5 Facts You Didn't Know About the Hashtag

1.On August 23, 2007, the hashtag was first used online.
The idea to use the hashtag to follow conversations on Twitter was put up by Chris Messina.

He tried to pitch the idea to Twitter at the wrong time because they were busy, and tragically the idea was forgotten.

To test if he might establish a trend, Messina began to use them nonetheless.

Twitter eventually caught on, and it was at this point that the hashtag evolved into what it is today.

#barcamp was Messina's first ever hashtag.

2.The hashtag can be used to denote a number or weight (lb).
In the US, the "hashtag" was formerly linked to the "pound" sign.

Libra pondo, the Latin name for pound weight, was shortened to lb in the 14th century.
The Blickensderfer model 5 typewriter's manual stated in the late 1800s that because there was no lb button, the "#" sign may be used to represent pound weight.

According to the instruction manual, words with "#" in front of them relate to numbers. However, if a number was added to the end of a word, it stood for pounds.

This marked the introduction of the "#" as a symbol for weight and digits.

3.A hashtag cannot be trademarked.
Some people enquire as to why Messina did not patent the hashtag, given that he stands to gain millions.
He couldn't, is the explanation. It isn't conceivable, even though he had no desire in doing so. Only a design, invention, method, or piece of machinery may be patented.

The hashtag idea or hashtags don't fit into any of the acceptable categories.

A hashtag can only be yours if you trademark it.

4.In 2010, a function known as the "hashflag" was released.
In conjunction with the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, Twitter employed "hashflags."

This was a World Cup-specific temporary feature. Once the matches were over, it ceased.
However, Twitter revived hashflags in 2014 during the World Cup in Brazil as a result of their popularity.

Users were able to tweet the 32 competing countries' three-letter country codes to make the system operate.

When this was entered into the hashtag, the appropriate nation's flag was substituted.

5.We now see hashtags in our cuisine because they are so popular.
2014 saw the introduction of the "mashtag," a novel deep-fried treat from Bird's Eye Food.

They believed that this modernized version of their well-known smiley faces would appeal to the social media generation.

The hashtag and other social media-related icons were molded into the crispy potato shapes.