In this newsletter:
📝 Post: Did Algorithms Kill the Hashtag?
🗞️ In Case You Missed It: Made by Google Event
🗞️ In Case You Missed It: Tech Headlines
😎 Pick of the Week: Entertainment Picks
📦 Featured Product: Open Ear Headphones
📝 Did Algorithms Kill the Hashtag?
Recently, the new owners of MySpace have noted they are wanting their social platform to make a comeback of sorts. There’s still a lot of details to work out, but at least there’s hope. Well, for millions of Millennials, anyway. The nostalgia appears rampant across other social media platforms, including tons of Gen Zers who missed that era. But the question is really - where is the nostalgia coming from?
Of course nostalgia is a tricky subject, but from what I can tell of the consensus, it seems like many people just miss the “olden days” of social media. What made social media popular (and even moreso, MySpace) was users being able to login and see their friends posts. They only saw posts of users they followed, businesses didn’t have accounts, and users actually had to search out to find new things.
There was no algorithm or machine learning to “show you” anything the system thought you may enjoy. It was very much a manual process to look and search for things you wanted to see. However, one such tool - the Hashtag - allowed users to group conversations or discussions around a certain topic of choice. A #Hashtag is nothing more than a word, group of words, or short phrase preceded by a pound sign or number sign. Depending on your social media platform of choice, typically, they are also clickable and will search that hashtag and show posts where users have posted that same hashtag on their post.
This became a way for users to follow events, breaking news, conferences, and even TV shows in real time. As the #Hashtag became more popular, you can imagine users started using it more and more. This led to posts that would potentially only contain a single picture with 10-15 hashtags. Because if posting one helps with discoverability, more is better, right?
Well, then the algorithms started taking over. Users didn’t have to search for the content they wanted to see because the platforms would simply show you things you didn’t know you wanted to see, and in some cases things you didn’t even know existed. We went from telling the platforms what category something belongs to based on the hashtag given to the post, but increasing, the platforms (computers on the backend) are figuring that out for themselves. They know where you are, what you’re doing, what you just saw, and can assume a post you are making is about topic “X.”
Since, some major platforms have even started to limit the number of hashtags in a post. For example, Instagram limits posts and Reels to 5 hashtags, Threads limits posts to 1 hashtag. X.com still allows them, but does not in paid ads. TikTok allows them, but apparently they aren’t used by the algorithm, only for searchability.
All this to say, the #Hashtag isn’t dead or meaningless. It just means social platforms have changed the way findability works. They still make sense for events, and news, and other items mentioned, but note this is when a user is searching out a topic. And the TV show bit is minimized since most TV shows aren’t watched live anymore.
MySpace is gaining popularity with the announcement of its possible return, but again, the nostalgia runs deep. The #Hashtag can be viewed as the label it is living in between the algorithms and social platforms where we only see those we follow. It is an intentional search for a topic or event that can help breathe a little bit of life into what social platforms used to be like. But don’t think you have to add a bunch of hashtags on your post - the systems are still good enough to tell which ones are most accurate.
The ultimate question here may not be what’s the best platform. It may be asking users if they prefer to let the system choose what to see, or let the user search out what they intend to see.
🗞️ ICYMI: Made by Google Event
Google announced a lot of new devices at their Made by Google ‘26 event. You can check out Everything Revealed at Made by Google 2026 in Less Than 12 Minutes or read below. A new Pixel 11, Pixel 11 Pro (in two sizes), and the Pixel 11 Pro Fold phones received hardware and software updates including:
Gemini updates across the platform, including major voice typing updates
Better quality camera for telephoto and night time pictures
Up to 30 hours of battery, with around 15 hours of use from 15 minutes of fast charging
Highlight - a customizable colored light on the back of the phones to help show who’s calling
A new Magic Capture feature to automatically capture pictures and video simultaneously
A new Sign-to-Text feature allowing ASL users to convert their signs to text in real time
Other devices include Pixel Buds Pro 2, the Pixel Tag, and the Pixel Watch 5 - with accurate heart rate tracking for fitness and health tracking and advanced GPS
In other Google news, the classic Search button is gone in a new AI-first homepage and Google has started hosting rival app stores in the Play Store after the Epic decision earlier this year.
🗞️ ICYMI: Tech Headlines
Anthropic says it will watermark text generated by its AI models
Apple is working on a way to authenticate that a photo came from an iPhone camera
IBM found there were an increase of 56% AI-driven attacks, led by AI deepfake impersonations and AI-enabled malware
Mark Zuckerberg shared a manifesto titled The Future is for Everyone where he argued that personal super intelligence is for everyone and should have free or affordable access
Spotify asks creators to label songs when they’re AI-generated
😎 POTW: Entertainment Picks
A couple of picks for movies, music, TV, and an app to play music behind your podcast.
20 Best Sword-and-Sandal Films, From ‘The Odyssey’ to ‘Gladiator’
Bingebuster — your streaming services, restocked as a video store
Music Fans Rerank Rolling Stone’s List Of The Best Songs From Fake Bands
📦 Featured Product
Across the globe, there are thousands, if not millions, of headphones available for purchase for your mobile devices. Wired, Bluetooth, in-ear, over the ear, and many other options. However, a newer style is beginning to become more and more popular. The open ear headphones. These allow the user to hear the music, video, phone call, etc., while still hear things going on around them. This is much safer for pedestrians and bicyclist alike. Two of the more popular models are the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds and the SHOKZ OpenDots 2.
