The hashtag # rises from a unimportant keyboard button to the most dangerous, and at the same time, useful sign of free speech in the digital age.
On August 23,2007 the hashtag was born on Twitter from Chris Messina, and was very useful to build up a stream of a specific marked topic.
Today it is used as a clickable search for topics, not only in Twitter, but also in Google+ which puts it to an extend.
Recently the hashtag has come to public interest when used as a driving force to start protests, not only in the Arabian world, but with the #OccupyWallSt tag, around the world. In those protest, the hashtag was used for localized organisation of protest like #OccupyOakland. It's very effective.
And now very soon, its time for the US elections, and that's where the article of "The Atlantic" chimes in. They give a little overview of the things that happens with the hashtag now.
The continuing usage of the hashtag in Twitter, Google+ and all over the web, has a lot of advantages. I would like to see some blog-software, or blogger.com feature, that makes searchable hashtags within the posted text.
Let's see.
