I'm not the only Brad Coughlin.

So as I’m searching Twitter (using http://search.twitter.com) for the trending top #swineflu, I notice something pretty obvious. Twitter users are popping up with names like @AboutSwineFlum, @swinefluh1n1, @swineflualerts and @swineflucast. Apparently these users are creating accounts to directly relate to a trending topic – very clever. But how will this affect Twitter as a news source in the future?

Right now when a hot new topic comes up it rapidly becomes a trend on twitter. Searching the topic returns primarily relevant data from real people. If ‘trendbots’ take over every new trend, will it drown out the tweets from human users? Can Twitter prevent users from essentially spamming a trending topic by tweeting the same message and hashtag over and over? Will this tactic ultimately dilute the relevance of Twitter search?

I don’t know. But I’m guessing it will cause some backlash from Twitter users. I’m already finding it irritating only minutes from noticing the trend.

Examples of the spammy user accounts: