Just like Twitter, Tumblr and countless other social networks, Facebook’s finally given in and gone the route of the hashtag. Hashtags are used to organize public data in a way that others can view it and see what’s trending. For example, if you use the hashtag #facebook on Facebook, you’ll see what everyone is saying about the social network. This is the first feature rollout Facebook promises will change the way users interact with public data on the site.
Using hashtags on Facebook
Hashtags on Facebook appear to rolling out in phases as opposed to being available at once as Facebook claimed.
Hashtags will only work for public posts.
However, when we attempted to use test hashtags publically, they weren’t clickable as Facebook claimed. It looks like once this rolls out, you can click on the desired hashtag to see what others are talking about.
You’ll also be able to:
- Search for specific hashtags from the search bar
- Click on any hashtags from other networks, like Twitter or Instagram
- Create posts from the hashtags feed
Trending hashtags, like you see on Twitter, will come in the future, but we’re sad it wasn’t included from launch. It looks like Facebook is taking a step in the right direction following in the footsteps of Twitter and Google+ in helping users connect over a single topic.
Facebook hasn’t explained how the rollout will occur or when the majority of users will begin to use hashtags, despite saying they launched on the site on June 12, 2013.
Are hashtags necessary on a site like Facebook?
Whether we call it hashtags, trends or even barbeque chips, organizing search strings in a way all can see them is beneficial for anyone looking to see what’s going on. By utilizing hashtags on Facebook, the social network is finally doing something its competitors have been doing for years.
