Skip navigation

The World's 50 Most Innovative Companies

6

Twitter

For amplifying the global dialogue

By Dan Macsai
To illustrate how much Twitter drove our global dialogue, we culled the most talked-about topics into a crossword puzzle below. Click here for the answers.
Across 01 Show that proved voting by text is so American Idol. 06 Punk'd himself off Twitter following misinformed remarks 07 Its aftershocks produced 1,200 tweets per minute 08 Hashtag that inspired such tweets as "Where the Mild Things Are" and "The Audacity of Hope Floats" 13 "AA was written for normal people. People that don’t have ______ and Adonis DNA." 14 Baldwin bro; had words over Words With Friends 17 99% of you should get this one: Abbr. 18 Hashtag that inspired the tweet "The, Departed: Following a dictionary error, the English language is forced to do without its most commonly used word." 21 Egypt’s first day of the rest of its life 23 Fashion powerhouse that staged a "tweetwalk" 24 Was Osama bin Laden’s least-favorite tweeter Down 02 Anger-management meme; tweets include "when you think just because you're taller than me I become your arm rest" and "asking questions when they can Google it" 03 First tweet: "Being a father is sometimes my hardest but always my most rewarding job. Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there." 04 Jobs, creator 05 Filet-O-Fish, but fancy; yes, it actually exists 09 Nickname for Twitter’s "fly" interface rolled out in December 10 Do-good Wendy’s promotion; became the most lauded retweet of 2011 11 Oxymoronic meme; tweets include "I hate when people tell me, 'You're too pretty for tattoos' " 12 This pro hoopster brought the thunder in a flag football pickup game with his followers 14 The junk shot seen ’round the world--or at least on cable news and late-night talk shows during a slow-news summer 15 Scrooge-tastic meme; tweets include "a check dated 12-23-2015" and "a homemade doll made out of old pantyhose" 16 Follow Fryyy-day 19 Twitter queen who wasn't born with 17 million+ followers 20 Football's most-talked-about Cowboys 22 Lil' Kim (hint: not the rapper) Illustration by Peter Oumanski
ACROSS

01 The X Factor, aka Simon Cowell's post-Idol singing competition, was the first TV show to allow live voting via Twitter.

06 Ashton Kutcher turned over his account to his social-media company after a mistakenly sympathetic Joe Paterno tweet.

07 Japan's devastating 8.9-magnitude earthquake inspired a worldwide response of more than 1,200 tweets per minute.

08 Hashtag games like LessInterestingBooks can clog your feed, necessitating products like Slipstream to hide tweets.

13 Tiger blood, coined by Charlie Sheen during his meltdown, was 2011's second-most-popular hashtag. (No. 1? Egypt.)

14 Alec Baldwin deactivated his account following tweets about being kicked off a plane for playing Words With Friends.

17 OWS (short for Occupy Wall Street, of course). Protesters used Twitter to relay information about marches and raids.

18 AddACommaToAMovie was a hashtag game started by an L.A.-based TV writer. "The only downside," he later blogged, "is that you realize how many other funny people there are."

21 January 25, the start date of the Egyptian revolution, became a symbolic hashtag for its coverage and conversation.

23 Burberry premiered its spring/summer 2012 looks on Twitter, seconds before models hit the runway.

24 Sohaib Athar unknowingly live-tweeted the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound, proving yet again that news breaks first on Twitter.

DOWN

02 ThingsThatPissMeOff is the type of evergreen meme that develops a common language among Twitter's 200 million users.

03 Barack Obama began personally tweeting last June. Later, he announced the end of the Iraq war in less than 140 characters.

04 Steve Jobs was Twitter's most-talked-about person last year.

05 McLobster, offered for a limited time at several New England locations, was rumored to be getting a national rollout.

09 NewNew is the nickname for Twitter's "fly" interface launched in December, the brainchild of Twitter chairman Jack Dorsey.

10 The TreatItFwd promotion by Wendy's raised $50,000 for foster care by pledging 50 cents for every retweet.

11 Humblebrag commemorates those cringe-inducing updates from people for whom self-awareness is a foreign language.

12 Kevin Durant, the all-star Oklahoma City Thunder forward (@KDTrey5), kept fans happy during the NBA lockout.

14 Anthony Weiner torpedoed his political career--and pioneered the always-lame "My account got hacked" defense.

15 WorstXmasGift is a Jimmy Fallon--inspired hashtag segment that engages his fans on Twitter and on NBC.

16 Rebecca Black trended for weeks after her captivatingly literal music video "Friday."

19 Lady Gaga fans got #BornThisWayLyrics trending in advance of her single's release.

20 The Dallas Cowboys was last year's most-talked-about pigskin topic, despite--or because of--their maddening mediocrity.

22 Jong-Il: The North Korean dictator's death was largely mocked on Twitter with quips like, "Kim Jong Il? More like Kim Jong Dead."