Twitters stock price saw a bump yesterday, rising by 3.3 per cent to $39.07 (£29.26) on the New York Stock Exchange at the close of trading, fuelled largely by speculation that Google were considering a bid for the social network.

There have been rumours for the last five to six years about Google acquiring Twitter, driven largely by the power of Twitters real-time search engine and its power to predict online trends and steer the cultural conversation.

Its estimated that such an buyout would cost upwards of $25bn, and would represent a considerable shake-up of the online world, with Google acquiring a true rival to Facebooks social networking power, and Twitter gaining the leverage of being circulated across Googles ecosystem.

While Google remains the strongest player in the digital advertising market, it is weaker in the mobile advertising sector, where Facebook has been making strong gains, and the rise of in-app searching has hurt Googles ubiquity in the search advertising market.

Twitter will report its quarterly earnings next month, and is expected to see user growth slowing considerably and a slight rise in revenues. Neither Twitter nor Google were willing to commit on rumours.