Hash tags are a fad.

Hash tags were cool for about 10 minutes. But then they started to remind us of IRC, Meta Data, and reading a book written in another language.

When Twitter hit the big time, just a couple months before the landmark “@oprah” show, all of the trending topics on Twitter were hash tags. It was new, it was cool, it was hip to know what a hash tag was. And if you used them properly, it meant you were twitterific at twittering.

Hash tags do serve a useful purpose. For example, a few months back there was an event called IM Sprint Break being held not too far from where I live. I could not attend this event, but because of hash tags, I was able to follow the twitter-stream by searching #imbroadcast. I actually enjoyed watching the constant flow of tweets all relating to this event. The tweets were in real-time updating me on what was happening as if I was there.

I remember a specific period of about 5 minutes when a speaker took the podium. As he began his keynote presentation, a stream of first impression thoughts from individuals at this event fl