I find trend- and buzz-type tools interesting. I do so many odd searches for obscure things that I tend to lose sight of more popular searches. One good thing about Facebook opening up its data a bit more is there are more kinds of trending tools available, including one I recently read about on TechCrunch.

ItsTrending, at http://www.itstrending.com/, does not rely on what your friends are doing, so being logged in to Facebook is not required to make the most of it. (Though if you are logged into Facebook, and one of your friends was one of the ones who shared something, that will be noted.) The front page is divided up into several sections that show popular links from videos, news, casual games, etc. (And when I say “Popular,” I mean popular as in “9976 people shared this.”)

The top of the page is divided into several sections where you can get more focused trending items, including videos (from several different sources), news (ditto), images, sports, gaming, and entertainment. Unlike Like Button, you can’t add columns of your own material.

Though the design looks better to me, I don’t think I like this site as much as Like Button because I can’t customize it. On the other hand, if you’re not logged in to Facebook or don’t have a Facebook account, I think you’ll find this providing of more interesting/useful things. Worth a look.