Best 25 Sites to Find out What’s Hot and Trending Online

Posted on June 10th, 2025 by Quertime Writer in Web Tools

Everyone wants to make the most out of the hot and trending online topics. With the whole world now connected, it might become difficult to find out what subjects are the most popular. Gaining insight is easy, but gaining meaningful insight is a lot more difficult. These tools will help you spot the hottest topics in any given niche so you’ll never be out of the loop.

1. Google Trends

Google Trends is a powerful platform for examining topics that are becoming popular worldwide and locally on a nearly real-time basis. Users are able to see trending search words, newly published news, and seasonality of interests in almost any topic. You can compare keywords’ popularity, view historical trends, and filter for time, location, and subject. This can be used for marketers, journalists, and people researching topics to determine what is interesting for the public. Google Trends can also be valuable for discovering viral content, brand and/or person awareness, or building search engine optimization (SEO) campaigns. Google Trends provides everyone with the opportunity to stay ahead of the learning curve by showing what is currently piquing the curiosity of the world.

2. X (formerly Twitter) – Trending Topics

X, previously Twitter, displays trending topics on the Explore page in real time. Trending topics represent what is being discussed, has hashtags created, or conversations had on X – specific to certain locations and interests. Trending topics can include breaking news, celebrity gossip, what’s trending in the world, or memes trending on the internet – the trending topics provide an instantaneous pulse on what is trending in public discourse and where attention may lie. This is particularly useful for journalists, influencers and strategists that seek to join a viral conversation or be in the know, and be informed. The way you interact with trending content on X allows you to engage with it, and for those reasons, standing on its own as a singular ‘hub’ on discovering what is trending online in real time contributes to its appeal.

3. TikTok Discover Page

The Discover page on TikTok is the definitive source to find viral videos, trending challenges, common trending hashtags, and emerging creators. The content is updated constantly, showing real-time data of user engagement and popularity. The Discover page organizes and presents trends based on a user’s category preferences, including beauty, fashion, music, and comedy. The personalized feed allows users to quickly jump onto content trends in real-time, based on interests (expressed with likes, follows, and shares). It is an indispensable tool to research cultural moments, trending audio clips, or viral movements for both marketers and creators. The Discover page is vital to understanding what captures the attention of younger audiences, as well as predicting upcoming internet trends before they go mainstream.

4. Reddit – Popular and Trending Subreddits

Reddit’s r/popular highlights the most upvoted posts from throughout the platform’s wide-ranging communities. If you’re looking for what’s trending across categories like tech, news, science, entertainment, and even sports, r/popular is an excellent starting point. Reddit’s unique upvoting system allows the best content to rise higher, based on its popularity with users. Trending subreddits usually feature hot discussions, breaking news, memes, and more interesting conversations that may not be covered elsewhere. Reddit can be a unique site for understanding how trends evolve, offering a deeper, often more reflectively analytical lens than other social media platforms. It’s also a unique way to discover popular opinion on the ground level, niche internet culture, and perhaps the best way to track trends climbing up the Internet but which have not yet exploded.

5. Exploding Topics

Exploding topics finds emerging trends before they are anywhere close to mainstream. By analyzing search data, discussion & other digital signals; Exploding Topics identifies the growth of long-term trends instead of fleeting (viral) moments. Categories are clearly defined, including business, technology, health, fashion and more. Each identified topic comes with data visualizations and trend forecasts to assist marketers, entrepreneurs and content creators to identify trend-spotting real time opportunities. All of the data is valuable for being ahead of the curve, especially in a competitive space and revive reasons on unleashing unexploited niches and innovation. And with a nice interface and succinct overview on each topic and lots of recent research, Exploding Topics is a powerful platform for trend forecasting and unique transformational strategies.

6. Google News – Top Stories

Google News brings together the latest top stories from credible sources from all parts of the world and provides you a broad look at what is going on. It organizes the news by topics, such as World, Business, Technology, and Health, and it allows headlines to be tailored to your interests and area. This makes it a great source to gather what is trending globally and or locally. Google news also features fact-checked material and a source for full coverage so the viewer can dive deeper into a developing story. Google News is perfect for anyone looking for credible real-time breaking news and major headlines. It is a great way to keep on top of what is hot in the news business.

7. Pinterest Trends

Pinterest Trends shows users what users are searching and saving on Pinterest. It reflects intent and will give information on trends to come in fashion, food, home, travel, and more. Pinterest is not a real-time platform but is firmly rooted more in early-stage planning behavior. These factors make Pinterest an extremely valuable predictive tool for seasonal or other upcoming trends. Brands and creators including us, utilize Pinterest Trends to ensure that the content strategy, product design, and campaigns mirror what users are actively engaging with. Pinterest Trends provides vertical filters, top searches images and more to easily inform you of where the audience is headed, and what is trending with their audience. Those in visual, lifestyle or consumer industries must use Pinterest Trends!

8. TrendHunter

TrendHunter is one of the largest trend-spotting platforms in the world, with thousands of articles and reports on new and emerging trends in the areas of innovation, culture, business, or technology. It includes curated micro-trends, consumer insights, and product innovations with data and expert analysis. We encourage marketers, designers, and entrepreneurs (just about anyone really) to explore TrendHunter for trend reports, idea galleries, and more tailored research tools. They cover everything from viral marketing campaigns to fringe futuristic product design, making it a bona fide treasure chest of creative stimulus and competitor watch. Its trend-based forecasting will help companies keep an edge in the fast-paced and constantly evolving market, and to get in on what’s coming next.

9. Flipboard

Flipboard is an application that aggregates trending articles and stories from sources with editorial standards in various subjects, such as technology, health, politics, entertainment, and lifestyle. Users can either follow curated “magazines” by Flipboard or create their own magazines from unlimited sources, which make the platform customizable and discovering content. Its ground-up trending section is aggregated from its user engagement and relevance, giving users a simple look at the latest news and trending ideas. Its eye-catching layout and ability to pull in articles from a variety of sources makes Flipboard a reader-friendly and magazine-optimized way to stay up to date on soon-to-be trending content. Whether you’re looking for inspiration or knowledge, Flipboard has a smart, modern, dynamic and easy way to explore trending content from around the web.

10. Hacker News (Y Combinator)

Hacker News is a community-driven site from Y Combinator, its focus is on tech, startups, science, and programming. From the trending section, you can browse the most upvoted articles and discussions from its community of users. It’s often where people discover innovations, open-source projects, and interesting ideas, so it’s a great place to keep developers, entrepreneurs, and investors in the know regarding industry trends and new technologies. Unlike a regular news outlet, you will find peer-curated, detailed insights and commentary. In addition to the simplicity of the interface, it is focused on content over typography/images, which allows for productive discussions that rely on the intellectual engagement of others. Hacker News is also helpful to see what’s trending any all things tech and startup.

11. PopSugar Trending

PopSugar Trending is an excellent example of a site that resonates with pop culture, fashion, beauty, fitness, and entertainment through a lively, fun-spirited lens. If you are looking to find out what millennials and Gen Z are buzzing about – celebrity news, viral TikTok videos, health hacks, fashion inspo – it is a spot to consider. The site collects what’s trending right now and marries it to lifestyle in capabilities like quizzes, how-tos, and listicles; it is time-based, timely content. It is best suited for consumption by people who want to stay on top of what is trending in the mainstream in pop culture, Providing an informative opinion while keeping the vibe light! It resonates most prominently with audiences who are looking for the trends in the adventure and wellness spaces.

12. Steam Charts / Top Games

Steam Charts and Top Games provide real-time statistics on the most-played PC games on Steam. The site provides data on how many concurrent players are currently playing the game, peak concurrent players, and trending new releases. It serves as a relatively useful resource for gamers, developers, and industry analysts alike to examine how popular games performing and player engagement trends. In addition to current statistics, users can view historical data to see how some titles trend downward or upward over time. When looking for the most popular multiplayer games, or for new upcoming indie games, Steam Charts provides a useful overview of what is in style among gamers.

13. Trendwatching

Trendwatching provides global consumer trend insights and innovation ideas through evaluation, newsletters, and reports. Trendwatching emphasizes purpose-driven and human-centered trends that communicate the transformation and evolution of consumer behavior across various sectors and industries. Companies, marketers, innovation teams and product teams leverage the tools from Trendwatching to prepare for new market scenarios, find opportunities to respond to new or unresolved consumer needs, and create a future-oriented plan. Trendwatching covers topics like sustainability, digital transformation, and societal shifts, while providing professionals an opportunity to see the bigger picture. With an emphasis on insights that require action and future forecasting, Trendwatching is a leading source of trend intelligence and inspiration for any strategist.

14. Spotify Charts / Trending Music

Spotify Charts provides up to date rankings of the most popular songs in real-time and on a weekly basis, globally or in-country. You can view the top songs, the viral songs, and charts by genres. Spotify is a place to review what’s hot for listeners and it’s updated regularly. The rankings represent user interactions or engagement, which can help indicate listening trends that are helpful to music lovers, artists, and those in the music industry. The Viral 50 chart is particularly useful to find new songs that are getting traction. Spotify Charts indicate musical trends, create pop culture, and allow listeners to discover new songs. If you want to have your finger on the pulse of music today, Spotify Charts is the place to go.

15. Feedly

Feedly is a content aggregator that helps people track the most discussed articles, blogs, and news in their area of interest. Users actively engage with Feedly by subscribing to their selected topics or RSS feeds. Feedly will then push real-time updates from top sources around the web to its users. By employing an AI-powered feature called Leo, Feedly helps you prioritize important content and filter irrelevant noise. Feedly is perfect for professionals, researchers, and enthusiasts who want to stay on top of industry trends, innovations, and niche updates. Feedly is a personal knowledge hub that enables you to check in on related developments and ensures you’ll never miss what’s hot in your field.

16. Facebook – Trending Reels and News

Facebook Watch provides a curated feed of trending Reels, videos, and news stories trending based on what everyone else is watching. Facebook Watch offers great algorithm-driven content that utilizes your viewing history to showcase viral videos, entertainment clips, and breaking news. This way, you see what’s trending with your social group and more! Often brands and creators will engage trending Reels for engagement and reach. From short-form comedy to dance trends to hot topics in the news, Facebook Watch is in the loop of what’s the latest viral content across Facebook that is trending!

17. Know Your Meme

Know Your Meme is like a Wikipedia for memes. Not only does it provide explanations and context for each new meme, but it also charts their history and trending patterns. It also highlights recent memes and trending topics.

18. Buzzsumo

Buzzsumo is perhaps one of the most complex hot topic tracking tools out there. It uses a massive database, and the interface is quite easy to use. It also tracks influencers and can point out the types of content that are most popular for a given topic.

19. Product Hunt

Finding out what’s fresh and popular is not just about ideas and keywords. If you’re interested in E-commerce, Product Hunt is the place for you. It works like any trend search engine, but it focuses on products, rather than ideas.

20. Quora

Quora is a social media platform with a more specific focus than Facebook or Twitter. It brings together users and experts discussing a wide variety of subjects. And you can use these conversations to track subjects that are of interest within a community, and how people feel about these topics.

21. What’s Trending

A pretty straightforward online tool, What’s Trending allows you to see the most popular post on a wide variety of online platforms. It’s a very handy tool when you need to do some quick research. The types of topics it looks at are mostly entertainment related.

22. Social Mention

Social Mention is a social media search engine with a twist. You can look up a term and see how many times it was mentioned across social media platforms. But it also offers other useful insights, such as what the users’ sentiments towards that topic were. It’s beneficial when trying to distinguish between positive and negative trending topics.

23. Similar Web

The main purpose of Similar Web is to give an in-depth analysis of your own content, who’s sharing it, where they’re sharing, and what you could to improve it. But it also allows you to track trending topics based on your interests and needs.

24. Trendspottr

Trendspottr is specifically designed to help you make the most out of trending content. Not only does it point out hot topics, but it can also even help you make predictions and spot influencers to help you stay ahead of your competition.

25. LikeButton

This app is powered by Facebooks own Like button. The basic function of LikeButton is to allow you to add a Like button on your website, to connect to your Facebook account. But it also provides useful statistics and analysis of trending topics and lets you see how your content fares on social media. It’s a nifty little tool you should consider investing in.

26. YouTube Trends

This list would not be complete without the Youtube Trends Dashboard. While everyone looks at the Facebook or Twitter to spot trends, Youtube is sometimes overlooked. But it’s definitely one of the most powerful content sharing platforms, and one you should really keep an eye on if you truly want to know what’s hot.

As the world of social media evolves, so will these tools. Many of them might seem pretty basic right now, but given time they’ll probably evolve in new and surprising ways. If there are any useful tools we’ve left out, feel free to add them.

Author: Graham Rand

Graham Rand is a Technical Writer, with an extensive writing experience about business strategy, management, and corporate citizenship. Graham Rand is a regular contributor at Surveyassistants.com, one of the up and coming blogs related to the business industry.