Twitter has been getting a lot of flack about its “Suggested Users” feature that it provides when people register for a new account.
The problem is that the suggested users are mostly the same-old, same-old, A-lister types – the same people that Google Reader recommends. Rather than expose new and interesting people to follow, Suggested Users simply recycles the digerati, making them more popular because they’re popular.
Twitter co-founder Biz Stone provides an explanation about how “Suggested Users” works, prompted by the fact many people are ignoring the “Suggested Users”.
While he dances around the current methodology, the hard truth is Twitter should just kill “Suggested Users” because it doesn’t work, it’s not popular, it’s elitist by promoting the digerati, and it’s ineffective.
There are lots of better solutions such as Twellow and Mr. Tweet that are more democratic, interesting and valuable.
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Just Kill “Suggested Users” Already
Twitter has been getting a lot of flack about its “Suggested Users” feature that it provides when people register for a new account.
The problem is that the suggested users are mostly the same-old, same-old, A-lister types – the same people that Google Reader recommends. Rather than expose new and interesting people to follow, Suggested Users simply recycles the digerati, making them more popular because they’re popular.
Twitter co-founder Biz Stone provides an explanation about how “Suggested Users” works, prompted by the fact many people are ignoring the “Suggested Users”.
While he dances around the current methodology, the hard truth is Twitter should just kill “Suggested Users” because it doesn’t work, it’s not popular, it’s elitist by promoting the digerati, and it’s ineffective.
There are lots of better solutions such as Twellow and Mr. Tweet that are more democratic, interesting and valuable.
Technorati Tags: twellow, twitter, mrtweet