I haven’t yet started using Twitter, but I have a number of Facebook friends who feed their Tweets to their Facebook status updates (is that enough Web 2.0 references in one sentence?), and I’ve wondered about the meaning of the hash mark (#) that people include in their Tweets. For example “I was talking on my #iPhone…” or “Going to a #Boulder Media Women event…”. If you’re also wondering, here’s an easy to follow explanation from Kristine Wirth’s blog. In brief, the hash marks are a sort of keyword tag in Twitter, and if you’re willing to sacrifice one of your precious 140 characters, the term that you tag with the hash mark will then show up on the hashtags website. Once you’ve visited the hashtags website, you can then add the decidedly Web 2.0 term “real-time news community” to your vocabulary!
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[…] The hash mark in Twitter February 2009 5 comments 3 […]
Just so you know, some translation-related hash marks I’ve seen are #x18 and #translation.
Ah, very interesting. I’ve wondered what the heck that means myself. 🙂 I am one of those folks who feed their Twitter into Facebook, but have yet to make use of the hash mark. Thanks for clearing that up for me!
Great post! I found Kristine Wirth’s Blog very useful as well 🙂
My only question is, how do you know what a hash mark (#) stands for?
Is there a directory? This link (http://hashmarksthespot.com/2009/03/01/how-do-i-know-what-a-hash-tag-stands-for/) attempts to address my question, but it seems outdated.
Any suggestions? Thx! 🙂
Just to clarify, is there a way find the original post without scrolling endlessly to where it originated? For example, what does #fb stand for? I assumed FB, but the tweets don’t really make sense in that context. I’ve tried searching on Google, but no luck.
Hi. I’m late to this thread but a google search pulled it up as I was wondering if any other translation hashtags are being used.
@jillsommer – you’ve probably noticed by now, but for others, the tag to search for is #xl8 (L instead of 1) which is a space-saving trans-L-8.
I tried to put it into practice myself in January this year and it seemed to take off:
http://lukespear.co.uk/twitter-translation-xl8-success/
Not even sure if you’ve figured out yet or not, but I haf recently been curious about the fb thing and someone mentioned that it’s a “code” that you can add to your tweets to update your facebook status simultaneously.
mystery (for me) is solved!
didn’s it used to be “the pound sign”? When did it become Hash Mark? Gawd I am getting old. I use facebook, but am #twitless (unless you consider some of the people surrounding me).
I guess i’m getting old, too. i was brought up believing the “pound sign” was a number sign!
I still don’t understand when to use it. Greta Susteren signs off with her website using the hash mark – still don’t understand.