Twitter is making sure that they are not left out of the year of mobile / local / smart phone etc, etc by announcing a new trending service that helps users figure out what might be the buzz about things in their neck of the woods. More and more we are seeing people getting drawn back to their lives on the move rather than behind the computer screen.

The Twitter blog tells us more about this addition

As Twitter evolves, and more people share what’s happening in their own world, we want to provide another way for people to discover topics that may be relevant to them. Last week we began to slowly roll out a new feature called Local Trends to expose what people are talking about on the state and city level, and today we’ve fully launched so everyone can use it.

The big events that come up around the world will always become a global conversation, but what about the big events that only happen in your world that only matter to those around you? Or the slight differences in the way Californians perceive an event, like Obama’s election victory, versus those São Paulo, Brazil?

Depending on how active your local area is on Twitter this is a welcome addition to the functionality of the service. I think the ability to monitor different geographic areas of interest regarding some event will be a boon to anyone interested in reporting what is happening. Using the example of the Obama election victory is a good one since he has become such a polarizing public figure it might be helpful to know what the buzz on the local streets are in your town and maybe that of somewhere that you are visiting. It can help to get a feel for the mindset of an area if there is enough of a response to the trend you are investigating.

As a tool for marketers it could do great things for research for various geographic groups as well. Understanding the ‘vibe’ of an area could even help in crafting messaging for paid search ads that are being served to that area. Of course, this will not be something that affects businesses universally but it certainly could help the right kind of business.

This year is certainly about getting down to where we live. I wonder sometimes why this has become so important. Maybe it’s because people are finally seeing that while you can have ‘friends’ all around the world via social media channels that you have never met face to face you have to live day to day on the streets of your town.

Hopefully more people will be looking to experience their local lives when they know more rather than wondering what it might be like to be someplace else.

Any local thoughts?