There are other ways to stay on top of trending topics besides Twitter. This clever, free application lets you see which news stories are getting the most attention worldwide.

FREE & USEFUL | Top 10 Trending Topics is a feature on the Twitter website that lists in order of importance whatever subject matter—from hard news to twaddle—is most on the minds of tweeters at any given nanosecond in the Twitterverse.

Newsmap is an application that tracks trending topics, too. It employs a hierarchy of colour blocks to highlight the currently hottest stories on the websites of legitimate news outlets in 15 countries. This free service is news you can view, and although it isn’t interactive the way Twitter’s Trending Topics is, it can be addictive if you’re any kind of a news junkie at all. Read more