Facebook to test out new #hashtag integration

Facebook will be adopting Twitter’s staple hashtag search method, according to a report by Wall Street Journal.

Incorporating the hashtag into the social media giant’s platform would mean that users would be able to search and group conversations around a particular topic, i.e. #wine, or #LedZeppelin.

It is unclear whether this move is to benefit ad targeting or to assist Facebook’s yet to be launched Graph Search product – if it is to benefit either – however the hashtag integration would have positive implications for both.

“Historically, Facebook has come first for advertisers and Twitter has been a nice add-on,” said eMarketer’s Debbie Williamson in the WSJ story. “Twitter has been more aggressive.”

For Graph Search, incorporation of the hashtag means that the product could avoid being reliant on the ‘like’ button, which is flawed in the sense that many users ‘like’ a page through social obligation, and instead base results on expressions of affinity. This would make Graph Search a much more effective social medium.

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently announced that he wants to make Facebook “the best personalised newspaper,” and integrating the hashtag into its service would certainly take it that one step forwards towards that goal.