Twitter adds 100 more cities to its local trends function

The tool allows users to view the most talked about subjects in their local area

Twitter has announced it is to extend its ‘trending by city’ feature to an additional 100 locations. (Getty Images)

Twitter has announced it is to extend its ‘trending by city’ feature to an additional 100 locations.

The tool, formerly known as ‘trending topics’, is one of the more popular functions on the social networking site - allowing users to view the most talked about subjects in their local area.

In a blog post on its website, Twitter said: “Today, we’re bringing Trends to 100 more cities around the world including Istanbul, Frankfurt, Guadalajara and Incheon. With this update, we now surface the ‘most breaking’ news in more than 200 locations”.

In a practical sense, the tool acts as a filter for Twitter users to limit trend results to cover just a specified location.

The function has been used to share information locally on a wide range of subjects, including natural disasters and emergencies such as Hurricane Sandy, and sporting events such as the London Olympics.

Localised rescue operations have been co-ordinated using the tool and, following the 2011 UK riots, it was also used to coordinate citizen tidy-up operations via #riotcleanup.

While it is obviously popular with Twitter users searching for local information, the tool is also of use to those in the media who, in a click of a button, can discover the most-talked about subjects or breaking news stories in a specified area.

In Istanbul, Turkey this morning, top trends included '#tekkişiyim' - a song by the rock band Kesmeşeker; 'Fenerbahçe - Göztepe' - tweets about the football clubs; and 'Kobe Bryant' - the US basketball player who reached 30,000 career points last night.

In Frankfurt, Germany today the top trends were '#FCBBOR' - tweets about Bayern Munich's 4-1 Champions League victory over Borisov last night; the self-explanatory '#mentionatwitterbestfriend'; and 'Nikolaus' - tweets about St Nikolaus Day which is celebrated today.

In Guadalajara, Mexico the trends were '#QuieroConfesarlesQue' - which tweeters use to confess their secrets; '#BTRForGrammy' - a campaign for the American boy band Big Time Rush to win a Grammy; and 'PSY' - tweets about the Gangnam star's Grammy nomination.

Finally, in Incheon, South Korea this morning, top trends included 'watershed', 'meeting' and 'generously' - all political trends about the forthcoming presidential election on 19 December and its candidates Moon Jae-in and Park Geun-hye.