• The band has been the subject of a seemingly self-induced Twitter trending topic since last night. Do you like metal? How about spam that completely eats up Twitter? Deadly Fate has both in spades. And despite their strategy to overload the Twitter trending topics with tweets mentioning their MySpace page, they don’t seem to have gained any fans since last night, when they started trending. Wonder why. source

• Looks like NBC is continuing their Winter Olympics coverage with a new downhill event… The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
• A bunch of tweeters (although @offdutygnome was first) • In pretty much the funniest quip to be made about Jay Leno’s return to the Tonight Show. It’s been picking up steam on the site tonight ever since YouTube star Philip DeFranco tweeted about it. If you ask us, this is the funniest thing that will come out of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. It’s all downhill from here. source

• It seems like every freaking day now. We don’t necessarily think it’s our place to tell a bunch of teenage girls what to think, but the Justin Bieber love is a bit much. This kid, at the tender age of 15 (he turns 16 on Monday) seems to have Twitter’s trending topics by the throat. And tonight, there he was, right behind Chile. You know, a massive earthquake that’s killed hundreds. Our question: Is he really taking over Twitter? We did some research.

His YouTube roots

• Usher discovered him on YouTube. Perhaps it’s fitting that Bieber, teen pop’s first true social media phenomenon, was discovered that way. The interesting thing is that the videos prove that he’s really talented, and just happens to be pushed by the major labels. Interesting. source

Bieber’s rank on the charts

• 6th Bieber’s album peak, which he hit back with “My World” back in December source
• 16th Bieber’s single peak, which he hit in October with “One Less Lonely Girl” source
• 2nd Bieber’s Twitter peak, which he’s at this week, according to tracker What the Trend source

• Why is he peaking now? Simply put, he has a lot of buzz behind him – he sang the opening line to “We Are the World 25,” for example – and, more importantly, he has a new album
  coming out at the end of next month. That was quick.

Popularity against major news stories

• Chile For now, Bieber’s popularity with teenage girls can’t hold a candle to one of the largest quakes to hit in 50 years.
• #hcr Last year, health care was more popular than Bieber. After Scott Brown’s win, Bieber consistently trumps it.
• Haiti While the Haiti quake was huge at first, of Twitter, Bieber has started topping the crisis in recent weeks.

Popularity against major pop stars

• Jay-Z The rapper basically owned Twitter the week of his album release in September. But he faded quickly. Bieber hasn’t.
• Gaga Lady Gaga might be the best comparison to Bieber – consistently popular week after week, moreso than Bieber.
• Miley On the teen-pop front, his biggest competitor is losing her grip in terms of social media influence. Bieber’s ahead now.

Conclusion: Is Bieber as popular as he looks?

• perception Every time you look at the trending topics, the perky teenage boy seemingly has the site in his (and his record company’s) pocket.
• reality Bieber has never straight-up owned Twitter’s real estate, but he has shown a lot of consistency over the last month or so. source

• The finally unblocked Twitter, Facebook and so on. About time. For three years, if you used a military computer, you couldn’t access sites like Twitter and Facebook, despite the obvious advantages they offer. No longer. “The purpose of the policy is to recognize that we need to take advantage of these Internet-based capabilities,” said deputy assistant secretary of defense David Wennergren, “These Web 2.0 tools need to be part of what we use.” Even with the possibility of info leaks, we’re glad the military finally changed this policy. It came later than it should’ve. source

• 101,377 number of followers @ConanOBrien has – in just THREE HOURS; way to rally the troops, dude
• 30,061 number of followers @JayLeno has, which has been running since May and isn’t written by him

The pitch-perfect intro

• Today I interviewed a squirrel in my backyard and then threw to commercial. Somebody help me.
• Conan O’Brien • In his heavily-retweeted “Hello, World” to the Web. There was some question as to whether the account was initially real, but it now has a spankin’ “Verified Account” stamp on it. We wonder if this Twitter account is the suggestion of bigger things. You know, like a tour. source

• Protip: If you see a screen like this with a URL like that after clicking on a link labed “This You????”, avoid logging into Twitter. It’s a pretty tricky phishing scheme that has nailed lots of people already. Don’t let one of them be you! source

• What they’re doing The AP has been linking to all of their stories on Twitter through their Facebook page, which is something Sarah Palin would do. But the world’s largest news organization?
• Why it’s smart Because it allows people to easily comment socially on the stories Facebook posts. It centralizes an often-decentralized presence in online media.
• Why it’s stupid Dudes, you realize that you can easily do something similar on your own site using Facebook Connect and Disqus, right? Then you get to keep all the ad money! source

• Just you watch now, too, because somebody will be here with their little Twittering thing, and it’s going to be on the Internet any minute now.
• Sarah Palin • Speaking at a Republican Party function yesterday. The former presidential candidate, who regularly takes to Facebook to complain about some stupid crap, is now a Twitter trending topic as a result of this. Will this be enough to ruin her career and presidential hopes? God, we hope so. source