now counts celebrities including Stephen Fry, Boris Johnson and Jonathan Ross as fans and was used by Barack Obama as part of his successful digital campaign to secure the presidency.
With so many headlines talking about Twitter Brand Republic took to the streets to find out what the public think about it.
Despite the avalanche of recent publicity almost half of the people interviewed had not heard of Twitter and out of those that had only around half were keen to use the service.
Some people said that they were too busy to use any social networking sites and preferred personal contact while others thought it was "more for young people".
A few members of the public were more enthusiastic and keen to give it a go as a means of keeping in touch with friends.
Last week in a funding round led by Benchmark Capital and Institutional Venture Partners, with Benchmark partner Peter Fenton joining the Twitter board.
Two previous rounds raised a total of $20m.
The new funding follows a 900% increase in active users in a year.
The company has yet to secure a realistic revenue stream.