What is a Hashtag and how do people use it on the Internet?

In recent times you've probably heard of the phrase Hashtag. This is an interesting way to use it on some popular social networks like Twitter, Google+, and YouTube. The sign to identify the Hashtag is the phrases that follow the # that appear in a comment, a certain state.

So what is the hashtag ? How was it created and how did it apply to life? Please read through this article.

What is a Hashtag?

In the technology world, a Hashtag is a word (or a series of consecutive characters ) placed after the # sign. People also call the Hashtag a hash symbol and this is a kind of metadata ( data used to describe another data - data about data) .

We can now see the Hashtag appearing a lot on social networks like Twitter , Instagram , Google+ , Tumblr . Please note that in most places on the internet, the Hashtag does not allow white space. A typical example of using Hashtag is as follows:

The Hashtag is used as a tool to help group multiple information together, so you can click on a Hashtag and see all the messages containing that Hashtag. For example, when entering Twitter, click on the #quantrimang tag, all the tweets with this text will appear for you to view. It is similar to how the tag feature works in the article on Network Administration.

Usually, for a certain message, we can attach one or more Hashtag depending on the needs.

What is a Hashtag and how do people use it on the Internet? Picture 1

Origin of Hashtag:

The Hashtag appears and is used for the first time in IRC chat network to place labels for topics and chat groups. It is also used for marking individual messages to see if it is related to a particular group / topic.

Then, when Twitter appeared, Hashtag gradually became more popular as more and more people came to this microblogging-type social network. On August 23, 2007, a pioneer in the field of open source software, Chris Messina , proposed using the Hashtag to help group information together on Twitter and his tweet is considered status. The first Twitter to use #. It is as follows:

The first time the Hashtag was used for a "serious" information was in the tweet about California's big fire in October 2007.

It was written by a member named Nate Ritter (also a citizen of this place). He used the #sandiegofire Hashtag to mark his status. After that, Hashtag continued to become a " writing style " in the tweets related to the protest about the 2009-2010 election in Iran.

The later Persian and English Hashtag gradually became useful on the Twitter network, not only in Iran but also worldwide.

Since July 1, 2009 , Twitter has started embedding hyperlinks in all Hashtag to show search results from recent posts that incorporate that Hashtag. It can also search by individual phrases and write in a normal format, not a # sign, as long as the letters are written in the correct order in the tag. By 2009 , Twitter officially introduced the " Trending Topics " feature to display the Hashtag that many people are attached or interested.

Features of Hashtag on social networks:

Hashtag are often used in discussion networks, peer chat, ie directly between this user and other users. Any character combination placed after the # sign becomes a Hashtag.

When clicking on the Hashtag, it helps users follow a line of events, be it a TV program, a disaster (Hashtag #Haiti is quite popular while the country is earthquake) , or to follow someone If they have their own unique Hashtag.

When any Hashtag becomes popular, it can attract more users to discuss issues related to that tag. As mentioned above, for Twitter, when a Hashtag becomes extremely popular and widely used, it will be classified as " Trending Topics ".

All Hashtag are not registered or controlled by any user / group of users. It also never gets "retired" , meaning a Hashtag can exist forever as long as people accept to use it and still have that phrase in everyday life.

The Hashtag also did not accompany any comment. Therefore, a Hashtag can be used freely for many different purposes depending on the intent of the user.

To increase the distinctness and increase the ability to identify Hashtag, people often put Hashtag related to one person, one thing or event. For example, if the #banh tag is too general, we can specify more than #banhkem, #banhkemhandmade .

However, it is also because of this that a difficult tag can be added to " trending topics " because each person has a different way even though they share the same object ( such as writing #banhkemhandmade, you I wrote #banhkemtulam ). Therefore, in order for a Hashtag to become popular, there should be a rule ( implicitly or explicitly speaking ) so that anyone who uses the Hashtag can write it correctly.

In addition, the Hashtag is also used by the online community as a way to explain a certain status related to the message. It can increase the sense of humor and fun, show sadness. Simple example is this: " Today is Friday! #Vuiqua #excited #TGIF ". Of course, it also makes it easier to find messages like what was mentioned above.

Use Hashtag outside social networks:

What is a Hashtag and how do people use it on the Internet? Picture 2

In addition to Twitter or Instagram, many other services also integrate Hashtag into their system, for example in the system of posting comments of YouTube or Google+ . Real-time search engines like Google Real-Time Search ( a feature of Google Search ) will automatically track a Hashtag you specify to continuously display those tagged posts.

Some websites support Hashtag

1. FriendFeed (since 2009)
2. Google+
3. Instagram
4. Orkut
5. Pinterest
6. Sina Weibo
7. Tout
8. Tumblr
9. Twitter (since 2009)
10. VK
11. YouTube (2009–2011)
12. Kickstarter (2012 – present)
13. Fetchnotes (2012 – present)
14. Waywire
15. Facebook (coming soon)
16. Sandglaz (2011-present)
17. Application of Hashtag in life

" Phenomenon Hashtag " has been used a lot for advertising, promoting or orienting consumers' thoughts. Most large companies focus on a number of Hashtag to help customers easily find the company ( through those Hashtag ). For example, in the tweet about Xbox, Microsoft often attaches the #Xbox or #XboxLive tag. Or when introducing Windows 8 , they will use #Windows, # Windows8 tags.

The Hashtag is no longer just a tool to link new posts, but it has become a brand identity.

Since 2010, foreign broadcasters have also started using the Hashtag to advertise their programs and their goal is to encourage audiences to engage in activities on the sidelines of that program.

When they played on TV, they also attached the Hashtag to everyone to see in a small corner of the screen. They want users to know their Hashtag more to increase the number of times mentioned in the status of people on different social networks.

In cyberspace there is another interesting thing called "bashtag " ( bad + Hashtag? ). Bashtag was created to describe situations where users of a community network use Hashtag to comment, criticize a certain company, or to inform others about the quality of service.

In early 2012, McDonald started the trend of bashtag by using the Hashtag #McDStories so that users can mention and share their stories each experience with McDonald's products.

However, this marketing campaign was stopped after only two weeks because the statuses use the #McDStories tag mainly complaining about its service, not the story in the positive direction as intended by the company.