Today is Twitter's seventh birthday and a lot has happened in those years. Since 2006, the social network has grown rapidly to now claim 200 million active users creating 400 million tweets per day.

It has become,  as Twitter itself describes it, "a global town square" - "a public place to hear the latest news, exchange ideas and connect with people all in real time." We like that analogy at Pocket-lint too, as Twitter reminds us very much of the centre of Runcorn - people milling about shouting random exclamations into the air at everybody and nobody.

But what would we do without it? It has become a worldwide phenomenon that is every much a part of our daily lives as poverty and Justin Bieber, although far more welcome.

We also very much like Twitter's own examples of two of the greatest tweets to have appeared on the network, from Captain Kirk himself, William Shatner and astronaut Chris Hadfield, who was tweeting from space in January.

Shatner: "@Cmdr_Hadfield Are you tweeting from space?"

Hadfield: "@WilliamShatner Yes, Standard Orbit, Captain. And we're detecting signs of life on the surface."

Ace.

So, happy birthday Twitter. May the next seven years be as eventful. Although, when you get to 14, don't go all Gothy on us.