Evan Williams - Agenda Setters 2009

Name: Evan Williams

Title: Twitter CEO and co-founder

Position: 2    Last year: 22

Why? Popularising microblogging

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It's been a spectacular year for Twitter, the microblogging site that started life back in 2006 as a side project for staff at a San Francisco start-up but has since mushroomed into a social networking juggernaut, providing up-to-the-second info on what people around the world are up to, from celebrities and politicians to CEOs and average joes.

US President Barack Obama used Twitter as part of his election campaign, famously using it as a base to communicate with and rally his supporters. And in September internet search data company Hitwise noted that Twitter has overtaken MySpace in the UK and is catching up with Bebo in the popularity stakes, ranking as the fourth most popular social networking site or forum in the UK.

It's not the first time Twitter has featured in the silicon.com Agenda Setters list, its rise since last year is marked: then the three co-creators (Williams, Jack Dorsey and Biz Stone) were collectively ranked 22nd, a full 20 places below the 2009 ranking for Williams who the judges consider to be second only to Apple CEO Steve Jobs in Agenda Setting potential. And while Twitter users may be limited to 140 characters in each tweet, the panellists were not short on things to say about Williams and the site he now steers.

One noted how Twitter is setting the news agenda - "essentially a personal newsfeed" - as well as being a powerful campaigning tool. Another lauded Williams for bringing "a truly innovative form of communication to the world". Yet another dubbed it "a truly disruptive technology", adding it "could impact and change many areas of business, society, politics, economics etc".

Social interaction, fast insights, marketing and even linguistics were other areas judges believe Twitter is acting as a game changer in a fast-moving world with dwindling attention spans. Williams has shown "highly tuned instincts on how people like to keep in touch", said another judge, translating that "into neat platforms that have commercial potential".

Williams is not just a one-trick pony either: he was co-founder of Pyra Labs, the company that created the blog publishing service Blogger - bought by Google in 2003. And, after a brief stint at Mountain View, Williams left to co-found Odeo - a podcast aggregator and publishing service, before selling that on too and concentrating his energies on Twitter.