From news of Mubarak’s resignation in Egypt to buzz about which McDonald’s restaurants serve McLobster, the top trends that emerged on Twitter in 2011 reflect the diverse things that matter to us in our daily lives. The list of Hot Topics and Top Hashtags charts the keywords that rose the fastest in conversation over the course of the year. This reveals what grabbed our attention most dramatically in 2011, and which events, inventions, changes and ideas made the deepest impression on us. Continued at Twitter Blog: #YearInReview: Hot Topics and Top Hashtags of 2011.

The beauty of a hashtag is that no one can control it. A hashtag is not like a marketing, media, or political message, whose creator thinks it can be created and controlled. It is not like the namespace in domains, on Facebook and Google+, or in trademarks, for anyone can use a hashtag without permission or payment. It’s not like a dictionary with one definition. It’s not like a word on an FCC list that prohibits or chills its use.A hashtag is open and profoundly democratic. People gather around a hashtag. They salute it and spread it or ignore it and let it wither. They imbue it with their own meaning. The creator quickly and inevitably