Twitter trends, 2012: Republicans trounce Democrats, Giants beat Yankees, US no-show on country list

So, what did Americans tweet about in 2012? Twitter's trending recap for the year may hold a few surprises. 

1) Republicans threw Democrats under the bus when it comes to hashtags — here's the rundown, most-used to least-used: 

1. #tcot
2. #teaparty
3. #gop
4. #romney
5. mitt romney
6. #dnc2012
7. charlotte
8. #gop2012
9. #rnc
10. #obama2012

2) #Sfgiants way ahead of #Yankees (OK, there was the whole World Series thing, but still): 

1. #nfl
2. #nascar
3. #mlb
4. olympics
5. #sfgiants
6. jeremy lin
7. super bowl
8. dwight howard
9. kobe
10. #yankees

3) The US didn't make America's top ten most-tweeted countries, but, oh snap! Canada did: 

1. #syria
2. china
3. japan
4. iran
5. India
6. afghanistan
7. australia
8. israel
9. italy
10. Canada

4) Food and the bizarre tweetability of Olive Garden: 

1. ihop
2. starbucks
3. waffle house
4. mcdonalds
5. bbq
6. #coffee
7. taco bell
8. denny's
9. burger king
10. olive garden

5) When it comes to technology, Apple gets trounced by…AT&T? Indeed: 

1. at&t
2. iphone
3. instagram
4. skype
5. kindle
6. ipad
7. pinterest
8. draw something
9. amazon
10. apple

6) Proof that you don't have to be a newshound to enjoy Twitter: #justplaying the top conversation-starter, way ahead of #news: 

1. #nowplaying
2. #oomf
3. #blessed
4. #quote
5. #lrt
6. #salute
7. #news
8. #followfriday
9. #throwbackthursday
10. #shoutout

See the full report from Twitter here.