and gently puts your spine into a "healthy lordotic curve." Plus, anything that makes you feel like you're in a Western (rather than the office) can only be a good thing.


2. Kneeling Chairs




A kneeling chair is said to help promote an "open and dynamic" sitting position that keeps your spine in its natural curvature, your back and abdominal muscles working and improves breathing and circulation. This is called "active sitting" and fans of the system claim it helps concentration and creativity.


3. Stand Up Stools




Stand-up stools have been around for years to help take the weight off workers' feet. The muvman is a modern version aimed at office workers. "The main point is that you keep moving," explains the company behind the stool. Ideal for those who want to alternate sitting and standing, the flexible stool is height-adjustable so you can perch high or low and tilted forward to put you at an optimum distance from your work station.


4. Balance Ball Chairs




A bouncy balance ball chair is all about strengthening your core muscles, improving spinal alignment and reducing nerve compression. The balance ball can also be removed and used for in-office exercise, if that's appropriate in your workplace. Whether or not you can also play super-sized office soccer with the ball is for you to find out.


5. Active Dynamic Stools




The Swooper promotes "active sitting" by moving in different dimensions -- backward, forward, sideways and up and down too. It's all about moving your muscles with ever-changing positions. Scientific studies suggest you move twice as much on an active seat as on a conventional one, which has got to be a good thing.

Interested in more Health & Tech resources? Check out Mashable Explore, a new way to discover information on your favorite Mashable topics.

Thumbnail image courtesy of Victor Bezrukov

More About: ergonomics, furniture, gadgets, List, Lists, office, sitting

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Robot Orchestra Built From Junkyard Scrap [VIDEOS]

Posted: 14 May 2011 09:20 AM PDT


Music and technology mingle in the most fascinating ways these days, and music-playing robots are certainly fascinating enough for us.

The KarmetiK Machine Orchestra was built by students at California Institute of the Arts near Los Angeles, California. The students used junkyard salvage and traditional instruments to create the bots.

In addition to vinyl decks and mixing boards, the ensemble also features three entirely new musical instruments, including NotomotoN, a dual-head drum with twelve beaters and a mallet orchestra.

“Combining intriguing high-tech entertainment with practical applications of cutting-edge research, the orchestra brings together one-of-kind robotic instruments with human performers using modified instruments and unique human computer interfaces,” reads a CalArts site on the project.

We’ve covered futuristic musical instruments in the past. How do you think the KarmetiK Machine Orchestra measures up? Does music still need a human touch?

Check out this behind-the-scenes look at how the orchestra was conceived and built, then check out a few performance clips in the gallery below.


Machine Lab at CalArts


The KarmetiK Machine Orchestra lab at CalArts.


Calif. Students Build Musical Robots, Then Jam


Students at the California Institute of the Arts have built an orchestra of interactive musical robots. Musicians use specialized computer programs to play the robotic instruments. The AP sat in on a rehearsal for an upcoming concert. (May 13)


Instruments from The Machine Orchestra :: Karmetik


CalArts, graduation 2010: Two instruments were hooked up to a keyboard so visitors could try them out. www.themachineorchestra.com


CalArts KarmetiK Machine Orchestra | Jan. 2010


KarmetiK Machine Orchestra, directed by CalArts Director of Music Technology Ajay Kapur, preparing for their debut performance at CalArts REDCAT January 27th, 2010. Video by Scott Groller http://www.calarts.edu http://www.redcat.org

image courtesy of Flickr, saschapohflepp

More About: music, Orchestra, Robot, robot orchestra, robots

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This Week in Politics & Digital: 2012 Strategies, Crowdsourced Cuts

Posted: 14 May 2011 09:07 AM PDT

us flag tech image

The week may not have had milestones like President Barack Obama’s birth certificate or the death of Osama bin Laden, but it did show social media’s growing role in politics.

This week saw the advent of some major national initiatives. Newt Gingrich announced his presidential bid through social media, Obama hired his 2012 digital director and the GOP relaunched a site to crowdsource spending cuts.

This weekly series picks out the week’s top stories in the intersection of digital technology and politics. Have a look through and let us know what you think by joining the conversation in the comments below.

Newt Gingrich Announces Presidential Bid

Former House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich threw his hat into the presidential race this week, posting the announcement on Facebook and Twitter on Monday and appearing on Fox News on Wednesday. While the announcement itself isn’t much of a surprise, social networks are becoming a way for candidates to engage their digital followers. Gingrich is the most popular GOP candidate on Twitter with more than 1.3 million followers (that’s nearly double Donald’s Trump’s followers).

Despite his numbers, Gingrich’s announcement didn’t create much of a boost to his social presence, reported OhMyGov.com.

President Obama 2012 Campaign Hires Digital Director

As more GOP candidates gear up, the President has started to assemble his own 2012 campaign team. TechPresident.com reported that a campaign source says Teddy Goff, an associate VP at Blue State Digital, will lead the digital efforts of the 2012 campaign. Goff’s official title, “Digital Director,” will be similar to the 2008′s “New Media Director,” Joe Rospars.

Rospars will join the 2012 campaign as the Chief Digital Strategist.

GOP Revives Site To Let Public Vote on Spending Cuts

youcut image

America’s debt is a bit of a problem. Republicans are hoping to give some of the decision power back to the people with YouCut: Phase II, a site that lets the public vote on what the House should cut from the spending bill.

The site was actually launched a little more than a year ago when Republicans were in the minority. However, the relaunch sees the Republican party with a majority in the chamber, meaning those votes might actually bear some legislative fruit. The site will feature new spending cuts each week, drawn in part from user suggestions and ideas. It’s unclear how much direct influence the site will have, but it could be a positive step to engage voters by opening up dialogue between the government and public.

White House To Text Threat Warnings

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is creating a text-message system that could be used to alert the public about potential threats, from natural disasters to terrorist attacks.

FEMA says the new system “enables government officials to target emergency alerts to specific geographic areas through cell towers — e.g. Lower Manhattan — which pushes the information to dedicated receivers in PLAN [Personal Localized Alerting Network]-enabled mobile devices,” USA Today reports.

The plan would be opt-in (meaning you won’t get texts if you don’t want them) and include three levels: Alerts issued by the President, alerts on imminent danger and AMBER Alerts for missing children.

Similar technology has been used on college campuses for local alerts with success. Some cities — such as New York City — are also eyeing the technology for local alerts.

Thumbnail image courtesy of iStockphoto, Pgiam; and Flickr, Gage Skidmore, Pauly

More About: barack obama, newt gingrich, politics, president obama, week in digital politics, YouCut

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Amazon Servers Used in Sony Playstation Hack [REPORT]

Posted: 14 May 2011 08:04 AM PDT


Amazon servers may have been used to carry out the massive Playstation hack that compromised the personal information of more than 100 million Playstation Network users.

According to a report from Bloomberg, sources close to the ongoing investigation say the attack was mounted from Amazon Web Service’s cloud computing platform.

The hackers used fake personal information to set up an AWS account. They rented servers in the cloud to carry out the exploit; the related AWS account has already been deleted.

In a previous statement, Sony pointed to loosely organized hacktivist collective Anonymous as the perpetrators behind the hack, citing the calling-card phrase “We are Legion,” which was found on Sony’s servers.

Anonymous countered with an uncharacteristic outright denial, saying that the responsible parties acted alone.

Bloomberg‘s source says the FBI will be handing Amazon a subpoena and search warrant to determine the details of the deleted account, including possibly identifying payment information.

More About: hack, playstation, sony, trending

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Top 10 Twitter Trends This Week [CHART]

Posted: 14 May 2011 07:13 AM PDT

Twitter Chart Image

International holidays almost always win the day when it comes to the world of Twitter trends, and Mother’s Day takes home the prize on this week’s chart. Tweeters took time to wish their moms well, and share facts and sayings about moms all over the world.

If you were scoping out the trending topics earlier this week, you might have noticed a burst of K-Pop activity. At times, nearly every worldwide trending topic was referencing a member of the epic Korean boy band Super Junior. New album? New tour? Celebrity scandal? Nope. Just the first anniversary of the band’s fourth album. Fandom like this puts “Beliebers” to shame. The buzz lands the band at number two.

Soccer hovers in its usual region on the weekly list, this time ending up at number three after one of Mexico’s most popular clubs was eliminated from a playoff tournament.

To see the full list, check out the chart below. Because this is a topical list, hashtag memes and games have been omitted from the chart. The aggregate is based on Twitter’s own trending algorithm, and does not necessarily reflect raw tweet volume.

You can check past Twitter trends in our Top Twitter Topics section.

Top Twitter Trends This Week: 5/6 – 5/12


Rank
Topic
Intensity
Description
#1
Mother’s Day
3
May 8 was Mother’s Day in several countries, including the U.S., the Netherlands, Belgium, Ghana, and Germany. Users are sharing facts about their mothers and things that moms would say.
#2
Super Junior
2
Fans of the South Korean band celebrated the first anniversary of the release of their fourth studio album, Bonamana. There were also a lot of fans tweeting about individual band members, including Lee Hyuk Jae, Park Jungsoo, and Lee Sungmin.
#3
Soccer/Football
1
Club América, the most popular soccer team in Mexico, was eliminated from the playoffs. Some people in the U.S. misunderstood the trend "Adiós América" as a reference to terrorism. Fans congratulated the team Ceará which eliminated Flamengo, the most popular soccer team in Brazil, from the National Soccer Cup. There were also finals for the Dutch Cup (called the KNVB-Beker) which was won by FC Twente.
#4
Justin Bieber
1
It’s been a rough week for Justin Bieber and his fans. The hashtag #KillEmWithKindness was shared often by "Beliebers" as a way to deal with online hostility. Also, Bieber was sick, and fans wished him well, and suggested he take a break from touring.
#5
The Vampire Diaries
1
The finale of the second season aired, in which fan favorite Damon, played by Ian Somerhalder, was bit by a wereworlf and was dying. In the days leading up to the finale, fans were distressed at the possibility of this pivotal character leaving the show.
#6
Google
1
Google unveiled plans for its Chrome OS-powered laptops, dubbed "Chromebooks," as well as the beta version of its new cloud music product. Google also had several notable interactive "Doodles" that caugh the attention of the web.
#7
Jonas Brothers
1
Fans dubbed May 7 "Jonas Brothers Day" because they have a song titled "7:05." Users also tweeted the phrase "Hello Beautiful," the title of another Jonas hit.
#8
Lady Gaga
1
Lady Gaga’s Monster Ball Tour was broadcast on HBO this week to commemorate her final show. Gaga has other singles — "Judas" and "The Edge of Glory" — coming out soon, and fans are getting excited.
#9
NBA
1
Tweeters lost a bit of interest in the NBA Playoffs as more teams were eliminated from the tournament. This week, there were several anti-Laker hashtags (#LakersLockerRoomPlaylist
and #LakersFeelinLike) that belitted the perennial champions. Meanwhile, fans were on the edge of their seats as Game Four between the Memphis Grizzlies and the OKC Thunder went into triple overtime in the Western Conference Semis.
#10
Lorca Earthquake
10
There were two moderate earthquakes in Lorca, in the Region of Murcia, in southeastern Spain on Wednesday, May 11. The first was 4.4-magnitude, the second came in at 5.1. The quakes inflicted substantial damage to many older structures in the area, and nine deaths have been reported.

Data aggregate courtesy of What the Trend.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, 123render

Interested in more Twitter resources? Check out Mashable Explore, a new way to discover information on your favorite Mashable topics.

More About: List, Lists, social media, Top Twitter Topics, trends, twitter, twitter trends

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