Hashtags work on a wide range of platforms and double as search terms. It probably sticks in the mind of the average passerby better than website and gets people to your message about as well overall.

[–] paraphrand@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah. They existed before Twitter too.

[–] elbarto777@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What platforms used it before Twitter?

[–] paraphrand@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well, back then I wouldn’t call “blogs” a platform. But that’s what helped popularize tags.

[–] elbarto777@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Did blogs share tags? I can't recall, but I believe you. I do remember backlinks.

[–] paraphrand@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

I don’t think so. At least not as a matter of course.

But they did help organize content, and helped search engines as metadata. At least before (?) SEO destroyed their utility.