Yahoo has lost another one of its longtime top advertising tech execs, as Advertiser and Publisher Solutions VP Dev Patel ankles out the door.

(I would have posted a photo of him, but the first thousand images I searched for were for the Indian star of “Slumdog Millionaire,” no matter what keywords I put in. Thus, a revolving door.)

Patel came to Yahoo in 2005, after it bought Whereonearth, a local and mobile search start-up where he served as CEO.

Patel has worked on a number of products at Yahoo, most recently its Smart Ads for Homepage offering, which are personalized ad units optimized using user data. It is powered by the Silicon Valley portal’s acquisition of Dapper, which Patel led.

Patel, who worked under Yahoo products head Blake Irving, is reportedly leaving for personal reasons, although others said he was frustrated by its current management. (Or both!)

(Of course, Twitter hasn’t revealed the secret formulas that helped it aggregate, tabulate and rank these topics.)

In the Twitterverse, after the BP oil spill and soccer, the next most popular topic of conversation in 2010 was the movie “Inception,” followed by the Haiti earthquake and the vuvuzela. The iPad, Android, Justin Bieber, Harry Potter and Pulpo Paul round out the top 10. It’s an odd list, indeed.

The person most discussed on Twitter in 2010 was obviously he of the dedicated servers, Mr. Bieber. (It’s somewhat shocking that world events and tech gadgets were able to keep the teen phenom out of the overall top spot.) Beating out her royal highness Lady Gaga, the No. 2 person on Twitter was Brazilian president-elect Dilma Rousseff (pictured).

Here’s the full 2010 list, courtesy of Twitter, followed by 2009′s list for comparison.

2010 Twitter Trends

Overall Top Trends:
1. Gulf Oil Spill
2. FIFA World Cup
3. Inception
4. Haiti Earthquake
5. Vuvuzela
6. Apple iPad
7. Google Android
8. Justin Bieber
9. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
10. Pulpo Paul

News Events:
1. Gulf Oil Spill
2. Haiti Earthquake
3. Pakistan Floods
4. Koreas Conflict
5. Chilean Miners Rescue

People:
1. Justin Bieber
2. Dilma Rousseff
3. Lady Gaga
4. Julian Assange
5. Mel Gibson

Movies:
1. Inception
2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
3. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
4. Despicable Me
5. Karate Kid

Television:
1. MTV Video Music Awards
2. Pretty Little Liars
3. True Blood
4. Walking Dead
5. Grammy Awards

Technology:
1. Apple iPad
2. Google Android
3. Apple iOS
4. Apple iPhone
5. Call of Duty: Black Ops

World Cup:
1. FIFA World Cup
2. Vuvuzela
3. Pulpo Paul
4. Dunga
5. Diego Maradona

Sports:
1. LeBron James
2. Wimbledon
3. Manchester United
4. Brock Lesnar
5. Celtics

Hash Tags:
1. #rememberwhen
2. #slapyourself
3. #confessiontime (hash tag started by Usher)
4. #thingsimiss
5. #ohjustlikeme

2009 Twitter Trends

News Events:
1. #iranelection
2. Swine Flu
3. Gaza
4. Iran
5. Tehran
6. #swineflu
7. AIG
8. #uksnow
9. Earth Hour
10. #inaug09

People:
1. Michael Jackson
2. Susan Boyle
3. Adam Lambert
4. Kobe (Bryant)
5. Chris Brown
6. Chuck Norris
7. Joe Wilson
8. Tiger Woods
9. Christian Bale
10. A-Rod (Alex Rodriguez)

Movies:
1. Harry Potter
2. New Moon
3. District 9
4. Paranormal Activity
5. Star Trek
6. True Blood
7. Transformers 2
8. Watchmen
9. Slumdog Millionaire
10. G.I. Joe

TV Shows:
1. American Idol
2. Glee
3. Teen Choice Awards
4. SNL (Saturday Night Live)
5. Dollhouse
6. Grey’s Anatomy
7. VMAS (Video Music Awards)
8. #bsg (Battlestar Galatica)
9. BET Awards
10. Lost

Sports (Teams, Events, Leagues):
1. Super Bowl
2. Lakers
3. Wimbledon
4. Cavs (Cleveland Cavaliers)
5. Superbowl
6. Chelsea
7. NFL
8. UFC 100
9. Yankees
10. Liverpool

Technology:
1. Google Wave
2. Snow Leopard
3. Tweetdeck
4. Windows 7
5. CES
6. Palm Pre
7. Google Latitude
8. #E3
9. #amazonfail
10. Macworld

Hash Tags:
1. #musicmonday
2. #iranelection
3. #sxsw
4. #swineflu
5. #nevertrust
6. #mm
7. #rememberwhen
8. #3drunkwords
9. #unacceptable
10. #iwish

Despite the little-movie-that-could, “Slumdog Millionaire,” sweeping the Oscars on Sunday night, it was well-nigh impossible to find a really good online video of the amazing Bollywood-style dance routine done during the closing credits to the also award-winning song, “Jai Ho!”

(Even the Pussycat Dolls have covered the song, which loosely translates to “Victory.”)

Unfortunately, the A.R. Rahman tune (two well-deserved Oscars for him!) in the catchy song-and-dance number seemed to be subject to takedowns all over the Web just when it probably was a good time to put it out and generate even more box office buzz for “Slumdog.”

Why? Well, as you can see below from the video mashup on Dailymotion that I finally found, it perfectly communicates the infectious mood of the movie:

This year, the Oscars ceremony will remain decidedly low tech: There won’t be any live online streams where you can watch the 81st Academy Awards.

Because it’s easier to monetize eyeballs directed at television screens rather than computer monitors, your choices are limited to broadcasters ABC in the U.S. and Sky in the U.K.–and a big, fat nada for those who receive neither.

But seriously, who watches the three-hour-plus televised Oscars anymore anyway? Not many, apparently: Last year’s ratings were the lowest in history. This year, besides seeing if a probably singing-and-dancing Wolverine Hugh Jackman can entertain where so many before have failed, learning if your Best Picture prediction hit the mark, or even hoping to catch Christian Bale “Bale out” (a term meaning to unleash an F-bomb-laden tirade–it’s even defined in the urban dictionary now) some poor unsuspecting red carpet usher, there’s not a lot of buzz around the event.

No, like any other big entertainment or sporting event, the awards ceremony itself is but a small part of the experience. The real fun goes on around the Oscars, in Web site predictors, mobile apps and other interactive technology.

Tracking the Winners

Sites like Awards Daily put up Oscar predictions, including a table gathering the guesses of a group of its writers and readers (caution: It might cause glazing-over of the eyes).

But Awards Daily also has tracked the other awards the Oscar nominees have won in the past year, including the Golden Globes and BAFTA. This will provide some helpful research for when you go to fill in your Oscar ballot at the New York Times, where you can compete with others and have your card scored in real time. And Yahoo, conducting a poll, shows the movies favored to grab the little golden man by percentage of user votes.

Meanwhile, “Colbert Report” host Stephen Colbert gave his own predictions earlier last week using what he calls DaColbert Code (as in the DaVinci Code). His ability to “see patterns” consists of using a word/name association game. For instance, starting from last year’s Best Actress Marion Cotillard, he arrives at a Kate Winslet prediction through a series of phrases, including “rice pilaf,” “Clockwork Orange” and “Malcolm X.” Hey, everybody’s got a system, so nobody said it had to be a good one.

And for the truly devoted, or those who are just more interested in the fashion than the films, People.com has put up a Predict-a-Gown photo quiz. Will Cameron Diaz wear the White Valentino or the Black Oscar de la Renta? You see, these are the critical questions we need to be asking, and only the good folks at People were brave enough to ask them.

Mobile and Web 2.0

iPhone’s App Store has some popular Oscar apps like the “Awards: Oscars Edition” and “Hollywood Trivia: The Oscar Quiz,” which provide all sorts of fun interactive functionality in ballots, games and history. See a list of the top apps at VentureBeat.

Meanwhile, if you want to tap into the Bollywood fanbase, especially inspired by the many nominations for “Slumdog Millionaire” this year, go to Saavn.com, which is hosting a Bollywood-Facebook widget. The widget tracks the Facebook status updates of users talking about the Oscars.

And of course, what Web 2.0 party would be complete without Twitter? Use either #Oscars or #aa09 when searching for relevant updates. You can also subscribe to @watchwithcomics, a group of comedians who will be live-Twittering the event. One recent update there was “10 People Who Would Be Better Hosts than Hugh Jackman,” which included “Wolverine” and “Mini-Chris Brown and Mini-Rihanna.” Wow, these guys aren’t joking around.

This year, the Oscars ceremony will remain decidedly low tech: There won’t be any live online streams where you can watch the 81st Academy Awards.

Because it’s easier to monetize eyeballs directed at television screens rather than computer monitors, your choices are limited to broadcasters ABC in the U.S. and Sky in the U.K.–and a big, fat nada for those who receive neither.

But seriously, who watches the three-hour-plus televised Oscars anymore anyway? Not many, apparently: Last year’s ratings were the lowest in history. This year, besides seeing if a probably singing-and-dancing Wolverine Hugh Jackman can entertain where so many before have failed, learning if your Best Picture prediction hit the mark, or even hoping to catch Christian Bale “Bale out” (a term meaning to unleash an F-bomb-laden tirade–it’s even defined in the urban dictionary now) some poor unsuspecting red carpet usher, there’s not a lot of buzz around the event.

No, like any other big entertainment or sporting event, the awards ceremony itself is but a small part of the experience. The real fun goes on around the Oscars, in Web site predictors, mobile apps and other interactive technology.

Tracking the Winners

Sites like Awards Daily put up Oscar predictions, including a table gathering the guesses of a group of its writers and readers (caution: It might cause glazing-over of the eyes).

But Awards Daily also has tracked the other awards the Oscar nominees have won in the past year, including the Golden Globes and BAFTA. This will provide some helpful research for when you go to fill in your Oscar ballot at the New York Times, where you can compete with others and have your card scored in real time. And Yahoo, conducting a poll, shows the movies favored to grab the little golden man by percentage of user votes.

Meanwhile, “Colbert Report” host Stephen Colbert gave his own predictions earlier last week using what he calls DaColbert Code (as in the DaVinci Code). His ability to “see patterns” consists of using a word/name association game. For instance, starting from last year’s Best Actress Marion Cotillard, he arrives at a Kate Winslet prediction through a series of phrases, including “rice pilaf,” “Clockwork Orange” and “Malcolm X.” Hey, everybody’s got a system, so nobody said it had to be a good one.

And for the truly devoted, or those who are just more interested in the fashion than the films, People.com has put up a Predict-a-Gown photo quiz. Will Cameron Diaz wear the White Valentino or the Black Oscar de la Renta? You see, these are the critical questions we need to be asking, and only the good folks at People were brave enough to ask them.

Mobile and Web 2.0

iPhone’s App Store has some popular Oscar apps like the “Awards: Oscars Edition” and “Hollywood Trivia: The Oscar Quiz,” which provide all sorts of fun interactive functionality in ballots, games and history. See a list of the top apps at VentureBeat.

Meanwhile, if you want to tap into the Bollywood fanbase, especially inspired by the many nominations for “Slumdog Millionaire” this year, go to Saavn.com, which is hosting a Bollywood-Facebook widget. The widget tracks the Facebook status updates of users talking about the Oscars.

And of course, what Web 2.0 party would be complete without Twitter? Use either #Oscars or #aa09 when searching for relevant updates. You can also subscribe to @watchwithcomics, a group of comedians who will be live-Twittering the event. One recent update there was “10 People Who Would Be Better Hosts than Hugh Jackman,” which included “Wolverine” and “Mini-Chris Brown and Mini-Rihanna.” Wow, these guys aren’t joking around.