Facebook has added support for hashtags, fixing a broken
link that prevented its 1.11 billion members from associating themselves with
celeb gossip, breaking news, and popular memes.
"Starting today, hashtags will be clickable on
Facebook. Similar to other services like Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, or
Pinterest, hashtags on Facebook allow you to add context to a post or indicate
that it is part of a larger discussion," the company wrote in a blog post
Wednesday announcing the update. "When you click on a hashtag in Facebook,
you'll see a feed of what other people and Pages are saying about that event or
topic."
Popularized by Twitter, hashtags, or content tags denoted by
the "#" symbol, allow for nuanced articulation and let social
networkers insert themselves into real-time conversations happening around
events, television shows, and breaking news. On Facebook, members will now find
that hashed words and expressions are clickable, whereas before they were dead
text.
The company said that people can also search for hashtags
from the search bar, click on hashtags that originate from other services such
as Instagram, and compose status updates right from the hashtag feed.
The addition comes at a crucial time for Facebook, which is
quickly losing relevance with tweens and teens who are getting more enjoyment
out of other services such as Twitter and Instagram. The belated addition won't
immediately repair the service's reputation with this hashtag-loving crowd, but
it could instantly boost overall engagement on the site and encourage some to
choose Facebook over Twitter when chatting about their favorite television
shows.
For the time being, it looks as if Facebook's hashtags work
on the Web only. The company said it plans to release new features as well as
its own version of trending of topics in the weeks ahead.cnet.
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