Friend tagging comes to Facebook

New name-checking system - and an 'interesting' nod to Starbucks
New name-checking system - and an 'interesting' nod to Starbucks

The makers of Facebook have made another tweak to the site, bringing it closer to Twitter than ever before.

Facebook has already gone through a stream-lining process and added live news updates, but now you can tag friends into your updates – letting them know when you name-check them.

TwitterBook

"One of the most popular features on Facebook is tagging, which gives you the ability to identify and reference people in photos, videos and notes," says Software Engineer Tom on the Facebook blog.

"Today, we are adding a new way to tag people and other things you're connected to on Facebook – in status updates and other posts from the Publisher. It's another way to let people know who and what you're talking about."

How do you tag your friends? With an @ sign of course – something that will be oh-so familiar to Twitter users.

There is a difference, however, the @ sign will not be visible in your status, as 'Tom' explains: "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.

"Soon, you'll be able to tag friends from applications as well. The '@' symbol will not be displayed in the published status update or post after you've added your tags."

Marc Chacksfield

Marc Chacksfield is the Editor In Chief, Shortlist.com at DC Thomson. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.