Not long ago, my 20-year-old daughter asked, "Dad, what does it mean when the number sign is put before words on Facebook?"
Oh sure, it's not the kind of meaning-of-life question I used to get when she was growing up...but, on the other hand, it kinda is.
I explained to her those posts she's seeing on Facebook are coming from Twitter and the "#" is, in Twitterese, called the hashtag and it denotes a particular topic (or, sometimes, smartass comment) upon which the Tweeter wants to comment and an entire Twitversation centered on the topic denoted by the hashtag.
"Oh," she said, eyes glazing over. She moved on to the next conversation...or hashtag. My daughter is not a fan of Twitter.
No matter. The Twitterverse now includes 500 million people and the 140-character mini-blog celebrated its 6th birthday, yesterday. Mashable celebrated here.
The first tweet, according to Mashable: from Jack Dorsey at 12:50 p.m. on March 21, 2006..."just setting up my twttr."
#HappyBirthdayTwitter! Reminds us how we're really still in the childhood of social media.
Still waiting, though, for #cornedbeef to appear in the stream.
