We explain what a hashtag or label is, its function and characteristics. Also, how was its origin and examples of popular hashtags.
What is a hashtags?
In the jargon of Internet and specifically of the social networks, is named hashtags or tag to a clickable phrase or word, that is, a metadata tag that allows a user to Username access a specific set of entries (such as writing or images on a social network) that have been marked with that specific descriptor. Typically, this is a string of words and characters preceded by a pound or pound sign (#).
For example, a user of social networks (especially on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Telegram) can click on the hashtags #VeganRecipes to go to the entries identified with this content, thus filtering the vastness of available online content to go directly to what you are looking for.
It is also common for users of social networks to invent their own labels to express certain personal attitudes, emotional states or ironize the very use of social networks. For example: #IHateMondays or #Anything.
On the other hand, the word hashtags it's a neologism from the English language (that is, a Anglicism) composed of two different voices: hashes, translatable as "numeral" (#), and tags as "label". Each tag or hashtags represents a specific topic and a quick and easy digital descriptor for any database of microblogging.
Origin of the hashtags
The pound or hash sign (#) was already part of the protocols descriptions of different online communications services from the late 1990s and early 2000s, such as Internet Relay Chat (IRC) or Jaiku.
It was used as a descriptor of information, in a similar way to the keywords of library systems, but not with the exact meaning that it obtained from 2007, when it began to be used in the social network Twitter.
The first use of a Twitter social hashtag was by Chris Messina, an employee of Google, who proposed it to organize the entries (tweets or tweet) that belonged to the same group:
The tweet translates to "How about using # (hash) for groups, like in #barcamp [msg]?" That same year, the use of tags became popular when another user of the same social network created #sandiegofire to tag his posts about the forest fires in California in October.
Since then, the hashtags they were used to group entries referring to the same topic, the same news event or the same debate among users of the social network, and soon spread to other similar platforms such as Instagram, YouTube and Facebook.
Characteristics of a hashtags
Generally, a hashtags must be:
- A simple and brief phrase, of few words, which alludes directly to the referred topic. It must be headed by the pound or hash sign (#) and without spaces between the words that compose it: #EstoesunHashtag.
- It is common to differentiate between upper and lower case (CamelCase) to distinguish an important word from the rest and to facilitate readability. This is usually done with the initial caps of each word, but there are no definitive rules on this.
- It must be clickable (that is, a hyperlink), so that the user can navigate between platform entries that are identified with the same label.The same entry can have several labels simultaneously.
- The hashtags of greater diffusion and with greater visits enter a ranking of popularity and are called Trending Topics (“Popular Topics”).
Examples of hashtags popular
Some of the hashtags most popular over time have been:
- #TBT or #ThrowBackThursday. Tag popularized on Twitter to share with the public a photograph of childhood or past times on Thursday of each week.
- #YOLO. Label containing the English abbreviation of You Only Live OnceIn other words, "you only live once". It is used to accompany confessions, announce risky decisions or ironize about rather timid and distrustful attitudes in life.
- #FollowFriday. Etiquette popularized on Twitter to encourage users to acquire new followers on Friday of each week.
- #BLM or #BlackLivesMatter. Label that emerged as a result of the protests and riots that took place in the United States as a result of police excesses against Afro-descendant citizens and became a slogan of anti-racism in the West.
- #Instamood. Own label of the Instagram social network, which accompanies the photographs or images shared by a user to express their current state of mind.
- #NoFilter. Label that means "without filters" and is typical of Instagram, specifically of the Photographs that are shared without applying beautification filters. This is a way to warn other users that this photo is shared without retouching.
- #Selfies. Label designed to accompany the “selfie” or self-portrait photographs that users of any social network take at a given moment.
- #FakeNews. Label designed to report to the rest of the users that an entry or a link to a News in reality it is false, manipulative information or conspiracy theories.
- #Photo of the day. Instagram label used by some Hispanic users to organize certain photos that constitute their "daily contribution" to the social network, as if they were keeping a kind of photo diary.
- #foodporn. Label used for photographs of food or particularly succulent dishes, often accompanied by beautifying filters. It literally means “food porn”.