Facebook '@' Status Tagging Goes Live

Last week, Facebook introduced the latest feature that just happened to make its debut on Twitter – “status tagging.” The new feature allows users to mention their friends, Facebook Pages, events and groups in their messages by using the '@' symbol, an eerie coincidence, considering Twitter uses the same symbol for pretty much the same functionality. Nevertheless, it is now live for anyone's enjoyment.

Using the feature is pretty straightforward and it also enjoys a more complete and convenient implementation on the social network, which shouldn't really surprise anyone. “Now, when you are writing a status update and want to add a friend's name to something you are posting, just include the '@' symbol beforehand. As you type the name of what you would like to reference, a drop-down menu will appear that allows you to choose from your list of friends and other connections, including groups, events, applications and Pages,” Tom Occhino, a Facebook engineer, wrote initially.

Because the feature extends to Pages and not just to friends, it opens up some interesting possibilities for brands and other organizations, allowing them to have a much better overview of how their fans comment and interact with them outside the Pages themselves.

However, there were some concerns that, even though the feature was popular on Twitter, many people might not know about it or understand how it worked. Thankfully, a couple of pretty well-known bands have already begun to promote the feature, namely the Jonas Brothers and Linking Park, on their Facebook Pages, generating some good exposure for it, but also serving their own purposes.

It's easy to peg this as Facebook once again “borrowing” a feature from Twitter, FriendFeed was also a popular source of inspiration before it was acquired, but status tagging really does add upon the initial concept and, more importantly, it may actually prove very useful for a lot of people.