Happy 6th Birthday Twitter!

On this day six years ago, a short message would mark the change in how the world communicates.  That message simply read: "Just setting up my twttr".

That first tweet in 2006, from Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, did not cause a stir and was barely noticed by the world. 'Twttr', as it was known then, was intended to be used as an internal messaging service by employees of podcasting company, Odeo.  A year later, Twitter was opened to the public and the rest, as they say, is history.

Twitter really came of age at 2007's South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) conference. The corridors at the tech conference were filled with plasma screens that displayed tweets in real time, making a lasting impression on attendees.

The conference was a chance to see Twitter in action on a small scale and the storm it was about to cause on the wider web. Newsweek reported at the time of Twitter's new fans: "Hundreds of conference-goers kept tabs on each other via constant twitters. Panelists and speakers mentioned the service, and the bloggers in attendance touted it".

Twitter would win that year's SXSWi internet prize and tweets soon increased from 20,000 to 60,000 tweets per day. Since that point, the micro-blogging site's story is an incredible procession of records broken and milestones.

But Twitter's influence extends far beyond the statistics and spreadsheets of its growth as a business.  It has been used by Johns Hopkins University to help improve public health. Uprisings and revolutions have been orchestrated through tweets. Celebrities have been made and politicians have been destroyed by the united voice of Twitter users.

Since that first tweet in 2006, there have been over 30 billion tweets sent. Most of these have been dull comments about the small details of regular lives, but some have played a small part in big events. It was a tweet that first told the world of helicopters over a small city in Pakistan - they turned out be carrying American soldiers on the raid that would kill Osama Bin Laden.

The site has been accused of supporting a celebrity-obsessed culture and encouraging users to be self-absorbed. It has also been praised as a robust communication tool that can help save lives during times of disaster, and a link to freedom for citizens living in oppressive regimes.

Twitter itself may not change the world, but the way in which we use it could do.