We'll take that, thanks, Twitter: hashtags may be coming to Facebook

15 Mar 2013

Brace yourselves: the internet may explode. Hashtags, which have long been a way to join a conversation on Twitter but just look odd on Facebook, may be transitioning across to the billion-strong social network soon.

According to sources familiar with the matter, who spoke to the Wall Street Journal, Facebook is working on incorporating the symbol into its systems fully, making the hashtags typed in by its users clickable instead of a mess of strange characters. It is still apparently deciding exactly how it plans to do that though - and whether it will copying Twitter's method of using the hashtag to allow users to tag updates and join and explore a larger conversation or add in extra functionality.

The social network currently allows users to post tweets with clickable hashtags to their Facebook accounts, if they have linked the two services. But hashtags typed in directly from the service are still in plain text.

The move may be driven in part by increasing integration between Facebook and Instagram - hashtags are an integral part of the photo service too, allowing users to tag their photos with popular terms to make it easier to discover new grams and profiles. If the Instagram hashtags work on Facebook, and link back to the searches on the service, it could potentially drive more traffic back to Instagram after a photo is posted to Facebook.

Continue reading the full story on www.memeburn.com.

Share this article

NextOptions

Source: Memeburn

Launched in April 2010 by Matthew Buckland, Memeburn is a news and opinion platform tracking tech culture, innovation and business. It plays particular attention to the web, mobile, social media, online media and social networking fields. Key opinion-leaders contribute to Memeburn, providing their insights on the online industry. Subscribe via email or RSS for regular updates. Follow memeburn on Twitter at @memeburn.

Go to: http://www.memeburn.com