In 2009, tweeps steered away from politics

[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/08/21/art.twitter.cnn.jpg caption="In 2009 it seemed all of Washington was buzzing about Twitter, but were people on Twitter buzzing about Washington?"]Washington (CNN) – Among all the hype this year in Washington about Twitter, the top conversations occurring on the popular social networking Web site during 2009 were anything but political.

Looking back on the year that Twitter became mainstream, Twitter's Chief Scientist Abdur Chowdhury wrote on Twitter's blog, "Trending Topics helped us understand what was happening around the world showing us that people everywhere can be united in concern around important events; excited about a new movie; or geek-out about a major new technology."

The most noticeable Washington-based story users tweeted about was South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson's "You lie!" outburst during President Obama's address to Congress in September. In the category of "people" most tweeted about, Wilson was seventh, beating out Tiger Woods, Christian Bale and A-Rod. Michael Jackson was most tweeted about person in 2009, followed by surprise singing sensations Susan Boyle and Adam Lambert.

The Iran Election was the most discussed "news event" on Twitter in 2009, followed by the Swine Flu. Many tweeted about news coming from the Middle East (Gaza, Iran, Tehran) and the seventh most tweeted story was about AIG. No. 10 was the hash tag - a popular way to keep track of a story– "#inaug09," for President Obama's inauguration.

The most tweeted about movie in 2009 was Harry Potter, and American Idol was the most buzzed about television show. Politically themed Saturday Night Live came in forth place in the TV category.

As for all things technology based, "Google Wave" was the top Trending Topic.