Hard to believe Twitter is turning just six years old today. It seems like it’s been around forever.

The tributes and retrospectives are popping up all across the Internet.

You could argue Jack Dorsey‘s first tweet is the 21st century’s “Mr. Watson — come here”, the birth of a communication revolution.

How did we ever follow news and, more importantly, celebrities before Twitter?

It’s also given consumers of news a fascinating look, in real time, as to how the sausage is made.

Six years is forever in the tech world, which makes you wonder: What’ll be the next big thing in social media? What is the next Twitter?

I don’t know, but this 140-characters-or-less limit is pretty constricting.

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A couple interesting uses of Twitter I’ve heard about the last two days:

First, we’re on the cusp of movie award season, when distinguished film critics bestow prizes on films 94 percent of the country has not seen. The New York Film Critics Circle announced their awards via its Twitter feed yesterday. The results were tweeted out soon after the critics voted. (Ironically, they were sitting at a square table.)

Moving on to the world of fruit. While we went about our daily lives the last few months, a high-stakes battle to become headquarters of banana company Chiquita was being waged between longtime home Cincinnati and Charlotte. In the battle of Queen cities, Charlotte won out. (Miss Chiquita could not be reached for comment.)

As the official wooing was going on, people in both cities took to Twitter to try to persuade the company. Cincinnatians created the hashtag #NoCincyBananaSplit, while Charlotte countered with #BananasForCLT. Elizabeth Flock of The Washington Post provided an excellent summary of the Twitter chatter.

What’s most notable to me is how active and involved Chiquita CEO Fernando Aguirre was on Twitter both during the decision-making process. If you check out his Twitter feed today, you can see how cordial all sides have been since the move to Charlotte was announced.

Just goes to show Twitter has appeal.

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You’d think the Internet pranksters would have had their fill by now of Mayor Sheila Dixon’s admonishment, but I guess if you get a rise out of someone once…

Last week, somebody  launched a Twitter site for FakeSheilaDixon. As the name indicates, this is not an attempt to fool anybody, especially after the Manchester, England confusion of a few weeks ago. Then,  a trickster set up a doppelganger city Web site, and made it appear as though Dixon was spouting off about negative comments made by a Tory politician.

The fake site duped publications including The Guardian and The Baltimore Sun, and drew a quick clarification from Dixon’s office.

FakeSheilaDixon is taking a lighthearted approach, and has been tweeting up a storm . Whoever it is appears to be paying attention to Dixon’s schedule, though. This one came out Monday just before the mayor announced that an event to honor garbage men had been postponed:

“I took the day off today,” FakeSheilaDixon said. “Let’s just say I enjoyed the Mayor’s Box at the Ravens game a little too much.”

Was the mayor at the game? I didn’t see it on her schedule.

I must admit that this is not my favorite fake Baltimore twitter account. That honor stays with unpeterangelos, the famed impersonator of Orioles owner and prominent attorney Peter Angelos. He (or maybe Twitter) had his own problems with the real Peter Angelos.

But apparently the fakers are enjoying the company. Unpeterangelos had this to say in response to Ms. Fake Dixon.

“I admire your administrative style. You’re a civic treasure, madame. PS: Now, about that zoning permit…”

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