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Facebook to add hashtag functionality to posts, says Wall Street Journal

Facebook to add hashtag functionality to posts, says Wall Street Journal

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Hashtags might be a lot bigger than Twitter, if the Super Bowl was any indication, and Twitter's biggest rival might soon jump on the bandwagon. Facebook plans to incorporate hashtags, reports The Wall Street Journal. The Journal nor Facebook itself has provided many more details. "We don't comment on rumors and speculation," the company told The Verge.

"It is unclear how far along Facebook's work on the hashtag is and the feature isn't being introduced imminently," the Journal's sources said. While Facebook already lets you tag people using the person's name, the @ symbol, or a + symbol, hashtags could go one step further in letting users tag topics as well. Hashtags have proven lucrative for Twitter as a means of generating discussion around brands and marketing campaigns. Hashtags have also been of enormous importance to the viral spread of Instagram, where hashtags like #wiwt (what I wore today) have sprouted entire communities of users. As AllThingsD's Mike Isaac points out, adding hashtags to track topics plays well with Facebook's new News Feed, which lets you browse updates chronologically like on Twitter.