Vine introduces the #hashtag to its features.

What is Vine?

Vine is a short video service that lets you create and share up to 6 seconds of video. The Vine app is currently only available on iOS.

Vine enables you to shoot a full 6 seconds of video instantaneously, or you could use it in a time lapse scenario and start it and stop it as many times as you wish, until you have recorded the full 6 seconds.

Only last week Vine released a feature where you can embed your video on the web. They also released a new iOS update where you can share to Twitter and Facebook or Embed the code into a webpage or blog.

If you select the Embed button it opens up your email client and attaches a link to the embed code where you can send this link to your email address. Click the link in the email to open up the Embed Post page. On this page you can select whether you want a simple or postcard layout, then select which size you want from 600px, 480px or 320px, copy the embed code at the bottom and paste into the code of your website or blog.

So it was only a matter of time before Vine joined the party with another great feature, the trending hashtag.

Vine said on Friday that it wanted to make it easier for users to explore and discover content like popular posts and hashtags. The hashtag was reinvented by Twitter and since their inception a whole host of other social networks have introduced them as part of their features too, including Facebook, Google+ and Instagram.

Hashtags are a great way to find what is popular on any social network, they even show up in the main search engine results.

Let's not forget too that Twitter bought into Vine even before it's launch to the general public, but decided to leave it as a separate entity. So there is a lot of influence from within Twitter and Twitter knows what works best for them.

Individuals and companies alike are finding great uses for 6 second shorts. Brands are using Vine as part of their marketing strategy, here's one from Cadbury's UK as part of their Easter campaign.

Trending hashtags will almost certainly make it easier to find and discover interesting stuff.
Do you use Vine, what do you like or dislike about it, is there something missing that you would like to see them introduce in the near future? Let me know your thoughts below.

LinkedIn launches the mention feature.

LinkedIn announced yesterday on the company blog that it will be releasing a new feature similar to that of Facebook's tag a friend or company page. So far i don't have the feature enabled but LinkedIn's new "mentions" feature was beginning to roll out to all English speaking members as of yesterday, with a gradual roll out globally thereafter.

When you write a status update and want to include one of your connections in the post, start typing the first few letters of their name and LinkedIn will auto suggest those with the same name from your first degree connections only. It also has real time benefits because once you mention a connection they are instantly notified of the mention.

Even though you can only mention first degree connections in a status update post, you can mention other members. But only if they are engaged in a conversation in the comments section of a public post on the LinkedIn homepage that you wish to comment on.

It's a feature that has been a longtime coming. Twitter started the trend a few years back by using the @ symbol before the name, then Facebook followed suit some years after. LinkedIn believes that by using mentions in your status updates or comments, it will help you start up a conversation with your network.

View the slideshow from LinkedIn below.

Start a Conversation with Mentions on LinkedIn from LinkedIn

Do you see this as becoming a popular feature on LinkedIn? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.