Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) wants to get in on the hashtag action. Of course rival social network Twitter popularized the hashtag, and now The Wall Street Journal reports that Facebook is working on incorporating it too.
The publication cited “people familiar with the matter” who said that it isn’t yet clear how far along Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is with working the hashtag into its site. However they did say that the feature probably isn’t going to be introduced soon.
Of course Twitter uses hashtags to bring together numerous Twitter messages into one area so that users who don’t already follow each other can see what anyone is saying on a particular topic. Just use the particular hashtag, and you can join in on conversations with people you’ve never met all over the world. You don’t even have to follow them later if you don’t want to.
With Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s new Graph Search feature, it would make sense that the hashtag could function in the same way. Graph Search is the social network’s attempt to make the user data it has more searchable, so adding the hashtag collation to it would just enhance this feature.
As the social media giant seeks to increase ad revenue, it is looking for ways to keep users logged in longer so that they will view more ads. Also keep in mind that Instagram, which already has a hashtag system in place, was acquired by Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) last year. So while we don’t know how far along the site is in incorporating this system, it might not be as far off as some might think.