Do you know the history of the hashtag?
Most people are under the impression that the hashtag originated when social media hit the scene about 5 years ago. That’s actually not entirely accurate.
While it seems that the history of the hashtag began then, it actually started much earlier – more like in the 12th century.
Since then, we’ve seen the hashtag start out as the “pound” and morph from one symbol to another, finally culminating in what we know today as the hashtag and popularized on social media sites such as Twitter, Instagram, Google+, and more recently, Facebook hashtags.
and over time, it has morphed into the hashtag.
The history of the hashtag
What’s pretty fascinating about the history of the hashtag is that it never really started out as the hashtag.
Instead, the hashtag or # symbol started out as #Sharp.
Over time, the hashtag was used in chess – the # symbol mean #CheckMate.
Other notable uses across the history of the hashtag was that in 1960, the hashtag was added to the telephone keypad.
Then sometime in 2000, the hashtag started to move towards being used to group items together, which is how we primarily see the hashtag being used today.
Fun Fact: The first tweet using the hashtag was sent by @factoryjoe (aka @chrismessina) on August 23, 2007 (tweet this).
Overall, I find learning about the history of the hashtag interesting – and very fascinating. If you’re interested in learning more about the history of the hashtag, there’s a handy infographic below for you to print, pin on Pinterest, or share on your favorite social networks.
[Via Furthermore]
Now that you know the history of the hashtag, I want to hear from you!
Question: How do you feel about hashtags? Let me know by leaving a comment here.
If you want to learn how to use the hashtag, contact me and we can walk you through them.