The first decade of our new millennium is coming to a close, and one key on our boards has seen a massive resurgence across the world. It's the humble #. What we call a hashtag in twitterspeak. Ever since the @ sign became the most used key on every keyboard, no other computer keyboard key has ever had such a front stage showing.
According to an article in The Guardian highlighting the symbol, the official typographical name for the # is an octothorpe. While globally, it's called a 'hash', in the US, things are different. The yanks used to call it a 'pound sign'! But now, with twitter, every one seems to know what it is (a 'hash' of course), and how it's used.
The # is the absolute sign on twitter – a marker that allows tweets to highlight a subject, to group tweets together, to track them down or comment, re-tweet and so on.
So, as the year and the decade comes to a close, here's to the humble #hashtag and new lexicon in our speak. Here's to #twitter!
Happy 2011 and have a merry #Christmas.
According to an article in The Guardian highlighting the symbol, the official typographical name for the # is an octothorpe. While globally, it's called a 'hash', in the US, things are different. The yanks used to call it a 'pound sign'! But now, with twitter, every one seems to know what it is (a 'hash' of course), and how it's used.
The # is the absolute sign on twitter – a marker that allows tweets to highlight a subject, to group tweets together, to track them down or comment, re-tweet and so on.
So, as the year and the decade comes to a close, here's to the humble #hashtag and new lexicon in our speak. Here's to #twitter!
Happy 2011 and have a merry #Christmas.
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