Facebook recently announced their implementation of hashtags. They have begun to implement the use of hashtags in status updates for select users and soon plan to allow every user to have access to the feature. hashtags will allow users to tag their posts and search for similar posts that share the same hashtags.
For a long time now hashtags have been used a lot in social media. The most well-known place hashtags are used is the increasingly more popular Twitter. hashtags work on Twitter. Twitter has the feel of a very open and public network while in my opinion Facebook is more of a private and personal network that you share with just your friends. It is due to this reason that I just can’t see why people would use hashtags on Facebook. I can’t see anyone wanting to search for tags in their friends posts. Also, one large question I have is whether or not using a hashtag in a post will allow others that are not my friends to see the post. I have my privacy settings set so only friends can view updated but if using a hashtag makes the update publicly visible, I don’t see myself ever using them.
I think that Facebook’s main goal with the hashtags is going to be as a form of advertising. They may try to allow advertisers to find potential targets based on hashtag searches. Advertisers could also use hashtags to market products and services. It works quite well on Twitter, but Facebook is not Twitter.
It will be interesting to see if this catches on or if it will just be another failure like the Facebook email service.
What are your comments on the implementation of hashtags on Facebook?
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