Google has announced that its Google+ social network will now support the hashtag and real-time searches. The hashtag support, similar to TWitter’s popular hashtags, will be used to automatically link search results for terms without users having to break up strings into individual words.
Google expects that the hashtags and real-time search will help Google+ users get better search results and contribute to live events on Google+ such as, breaking news, sports and many more. The organisation explained its two new features as follows:
Google’s Real-time Search
Now when you search in Google+, you’ll see a message about new posts the instant they’re available. If you click on this message, or select “Most recent”, then relevant posts will start appearing in real-time.
Google’s Improved Hashtag Support
People have long used hashtags to mark their posts with certain topics — just ask our very own +Chris Messina, hashtag inventor. You don’t have to use hashtags on Google+ (search works fine without them), but when you do, we’ll automatically link to search results.
