Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) has started Hashtag on it mobile site after launching the feature on its website in the beginning of this month. Hashtag is accessible on Facebook’s mobile site, m.facebook.com, although not yet working on Facebook iOS and Android smartphone apps. According to Tech Crunch, apart from launching Hashtag for mobile, Facebook is also initiating a feature called ‘related hashtags’.
Hashtags are topics and phrases on a user’s timeline which can be turned into links by adding the ‘#’ symbol before the word or phrase. Users who are keen to learn about a topic of their interest can find posts with these hashtags.
Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) will also launch ‘related hashtags’. At present, a user can search for a hashtag from the search bar, or click on the hashtags offered by services like Instagram, and then read the results. ‘Related hashtags’ will bring up similar results and suggestions as well, and allow the user to access a result page showing similar hashtags posted at that time.
Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) is at present in the learning process, and it has not yet incorporated all the latest updates and features in its Hashtag service. The idea behind the slow process is to gain insight about how users use and collect relevant data to make the service more interesting.
Facebook has taken its inspiration from Twitter. Prior to Hashtag, Facebook incorporated a profile tagging feature in its site, which was already present on Twitter. With profile tagging, a user can tag a profile on his or her status updates with the name of a friend. Facebook also launched Profile Verification, a feature through which a blue mark could be attached to the official pages of popular people and organizations.
Hashtags on Twitter, which created the conept, allows users to do real time conversation on any topic, while Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) plans to make its text more alive and interesting by the use of hashtagging. Twitter’s hashtag concept also exists on Pinterest and Instagram. However, Facebook hashtags will cater to a wider base of users who casually use the web.
Facebook Hopes For Hashtag Revenue
Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) claimed that, during television prime time hours, around 88 million to 100 million users are active on Facebook. Facebook is seeking to snatch some of the ad revenues enjoyed by Twitter based on hashtag use.
Facebook may be the only source that can popularize nomenclatures like # and @ and make them available to a wider base of users. The trend will be followed later by Vine, Instagram, and Google+.
