WEBSITE OF THE DAY: 2012 Twitter

This has been, arguably, Twitter's year.

From the London Olympics, dubbed by many the "social games", where millions of people followed the action and commented in real time, to the rather less celebratory cases of people using the service to harass and abuse people in the subsequent limelight.

From the revealing tweets of the main players in one of the closest US Presidential elections in decades (one of Barack Obama's is the most retweeted message of 2012) to the cut and thrust of one of the biggest media circuses in a generation, in the shape of the Leveson Enquiry.

We've seen Boris dancing, Justin Bieber sharing a heart-wrenching tribute to a young fan and countless celebs putting the boot in on all kinds if subjects when the mood took them. We've even had tweets from another planet with the Mars Rover.

Twitter has been thrust into the legal spotlight with its continual flow of revelations, rumours and reactions - think Wikileaks, the Twitter "bomb" hoax trial and Operation Yewtree.

And we've seen some tweeters make the transition from social media minority interests to major publishing successes. Remember Text from Dog? You can now buy the book... Gus the Fox? You can read his filth in Shortlist magazine now.

Yep, Twitter has had a good 12 months, and so today, the 12th of the 12th 2012, at 2012.twitter.com you can see the big picture.

It'll make you realise what a big year it's been generally.

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