The Suggested Users List, commonly abbreviated "SUL," has long been a source of controversy for the company. Meant to offer a helpful introduction to Twitter novices about what sort of interesting people, companies, and services can be found on Twitter, the list has angered many who felt it was a way Twitter could show favoritism towards some accounts while ignoring others potentially more worthy of inclusion.

Noted tech legend Dave Winer argued that Twitter was taking an editorial interest in their service, and one that rapidly inflated the follower counts of those blessed with Twitter's "gift." Meanwhile, Mahalo CEO Jason Calacanis offered the company half a million dollars for three years on the list. (Twitter didn't take him up on the offer.)

The benefits to getting on the list are great indeed. Users added to the SUL, gained on average of 53,000 new followers after being on the list for a week and 170,000 within the first month. Some users even gained as many as 370,000 in the first 30 days.

For a service favored by marketers, businesses, and other self-promoters, placement on the SUL was a surefire ticket to Twitter stardom. New followers meant more traffic to the websites linked in the Twitter updates and more traffic meant more money could be made through on-site advertising. It was almost as if Twitter itself was writing you a check.

Thankfully, in this case, Twitter has listened to their community and is planning on a more egalitarian system. The only question now is how will they know which accounts to suggest? Of course, there is still the old stand-by method of importing your email address book to suggest users you already know who are on the service. But what Twitter plans on offering sounds a little more robust. Perhaps they will introduce an algorithm that takes into account a Twitter user's "authority?"

If that's the case, Twitter may be jumping out of the proverbial frying pan and into the fire. This is because there isn't solid agreement as to how "authority" should be calculated. Late last year, Twitter app Seesmic creator's Loic Le Meur started a heated back-and-forth on the matter when he wrote a blog post which said that Twitter should rank search results by the number of followers you have. More followers meant more authority, he said. Social media guru and blogger Robert Scoble quickly countered saying that the number of people you follow was actually a more important number as is the number of retweets, the number of favorited tweets, the number of inbound links to a tweet and the number of clickthroughs on an item in Twitter search. Soon, the entire tech blogosphere was engaged in the discussion with seemingly every blog weighing in with their opinion.

And this was only a casual discussion among Twitter users based on one person's suggestion. Imagine what an official policy change by Twitter will lead to! Clearly, no matter what the company comes up with, it's bound to be heavily debated and discussed. In any event, it will definitely be worth the wait to find out what that is.

Are new users able to understand and take advantage of Twitter as a powerful tool? Or are they encouraged to think of it as yet another broadcast medium? Is the suggested users list a good strategy for improving new users' experience with Twitter? Most importantly, do we or should we use Twitter a social network, an information network, or a microblogging platform?

Pullen's research covers topics such as race, age, and profession in the fastest-growing and suggested Twitter accounts. Her academic expertise also adds a very rational, impartial, and valuable voice to the social media dialogue, which is a warmly welcomed side effect of non-techies' adoption of Twitter.

Watch this fascinating take on social media from a sociologist's POV, and in the comments, let us know how you get the most benefit from Twitter.

Interestingly, suggested users who already started out with a large number of followers (25,000+) also gained more followers from getting onto the suggested user list.

Profit? Number of Followers Doesn't Equal Influence

Lorica rightly warns that simply having a lot of users on Twitter does not equal having a lot of influence, but given how many Twitter users are fascinated by these numbers (and the number of quacks who spam us with get-lots of-Twitter-followers-quick scams), it is nice to see some good data for what a spot on the suggest user list is 'worth.'

You can find ReadWriteWeb on Twitter, as well as the entire RWW Team: Marshall Kirkpatrick, Bernard Lunn, Alex Iskold, Sarah Perez, Frederic Lardinois, Rick Turoczy, Sean Ammirati, Lidija Davis, Jolie Odell and Phil Glockner.