While Twitter rolled out its stealth IPO last week, it was also busy working on another under-the-radar project designed to add value to the company in a different way.
Magic Recs is an experimental Twitter account that sends users direct-message recommendations on who to follow, based on the activity of accounts that a user is already following. For example, if several of the accounts that you follow suddenly begin following Mashable editor-in-chief Lance Ulanoff, Magic Recs may send a direct message notifying you of the activity, but only if you are already following Magic Recs.
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As Twitter has matured over the years from a microblogging medium to a massive searchable database of real-time information, identifying relevant new messages and accounts has become ever more challenging. What Magic Recs does is cut through the noise by providing a bit of intelligent curation to the tweet-stream, surfacing those accounts and messages that are more likely to be important to a particular user.
Twitter has made no official announcement outlining the details of the experiment, but it appears to be open to any user willing to follow the Magic Recs account. So far, the only clue hinting at the purpose of Magic Recs is in the account’s description, which reads, “This is a Twitter experiment. Follow me to receive instant, personalized recommendations for users and content via direct message.”
One of the first mentions of the account from a company representative appeared back in June when Twitter engineer Tim Trueman wrote the following:
1. Follow @MagicRecs 2. ??? 3. Profit! (Or at least receive realtime, highly-relevant DMs about accounts to follow and tweets not to miss…)
— Tim Trueman (@timtrueman) June 14, 2013
A few days later, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo chimed in with his own enthusiastic endorsement of Magic Recs, writing:
the @magicrecs account is a product of some great work by the team here. Follow it!
— dick costolo (@dickc) June 17, 2013
Currently, direct-message recommendations appear to be the account's primary function. However, back in May, Magic Recs tweeted:
This account is now enabled to get a DM from any follower. So, please keep that feedback coming!
— Magic Recs (@MagicRecs) May 14, 2013
Generally, Twitter users must follow each other in order to receive direct messages (DM) from each other, so this functionality hints that companies may soon be able to set up special accounts designed to serve direct, more discreet feedback, similar to email.
As of this writing, Magic Recs only has 11,675 followers — just a tiny fraction of Twitter’s 200+ million monthly active users — so the experiment pool is relatively small for now. Given the viral nature of the service, however, that number will likely increase very soon.
Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
[via New York Times]
Image: Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images