The hashtag is a label, an identifier that you can attach to a message. It ensures that messages about the same topic are easily grouped together. This makes it easier for social media users to view similar messages, compare content and link them together.
Twitter was the first (2007) to enter the hashtag. In September 2012, Google+ followed suit. After that, Facebook (2013), Pinterest (2017), Instagram (2018) and LinkedIn (2018) will do the same.
Initially, the hashtags were not hyperlinked. In 2009, Twitter added the hyperlink standard.
The # sign has its origin in the “Pound sign” (British weight measure).
The stylized # sign was used for many things. In 1960, it appeared for the first time on the keyboard of an American Bell Telephone Company telephone. Back then, there were no home computers (1980) or cell phones (1990), let alone smartphones.
The # symbol, now called the “hash,” was only introduced in social media quite recently. It was first proposed in a tweet by Chris Messina on August 23, 2007.
Messina herself described his first “#tag” as a “channel tag”. A few days later, it became the “hashtag”. Why? There are various stories and hypotheses about this. One of them is that it sounds good.
#sandiegofire (October 2007) reported on massive wildfires in San Diego California. It was the first hashtag to group over 1000 posts.
