Facebook Hashtags Rolling Out, Additional Features Coming For 'Public Conversations'

Facebook recently announced "Public Conversations," an integrated public news feed of trending conversations where hashtags ala Twitter will be used widely. The hashtag (#topic or #keyword) function is officially live as of June 12, and is indeed the most significant development in the Public Conversations arena so far.

Hashtags attached to status updates of any type will now be clickable, and clicking a hashtag will lead Facebook users to a central hashtag feed based on that particular tag. Users can now also search for specific hashtag using Facebook's search feature, as well as click on hashtags that originate from integrated services like Instagram. Much like the current personal News Feed, the hashtag feed and hashtag search results will allow users to compose posts and status updates directly without having to go back to their profiles or News Feeds. Posts and status updates using hashtags follow the same privacy options as normal posts and updates, meaning users can control the audience of their hashtag posts by limiting public viewers from "private" to "everyone." Facebook promises more features relevant to Public Conversations in the future, saying that "hashtags are just the first step."

Facebook has about 655 million active users every day, and the conversations between people are often limited to communication between Facebook contacts or second, sometimes third level friends of friends. Using the hashtag functionality of Public Conversations, users can now engage in a larger discussion of specific topics, a development that Facebook takes directly from Twitter.  Facebook is also expected to leverage hashtags for its advertising platform, allowing for more personalized advertisements.

Twitter is the originator of the hashtag function and its 200 million strong user base has already used the tags widely to track trending topics and even purposefully make specific topics trend worldwide. Google+ followed suit with its "plus tag" (+topic instead of #topic), but Twitter remains the most prominent social platform for hashtag-driven public conversations. With Facebook's move to use hashtags, will we see it rival Twitter's dominance in worldwide trending topics and discussions?