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The hashtag (#) just turned 11. Is it time to celebrate?

On the hashtag's 10-year anniversary last year, Twitter's co-founder Biz Stone recounted how the hashtag symbol came to be so iconic

On the hashtag's 10-year anniversary last year, Twitter's co-founder Biz Stone recounted how the hashtag symbol came to be so iconic
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On the hashtag's 10-year anniversary last year, Twitter's co-founder Biz Stone recounted how the hashtag symbol came to be so iconic Photo: Shutterstock

Dr Sandeep Goyal
The hashtag(#) turned 10 last year. Last week it turned a year older. 

In my younger days, the symbol # used to denote the number sign. In Western markets it stood for the pound sign. Word nerds called it the octothorpe. But for the past 11 years since it was first used on Twitter, the '#' is famous as the hashtag.

Today the hashtag is not restricted to just Twitter (an average usage of 140 million times a day) but is equally frequently used on Facebook, Instagram and every other social media platform. More importantly, the hashtag today transcends social