HN Explorer

Twitter converts the string 'hashtag' in its URLs

2 points by flexxaeon ↗ HN
I follow several 'hashtag related' accounts for the sake of my web app. Came across the user @hashtag https://twitter.com/hashtag

Tried to see their followers: https://twitter.com/hashtag/followers redirects to https://twitter.com/i/#!/search/?q=%23followers

Clicked: https://twitter.com/hashtag/following and got https://twitter.com/i/#!/search/?q=%23following

https://twitter.com/hashtag/lists worked as expected (huh?)

mobile.twitter.com URLs do not follow this behavior though

Is this a Twitter account?

(edited for grammar)

2 comments

[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 16.5 ms ] thread
jotato
I don't know if it is an account, but it looks like going to http://twitter.com/hashtag/following SEARCHES for the hashtag #following. Perhaps it is a shortcut for searching for a hashtag, and they registered the "account" so no one can break it
flexxaeon
@hashtag is an account - and yes possibly created to avoid breaking. But then I wonder why it doesn't follow the same pattern on mobile.

it equates to visiting twitter.com/#following which meant it was searching the url string for the term 'hashtag'. similar to how twitter.com/search/whatever will lead you right to a search.

Visiting twitter.com/search/hashtag will lead you into a search for 'hashtag', but twitter.com/search/#hashtag will take you to the search homepage