The History of Hashtags

Shedding some light on the history of hashtags and how we've come to use them

Hashtag on Twitter
Twitter Hashtags. Matt Cardy / Getty Images

Hashtags, you know, those crazy off-kilter squares with six protrusions pointing in every direction? Yeah, that's what they look like, but what are people using hashtags for? And why have these symbols, which have colloquially been referred to as pound signs for decades, become so popular?

When most people today think about them, chances are excellent they're associated with social media, particularly Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, Gawker, and Google Plus.

Even Facebook is said to be in the process of incorporating hashtags into its code, according to some reports. What this means is these cyber appendages Internet users tack on to keywords are here to stay -- at least well into the foreseeable future. So, understanding what they are and how to use them can be a real benefit to both your personal and professional lives.

Hashtags weren't officially "in use" when I first started using Twitter, but I do recall that when everyone started using them, I looked feverishly for some kind of hashtag database that I assumed would tell me which ones to use. I assumed that there must be some kind of index, or spreadsheet that I could pick from. came to that rescue, although I think it's still important to note that hashtags are made up. The idea that you can organize all of the hashtags out there is almost silly.

Hashtag History

The metadata tags have been actually been around for quite some time, first being used in 1988 on a platform known as Internet Relay Chat or IRC.

They were used much then as they are today, for grouping messages, images, content, and video into categories. The purpose of course, is so users can simply search hashtags and get all the relevant content associated with them.

Fast forward to October of 2007, when Nate Ridder, a resident of San Diego, California started appending all his posts with the hashtag #sandiegofire.

It was intended to inform people worldwide about the ongoing wildfires in the area at the time.

Stowe Boyd is the blogger who was first said to have officially called them "hash tags" in a blog post in August, 2007. I remember reading that blog post because, at the time, it was the only thing that showed up in search results when you curiously Googled the term "hash tag".

By July of 2009, Twitter hashtags were formally adopted by Twitter and anything with a # in front of it became hyper-linked. And the move was later accentuated when Twitter introduced "Trending Topics", placing the most popular hashtags right on its homepage.

Using Hashtags

The are several reasons to use hashtags, for both personal and business applications. On your personal profiles, it's helpful to keep family and friends abreast of what's going on in your life and the things in which they are most interested in knowing about. While status updates are a means of doing this, hashtags are a means to group certain aspects of your life. For instance, if your family or friends are interested in spreading the word about a particular cause you're regularly involved in, hashtagging your #cause will allow them to quickly find the latest news.

And not only about you, but others doing the same.

Corporations have been responsible for creating some of the most popular hashtags, doing so to promote a specific product or service. Small companies have followed suit, incorporating trending hashtags into their social media presence. It's a way not only to join in on a conversational topic, but create new dialogue. Some companies use hashtags to keep up with their competitors' marketing, learning what does generate and doesn't generate interest. These meta tags can also be used to talk-up a campaign or spread buzz about an upcoming event.

The Downside of Using Hashtags

Of course, there are a few drawbacks to using hashtags. First and foremost is that you don't own them. There are no rules or guidelines. When you add the hash symbol before a word, it becomes a hashtag and anyone else can grab it and exploit it. It becomes troublesome, especially in business, if it's hijacked and used nefariously.

For example, McDonalds, which is commonly associated with junk food and obesity (despite their efforts to improve that image) started a #McDStories hashtag that went viral in a bad way. Around 1,500 "stories" went out from users claiming food poisoning, bad employees and various other complaints. The good news is that only 2% of the Tweets that came in were negative, but the press they got from it was enough to sweat about.

For most people, the hashtag is used for fun. Many trending hashtags, like #ProudtoBeaFanOf are simply used to share an opinion. Others help organize news stories around major events. And sometimes they're just made up on the fly to make a Tweet sound funnier. The interpretation and usage is always up to you, like most Twitter lingo, but the most basic function of a hashtag is to create a single, organized feed of Tweets around each one.

More From Us