Unusual Inventions - The Twitter #hashtag...

by Startacus Admin

The hashtag is a way of signposting a topic, person or theme, so that other interested parties can find your 140 character tweet. In a world of millions of tweets per day, the hashtag works, as it helps you find the stuff you care about (or at least have a wee nosey at)

But where did the #hashtag come from?

So for you inquisitive types the answer is Chris Messina. Chris Messina is a User Designer on Google + and it is perhaps no accident that it was a techie that started using the # to group people and subjects together.

Chris, being a techie wizard, would have known that the hashtag was a symbol that first appeared within IRC (Internet Relay Chat) networks to label groups and topics together. So it makes sense that the # became an adopted symbol for Chris to use when networking via Twitter.

Adopted or otherwise, Chris in his wisdom, is responsible for unifying conversation, groups and chat on Twitter, in a way that Facebook and other social networks would die for.

Perhaps it's a key reason for the growth of Twitter, and for that reason alone , one should not undervalue the unusual invention that is the twitter #hashtag and Chris' place in the social media hall of fame.

• #invention
• #
• #hashtag
• #social media

Published on: 29th August 2012