• VentureBeat, Thursday, March 26, 2009 11:45 AM

In a blog post, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone compares its "Suggested Users" list to a series of "staff picks" at a local bookstore, but later reveals that the process of choosing the list is a great deal more complicated than that. It all starts with an algorithm created by Twitter's chief scientist. Then, Stone and some members of Twitter's product team filter out anyone that shouldn't be on it. The list then goes through one final "gut check" before being sent out to users.

So, what can Twitter users do to be picked up by the algorithm? "Really, it seems like it comes down to your widespread appeal," says VentureBeat's MG Siegler. "Basically, to me, that means how likely new users to Twitter are to know who you are, and as such, follow you. So yes, basically, it helps to be famous."

Is that a bad thing? Siegler doesn't think so. "Twitter's intentions are good here -- Twitter is simply not useful if you don't follow anyone, and new users are probably much more likely to at first follow a celebrity or well-known person, rather than just some random person." One thing the service could use, he says, is a "side column that suggests people you may know based on your social graph. It sort of has this based on email, but that doesn't work all that well."

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