Google+ quietly introduces Twitter-like trending topics

Google+ on Thursday night quietly introduced Twitter-like trending topics to its progressing social network. ‘Trends’ as they are officially known on Google+ appear on Google+ Search pages and function very similar to Twitter’s Trending Topics.

Google+ Trends lists 10 of the current most discussed topics on Google+. At the time of writing, the Trends list comprised of Natalie Wood, Regis Philbin, Tim Tebow, Breaking Dawn, Demi Moore, Plane crash, Tiger Woods, Crystal Cathedral, Astro and Syracuse Orange men’s basketball; each linking to their respective Google+ search query.

Since originally launching Google+ Search in September, Google has made some nice improvements to the feature. Google+ users can now target Google+ posts, People and pages or Sparks individually on Google+ Search, but also limit their search to self-published content or content posted by friends.

Google+ already has a Hot topics feature, first introduced at the end of October, that showcases the most shared posts on Google+, so it’s unclear as to how the two will compliment each other.