Isn't it funny how when Twitter does something that others have been doing for ages it's still innovative? But it is. 

So look what just showed up in the right margin on the Twitter home page... 

Follow TechCrunch and Stevin Berlin Johnson. Good ideas! 

But wait a minute -- holy guacamole -- it looks an awful lot like -- omg -- could it be -- the dreaded, evil Suggested Users List. 

Has it returned from the dead? 

It looks suspiciously like it has. Haven't seen one ordinary person in there, after about a dozen refreshes. They all look like either Friends-of-Ev or celebs with big MSM names. Or reporters that write sweet nothings about Twitter, Inc. 

Only this time they aren't just targeting newbies, the kinds of people who sign up, see nothing interesting and then disappear. I already follow 1323 people, and I've been on Twitter since 2006. According to Google I've blogged about it 3490 times (not including this post). What could possibly be the rationale for asking me to follow Tim O'Reilly or John Battelle. How about instead suggesting some people for me to unfollow. (I'm not kidding, I suffer from tweet overload.) 

Yeah they totally suck. 

Why don't they write some software down there at Twitter and stop nominating their friends for awards. 

Where's my opt-out of this? I want to get rid of this thing. Now. 

Update: They've blogged about it, but it sure doesn't sound like what I'm seeing. They don't mention the user interface on the Twitter front page. 

Update #2: Here's how you opt-out. Just click on all the X's next to all the names as they pop up. Once you've killed them all, the feature just goes away.