#Facebook; The Social Media Site Competes with Twitter by Incorporating Hashtags

Arguably the two biggest social media websites, Facebook and Twitter are unique in that Twitter uses hashtags and Facebook does not. At least, they were unique from each other. On Wednesday, Facebook announced that it will introduce clickable hashtags. Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr and Google+ all already have hashtags, which function as tags people can click to see all posts that include a specific term.

When it first emerged, Facebook sought to be an online extension of offline friendships where users couldn't just "follow" people they liked, as they can on sites like Instagram. They had to "friend" them. People felt comfortable sharing certain thoughts and pictures because they knew who could see what they were sharing. Now, that might change. The incorporation of hashtags unites strangers instead of acting as an extension of pre-existing friendships.

"Public posts with searchable hashtags are truly public and discoverable; they give your posts a larger but less familiar audience, and give you the unmistakable feeling that you're no longer just talking to friends, but subject to the crushing scrutiny of the entire internet," said Buzzfeed's John Herman.

How it will work is that the new hashtag tool will allow users to search for hashtags via the search bar; view posts with hashtags that originated on Facebook and click on hashtags in status updates to see other posts with that tag.

"Hashtags are just the first step to help people more easily discover what others are saying about a specific topic and participate in public conversations," wrote Facebook's Greg Lindley. "We'll continue to roll out more features in the coming weeks and months, including trending hashtags and deeper insights, that help people discover more of the world's conversations."

The real question to ask is whether or not people want a one-stop social media site. Breaking news, photos of friends, shared thoughts...do they all belong on one platform, or is it best to kept them separate? Guess we'll find out.