After much speculation, rumour and occasional scuttlebutt, Facebook has finally confirmed it's joining the rest of the social gang and embracing hashtags. 

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This week Facebook will begin rolling out hashtags to a limited number of users, with more expected to get hashtag access in the coming weeks. 

Facebook announced the news in a blog post, explaining that when users click on a hashtag they'll be show a feed of what other users and Pages are saying about the topic or event. 

“Similar to other services like Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, or Pinterest, hashtags on Facebook allow you to add context to a post or indicate that it is part of a larger discussion,” wrote Facebook's Greg Lindley.

#Hype? 

Hashtags have long been one of the most effective ways for users to discover and distribute content on almost every other social media platform. The feature was created by Twitter user Chris Messina in 2007.

How enthusiastically Facebook users embrace the hashtag remains to be seen.

Hashtags work so well on Twitter because that platform is based around real-time updates, while Facebook ranks posts based on what it thinks users want to see.

However, if Facebook's 1.1 billion users decide to get on board with hashtags, it won't be long before advertising options #rollout. 

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