Facebook is in danger of falling off the popularity table. With more and more weird uncles and less and less cool kids on the site, Zuckerberg and crew are trying to break back into the youth market. In order to do so, they're bringing the Twitter style hashtags to their site.
According to The Week, Facebook launched a limited hashtag feature today. Like hashtags on other sites like Twitter and Instagram, users will be able to search via the hashtag.
If you'll remember, Facebook lovers don't usually enjoy changes to the site. And this modification could have a large impact. The Huffington Post speculates on the changes that hashtags could trigger. Just by existing, for example, the feature will pull Facebook more from a "friends"-based social experience to a topical one. Since people will be able to search for hashtagged items, it could mean that non-friends could view the status updates of strangers.
The Huffington Post breaks down Facebook's original purpose of keeping up with known individuals versus the purpose of other social media sites like Tumblr, which help individuals congregate on ideas or media.
Do you think hashtags will keep Facebook popular with the youth? Will it ruin Facebook's intended purpose?