The 50 people CNET UK follows on Twitter and why

Today marks the start of a new experiment for CNET UK. As any regular user of Twitter knows, it can be a bewildering place to be. For every useful insight or inspirational message, there are hundreds of tweets about train delays and what someone had for breakfast. That's part of Twitter's charm, but it can make it very hard indeed to find the good stuff.

We've been wondering whether it's possible to cut through the noise by following just 50 people, and still stay in touch with what's going on out there. So we've decided to see what happens when we use our @cnetuk account to follow just a select few.

The team has spent the past few weeks trawling through thousands of Twitter accounts looking for just the right selection of people to follow. Our criteria? Firstly, we were all exempt, although, if you want to follow the CNET UK team, you can find them individually here: @Batteryhq, @floragraham, @jenkojenkins, @lukewestaway, @nickhide, @rich_trenholm and @rory79. Alternatively, you can see what we're all up to in one go by simply following this list.

We also deliberately excluded @stephenfry, because he turns up on every tech list ever written. Sorry, Stephen, but we suspect you will somehow survive this snub.

Once we and Stephen were out of the running, we simply looked for the people that are the most interesting, entertaining or informative, and preferably all three. The result is a smorgasbord of industry giants, minnows, CNET UK fans, journalists, PR people and all types in between.

This list is intended as a starting point and not the finished article. We will be updating it regularly. Please tell us if you can think of anyone we should be following that we're not, or if there is anyone we should unfollow. To do that, simply go to the CNET UK account on Twitter, click the 'follow' button and tweet @cnetuk to let us know.

Here's the list, in alphabetical order, together with some information on why each person's been included. You can click the link on their name to find their profile page on Twitter, or just follow the CNET UK Twitter 50 list, which has everyone in it.

And before you ask -- yes, we know that Twitter currently says we're following 51 people. We're not. We've checked. It's a Twitter bug that the site says it will fix. One day.

CNET UK Twitter 50

• Adam Parton - Proof that there are actually fans of Windows Phone 7 out there
• Ali Maynard - A PR person full of car-based news
• Andrew Lim - Former CNET UK staffer, and Internet trail blazer
• Ben Goldacre - Writer of the Bad Sciencecolumn in The Guardian, taking journalists to task for misrepresenting science reports
• Ben James Buffone - He has fantastic sunglasses and loves tech
• Ben Rose - Chock-full of interesting fuel-economy info
• Ben Wood - The only funny analyst in the universe
• Big L - A massive fan of CNET UK's MegaTimer
• Bill Gates - Does this choice really need an explanation?
• Chad Hurley - This guy co-founded YouTube. Respect
• Charles Arthur - Writes some cracking tech pieces for The Guardian
• Charlie Brooker - Omnipresent, Apple-using Guardian columnist. Warning: very sweary and very funny
• Chris Messina - Inventor of the hashtag
• Chris Owen - One of the few PR people that's fun to follow on Twitter. Warning: contains swears
• Chris Warburton - Presenter of Saturday Edition on Radio 5 Live, where you'll hear our very own Rory Reid
• Conor Maples - Often the first to break any Orange-related news
• Cory Doctorow - Co-editor of Boing Boing, which keeps the CNET UK team going through the day
• Dan Zambonini - Talks sense about website design and a host of other interesting topics
• David Gilson - Uber-geek extraordinaire, long-time CNET UK fan, and lover of Symbian and Ubuntu
• David Rowan - Editor of Wired UK and wearer of nicer suits than us
• Ed Vaizey - The communications minister, with responsibility for British regulation of the Net
• Emma Barnett - Covers tech for The Telegraph and winner of the AOP's 'digital journalist of the year' award
• Eric Schmidt - The most interesting of the Google top three and the only one to wear glasses
• Francisco Jeronimo - An analyst for IDC who has some interesting insights into mobile phones
• Frank Swain - Writes tonnes of interesting sciencey things for the New Scientist and others
• Info=Beautiful - Links to plenty of interesting, info-packed data visualisations
• Jason Bradbury - Bespectacled host of Channel 5's The Gadget Show 
• Jason Forster - Manchester-based geek who makes us smile
• Jeff Sharpe - Another entry from Orange, but this chap is also very handy for phone news
• Jimmy Wales - He made Wikipedia. Flora sat next to him at a party once and now they are best friends
• Kate Stevens - Comedian and PR person with an awesome profile picture
• Marc Crane - Creator of laugh-out-loud graphics. Warning: his feed contains swears
• Marco Arment - Opinionated chappie who made cracking iPhone app Instapaper
• Martha Lane Fox - Advises David Cameron on Internet stuff. Also made karaoke and cheap holidays cool again
• Mary Jo Foley - Offers fantastic insights into Microsoft before anyone else
• Mat Greenfield - Witty CNET UK super-fan and former intern
• Micky Fin - Owner of NokiaDNA.com and a massive Nokia fan, as you might have guessed
• Nick Taylor - Researcher at Newcastle University, tweeting about science. Much cleverer than us
• Nikki Moore - The most interesting techie fashionista we know
• Peter Serafinowicz - A man who will make you laugh so hard something is guaranteed to fall off
• Robert Llewellyn - Actor who plays Kryten in Red Dwarf, electric-car nut and friend of CNET UK
• Robert Peston - Comedy-voiced BBC legend who often covers tech companies
• Rupert Goodwins - Tech journalist legend and former CNET UK podcaster
• Samuel Gibbs - Big CNET UK fan and all-round clever clogs
• SFHandyman - The only person in the world who owns a Pre
• Starcorner - The bio doesn't give much away about this person, but we like her phone-based tweets
• Stephen Elop - Chief executive of Nokia, currently saving or killing the company, depending on your point of view
• Stephen Shankland - Essential reading for anyone interested in bleeding-edge Web tech
• Stuart Dredge - A fantastic mobile-phone journalist and a thoroughly nice chap
• Terence Eden - Knowledgeable chap who tweets fascinating phone-related stuff