Sources told the Wall Street Journal Wednesday that Facebook is working on incorporating the hash tag (#) into its billions of users profiles.

A way of writing about current trends or creating running threads with friends, hashtags are a component of the social networking site Twitter.

Sources told WSJ that Facebook is testing using the symbol as a way to group conversations. They did not say how far along the company is on the project.   

Twitter also uses the hashtag as a way for people to view news, events or topics. The user can type the number sign or "#" in their 140 character posts and whatever the subject matter the tweet is about is next to it.

The more users that put the hashtag next to a specific subject, the greater the possibility it trends in the user's respective country or even worldwide.

Facebook would potentially do the same thing. It would allow its users to stay on longer as they would get to see what's trending and being talked about all across Facebook. Thus, more ads would appear for the users to see, which means more money for Facebook.

"Historically, Facebook has come first for advertisers and Twitter has been a nice add-on," Debbie Williamson, an analyst for eMarketer told WSJ. "Twitter has been more aggressive."

Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, uses the hashtag for its users. When a user post a picture, they can use the hashtags to describe the picture, use it to explain where they are or for any reason of their chosen.

Facebook unveiled a simplified website redesign earlier in March.

Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook was building the foundation to be the best "personalized newspaper" for users.