Facebook Finally Gets the #Hashtag
The #hashtag—they help users categorize messages. Twitter, Google+, Tumblr, Vine, Pinterest and Instagram have them, and now it’s time to add the top dog of social media sites to the list. Yesterday, Facebook confirmed that it now officially supports the categorizing tool, allowing users to hashtag posts and making them clickable and searchable.
“To date, there has not been a simple way to see the larger view of what’s happening or what people are talking about,” Facebook’s Greg Lindley said. “To bring these conversations more to the forefront, we will be rolling out a series of features that surface some of the interesting discussions people are having about public events, people, and topics. As a first step, we are beginning to roll out hashtags on Facebook.”
Like the other social networks, clicking on a Facebook hashtag will bring up a feed that accumulates other posts that contain the tag. Linking an Instagram picture to you Facebook page? Those hashtags will be clickable, too. Users will also be able to create posts directly from a hashtag feed and search results. No need to worry about your privacy settings—Facebook clarified to ABC News that hashtagged posts will still respect your regular privacy settings.
Why the hashtag and not another method? Those at Facebook said that they’re already all over the social network thanks to other outlets like Twitter and Instagram. “People were already using hashtags on Facebook—we just made them clickable,” a Facebook spokesperson said.
Is the hashtag not clickable on your Facebook account yet? According to Mashable, Facebook will roll out hashtags to more users in the coming weeks.
How do you feel about hashtags coming to Facebook? Let us know!
