Twitter's media cachet is fading and there's a feeling, particularly amongst those far younger than little ol' me, that the youth market many marketoids crave are off Twitter. So is Twitter dead? Do the recent denial of service attacks, celebrity bleatings and other mass media prophecies of Twitter's death mean that the bubble has burst and Twitter is facing iminent death?

In a word - no!

I'm the first to admit that Twitter's popularity has started to impact its utility. There's a ridiculous amount of spam, porn, prostitution and other junk coming through but despite this the number of Twitter users continues to grow, albeit more slowly that earlier this year, and businesses are looking at it as a serious part of their communications arsenal.

For me, Twitter is moving up to the same level of importance as email. I regularly receive personal, point-to-point messages from friends over the direct messaging protocol and can keep an eye on emerging trends far more easily and in a less invasive way than before.

For others, Twitter is becoming a key sales channel. Dell is making millions of dollars through their Twitter channel. In fact, their strategy of having different Twitter accounts for different sales channels is a real winner as it's well matched to the way they run their business. Others, like Nike, are a twitter disaster story. Nike's presence is poorly promoted, they tweet infrequently and really haven't given more than a moment's thought.

Twitter has moved from fad into infrastructure. Increasingly, it's become an important way for sharing news. The landing of a commercial jet in the hudson river earlier this year was first reported, with a picture, through Twitter. When large areas of Victoria, my home state, were ablaze this February the relief effort and communication of safe areas was augmented through Twitter.

One of the biggest criticisms levelled against Twitter is its lack of a revenue model. The real question, I think, is who's going to buy Twitter and add it to their current portfolio. I'd not be surprised to see facebook make a play. As well their recent purchase of FriendFeed, which effectively has bought them a huge slab of Twitter followers and users, it makes sense seeing as so many people link Twitter to their Facebook status.

I'd not be surprised to see the headline "Facebook buys Twitter" before the year is out.