In Twitter, what does putting a # sign before a word mean? - Printable Version +- Twitist Forums (http://twitist.com) +-- Forum: Twitter forums (/forum-1.html) +--- Forum: Twitter abbreviations (/forum-4.html) +--- Thread: In Twitter, what does putting a # sign before a word mean? (/thread-3280.html)

In Twitter, what does putting a # sign before a word mean? - strawberries - 10-02-2012 10:53 AM These are usually at the end of Twitter messages. Here are some I've seen: #politics #usa #yss Here's an example of one message: http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE53A0ZR20090411 #pman #cnn #abc #rai #bbc #usa #un #uk #ue - volleyball213 - 10-02-2012 11:01 AM The hash mark (#) before a word in a post allows you to tag that post for that word. However, in order to get tracked via a hash tag, you need to opt-in and follow http://www.Hashtags.org. If you then visit Hashtags.org, you can click on any tag and it will show you all of the posts that have been tagged with that keyword. I use the term “keyword” with a grain of salt since some of the tags aren’t keywords in the sense that you know them related to search engine optimization, because some of the tags are completely non-sensical in nature. And although you can get a complete list of words that have been tagged on the site, there is no way (at least currently) to search for a specific tag. However, it is possible to view all tweets (posts made to Twitter) that contain a specific tag by modifying your URL a bit like so: http://hashtags.org/tag/iPhone. You can also subscribe to any updates that contain a tag by posting “follow #tag” (without the quotes) in Twitter.