Twitter announces the 20 billionth tweet

The 20 billionth tweet was posted by Japanese user GGGGGGo_Lets_Go

Micro-blogging service Twitter has clocked up 20 billion tweets in its short history.

The company has seen incredible growth in just four years, and saw its 20 billionth message sent or updated this weekend, a huge achievement for what is essentially a status update service.

Incredibly the firm only hit the 10 billion tweet mark in March, so it took just four months to double the figure achieved in its first four years.

The 20 billionth tweet was posted by Japanese user GGGGGGo_Lets_Go, who added on realising his part in the landmark achievement: "Looks like I posted the 20 billionth tweet. I'm getting replies from people all over the world. It's scary. What are the chances? Maybe I'm going to die."

This was possibly not the response Twitter was looking for. Perhaps realising that not all the accounts which users follow are relevant, Twitter has begun offering users suggestions on who to follow.

Rather than force users blindly add people at random, Twitter has applied an algorithm to its suggestions system, and said that the feature would only make suggestions that were based on a number of factors.

For example, the firm said it would make suggestions after considering who the account holder currently follows, as well as the type of people that the user follows.

If that is too confusing, Twitter added that the tool would "suggest people you don't follow that you may find interesting".