This week Twitter has rolled out a new option to locate trending topics by location.

‘Local Trends' as it is pragmatically named allows you to set a specific location, from a choice of 6 countries (Brazil, Canada, Ireland, Mexico, United Kingdom and United States), 15 cities (London, Sao Paulo and 13 US cities) and Worldwide. The Twitter team are working on expanding this as I type so check back here for more news on this soon.

The option to select one of the above locations is above the trending topics tab on the right-hand side of your account.

What is the value of trending topics you might ask? Trending topics are huge popular discussions.

Big news items frequently make the list, as do popular celebrities, sports teams and seemingly random phrases.

In my own experience Twitter has been a good source for breaking news in the past. I first found out about the news of Steve McNair's death, Kanye West's infamous outburst and today, the transfer of Yildiray Basturk to Blackburn Rovers (football) thanks to Twitter trending topics. As for some trending topics, they highlight the use of youngsters using Twitter to me (see screenshot below).

With the option to select the United Kingdom local trends I could potentially no longer have read the trends which are irrelevant to me from across the pond or from South America.

With #mangojuice and #LT10UK currently making the top 10 trending topics in the United Kingdom, it doesn't take much to get onto the list in its early days. I live in hope of my name making the list for my 15 minutes of fame! Retweet please!