Hashtag
A function used with Twitter and other services that give a post or tweet a keyword. For example, someone could use the #computer hashtag to let others know it relates to computers and have it easily found and sorted. All hash tags begin with a hash character, which is the symbol (#) above the 3 on U.S. keyboards.
See our octothorpe key page for full information on the key and its location on the keyboard.
Hashtag was featured as a top term of 2009.
How to use the hashtag
Any word can be treated as a hashtag, however, it's better to only select a few words you believe others may be looking for or that are trending. For example, assume we created the following tweet.
If you're looking for good computer help and information, check out ComputerHope.com who's been offering free computer help to everyone since 1998.
In this tweet, we could add multiple hashtags. However, to keep the tweet direct, we'd only use #computerhelp as our hashtag because it's descriptive and best relates to what someone may use as a search.