By Samreen Hayat, Web Sub Editor www.gulfnews.com
Dubai: Armed with sheer willpower, undying persistence and what appears to be powerful thumbs, the netizens of Dubai have managed to push Dubai Metro right to the top of social networking site Twitter’s trending topics.
Twitter, the micro-blogging social network that allows users to broadcast whatever they please in 140 characters or less, has seen ballooning popularity in recent months.
Twitter’s trending topics outline the most talked about things in the web-universe at that particular moment. Most headline grabbing incidents, such as Michael Jackson’s death, typically reign supreme on the top ten list.
As Dubai prepares to create history later tonight with the official launch of the Dubai Metro, the Gulf’s first mass rail transit system, proud UAE tweeters made it their project to get this momentous occasion in the trending topics.
‘It wld take every 1 of us 2 make #dubaimetro a trend topic on twttr & show the world how proud we r of this achievement!’ Emirati tweeter @wildpeeta (www.twitter.com/wildpeeta) said early on Wednesday morning, urging fellow internet inhabitants to reach the goal.
With pure persistence (and a whole lot of help), six hours later, Dubai Metro beat out hot topics like Apple, which is expected to make a big announcement later on Wednesday, American rapper Jay-Z and legendary British band The Beatles, to hit the number one spot.
Dubai’s own twitterverse erupted in joy upon the achievements.
‘W00T! We own Twitter!’ Alexander McNabb who tweets at www.twitter.com/alexandermcnabb said.
Grant Bishop (www.twitter.com/dxbluey) agreed: “On the day Apple and the Beatles make huge announcements – Dubai Metro was the #1 trending topic. pretty cool.”
However, later in the day as users across the world started to wake up, #dubaimetro soon fell down the ranks. The aim then was to bring it back up at 9pm when the spectacular inaugural ceremony will take place.
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