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(Image Source: Mashable)
BY SCOTT MALONE
Facebook’s fight with Twitter for social media supremacy could soon include the fight
for the hashtag.
The Wall Street Journal — citing several unnamed Facebook sources — says the social
media giant is trying to incorporate the hashtag as a way to group conversations to make them
searchable.
Twitter isn’t the only service that uses the hashtag. Google + and Facebook-owned Instagram
also use them. So why is Facebook just now trying to hop on the hashtag train? A writer
for CNET says the site is trying to give part of its brand a boost.
“Facebook is clearly trying to up its game in search with the introduction of Graph Search,
so it wouldn’t be surprising if they finally added hashtags to better organize their content.”
Mashable notes Graph Search is still in its infant stages. Currently, it’s dependent
on users to input their location, friends, and likes — so there is room to grow.
“Adding hashtag support would enable an expansion of that search functionality, letting
users tune into public posts based around certain topics such as #Elections or #HarlemShake
as well.”
While the hashtag hasn’t taken flight yet on Facebook, the social media site is taking
steps to help get Graph Search going.
A member of the site’s search infrastructure team announced in a post Thursday that Facebook
was going to begin indexing posts and comments to make them searchable on Graph Search.
But even if Facebook does decide to pitch the hashtag to its users, a writer for TechCrunch
says the idea likely will be a swing and a miss.
“Unlike Twitter where most posts are public, on Facebook most have some level of privacy.
Clicking a hashtag would therefore only be able to show you public posts and those set
to be visible to you that mention the tag.”
A writer for Slate says Facebook users might not get to use hashtags to their fullest extent,
but on the ad revenue side: the idea is a grand slam.
“The hashtag idea sounds clunky when you think about it from the user’s perspective,
but rather ingenious when you consider it from a business perspective … The move isn’t
about showing users more ads. It’s about showing them more-effective ads.”
Facebook has not officially said whether or not they are adopting the hashtag. A company
spokesman said they don’t comment on any rumors or speculation.