Jack Dorsey Doesn't "Like" Facebook Hashtags

What does Twitter founder Jack Dorsey think of Facebook's FB use of hashtags? David Kirkpatrick, the founder and CEO of Techonomy Media, posed that very question to Dorsey during a panel at Techonomy Detroit this week. Dorsey's response was unusually succinct. "Not a fan," he replied. "Don't like it." Despite his response regarding Facebook's use of this hugely popular Twitter feature, Dorsey clarified that Twitter was not the inventor of the hashtag. "The @ user name and the hashtag is not something that we thought of or invented at the company," he told Techonomy attendees. "The hashtag came out of one guy's desire, Chris Messina's desire, to tag his content so that he could categorize his content. We noticed that this was happening and we made it a little bit easier and any time you click on a hashtag, it starts a search." Messina, a designer and developer, invented the hashtag in August 2007. He joined Google GOOG in 2010 and recently left to work for an art collecting startup called NeonMob. Related: What's Twitter And Square Founder Jack Dorsey's Favorite New App? Facebook is not the only social media company that has adopted hashtags. Pinterest, Google+ and Facebook's Instagram are also using them. "I think the true power of it is…people have standardized around one format," Dorsey added. "It's readable by people. It's not something that was meant for computers. It's simple and it works everywhere. And you are seeing it in more and more technologies." Hashtags have become so popular that they have inspired new startups -- such as Hashtracking -- that provide real-time insights for hashtag campaigns and events. Disclosure: At the time of this writing, Louis Bedigian had no position in the equities mentioned in this report. Louis Bedigian is the Senior Tech Analyst and Features Writer of Benzinga. You can reach him at louis(at)benzingapro(dot)com. Follow him @LouisBedigianBZ