Facebook to let users tag friends in status posts

Product manager Andrew Huang said the status tags - coming over the next several weeks - are "all about engagement." He said Facebook wants to let users reference their real-world connections in their status posts.

For example, if a status update mentions having lunch with a friend, the user can tag the post with that friend's name. That'll make it easier for someone to pull up all status posts mentioning that particular friend, regardless of who made the posts.

It's similar to how someone can now easily pull up photos of a friend, regardless of which user had taken and shared the image. People will also be able to reference brands and businesses that have Facebook pages, as well as events, groups and applications.

To use the feature, users will have to type the "at" symbol in their post. This will activate a drop-down menu, from which users can select the friends to reference. The "at" symbol won't appear in the post itself; only a link with the person's name will show up.

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