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Facebook boosts #hashtag presence with mobile

The social network gets hashtag heavy -- rolling out hashtags for mobile, along with related hashtags.

Dara Kerr Former senior reporter
Dara Kerr was a senior reporter for CNET covering the on-demand economy and tech culture. She grew up in Colorado, went to school in New York City and can never remember how to pronounce gif.
Dara Kerr
2 min read
Facebook

Facebook launched hashtags earlier this month, but now it's upping the anty. As of Thursday, hashtags will work on the social network's mobile site and the company is also debuting related hashtags, according to TechCrunch.

What this means is that Facebook hashtags could start to be a lot more abundant and easier to integrate.

Facebook describes hashtags as a way to "turn topics and phrases into clickable links in posts on your personal timeline or your Page, and help people find posts about topics they're interested in." For example, Facebook says, write a post along with an associated hashtag phrase, such as "I walked up so many hills today! #SanFrancisco."

When Facebook first launched hashtags, it only made them available on the Web. But now, users should be able to see them pop up on mobile. However, they still aren't available on Facebook's iOS and Android smartphone apps, according to TechCrunch.

Related hashtags are also a step up from Facebook's original hashtag debut. Originally, users could search for hashtags from the search bar, click on hashtags that originate from other services such as Instagram, and compose status updates from the hashtag feed. Now, with related hashtags, users can also see a results page with all the other similar hashtags posted at the same time.

Popularized by Twitter, hashtags, or content tags, allow for nuanced articulation and let social networkers insert themselves into real-time conversations happening around events, television shows, and breaking news. On Facebook, what was once dead text can now be clickable hashed words and expressions.

CNET contacted Facebook for comment. We'll update the story when we get more information.