Hashtags (the letters and symbols that work ad a code staring with a pound sign “#”) have been on Twitter since nearly the start
While they are known for adding silly fun or searchiness to a tweet, that aspect has never been needed. Search can find ANY word in a tweet.
I’ve always liked them for events. Affiliate Summit, the big show this week in Vegas, could be in a tweet about the event, but sometimes doesn’t fit in the sentence. So without explaining where the tweet comes from, users add #ASW12 and everyone at the event, or following it can easily see what happening in real time.
Twitter didn’t invent hash tags. It’s a hack like comments in software code that was added by users. Over the years, Twitter had made them clickable, and many use them for all sorts of things.
Now Twitter is working on EVENTS.. which will eliminate this necessity
At Twitter, that means associating a tweet with an event, tied to it by a number of keywords. That may mean that the keywords auto-associate to the event itself.
“I think we’re finally going to have the Events feature,” Stone said, in a brief interview. “It’s something we’ve been talking about forever… and now that Ev’s back on products, I think that’s something that’s going to be coming up soon.
“Obviously Twitter electrifies events. You’re connected to it, in this matrix,” Stone added. “You want to be connected to it, if you’re there; but if you’re not there, you don’t want to hear about it… And in a short time, it’s gone.”
My guess would be that hashtags are going to be around long after EVENTS and other features are added.
What’s your favorite tag?
Favorite hashtags: #improvedbyaddingzombies, #greatmoviefirstlines, #awesomebandnames
Problem
I like the # tags and their function. Their one downside is that they make it difficult to read the entire message for people who have no idea about what they mean. I think conversation software should be as fluid as possible, and not complicated by “weird” things not seen in natural language and communication. Humans don’t say “hash tag” in the middle of a sentence to emphasize something, they use different intonation. In that sense the hash tag is that intonation that is also a link.
Solution?
I believe that electronic communication should follow this natural standard of conversation. Instead of hash tag, we could use the Italic text, that would also be a link, but it wouldn’t be highlighted or underlined. It would be assumed that you could click on it. People would develop that habit, and the message itself would not appear any less readable than it already is.
The Italic text would look nice, but is a mess when you use SMS or all text interfaces such as API.
I do agree with you about the clarity. I personally don’t like to see the pound sign (#) unless absolutely necessary (such as tagging a one day event with at code)
The trouble with saying what “should” be is that it assumes there is a central control. Otherwise, it can’t be enforced. Twitter didn’t invent hashtags, it’s a user thing. As one who was there when they appeared, watching many like you comment against them, I don’t hold high hopes for a rule that would fix it now.
Let’s hope future technology allows the system you propose
Excellent post. I’m interested to see what they do with this events feature. I like hashtags but sometimes they feel so misused.
They announced the events feature some time ago, but I’ve not heard about it since.. might have been dropped.
Guess I’d better follow up. Good idea for another post.. thanks
I appreciate hashtags because they emphasize the event or idea so that it is easy to begin to pay attention to the idea they represent. On twitter that it is a clickable part of the post makes it easier to search.
I enjoyed the post Warren.