So 'splain to me hashtags...

The essence is for people to more easily share what they're saying to people interested in a certain topic.

You're correct that you can follow Poweraid's twitter account and see what they post, but you have no idea what anyone else is posting to them unless they retweet it.  So, if you just search on #poweraid then you'll see everyone in the world tweeting with #poweraid in their message.

Where I find them fun is during large events like TV shows, sporting events, or political debates.  If the Nebraska game is on I can just watch #Huskers on twitter and see hundreds of people tweeting various things about the game.  If I'm only watching the @Huskers feed then I may get an update every now and again of the score.

Facebook recently added hashtags as well so you can just type #huskers for example and it will give you every post in the world (friends or otherwise) that put the hashtag #huskers in their post.

I guess the rationale is that it makes the social networks more social and interactive.

Hashtags can be super awesome for following things like Ironman races... Where WTC lacks in consistent coverage, tweets can help fill in the gaps. So, #IMAZ might give you lots of info from spectators on course and what is happening with racers.

If you check out #IMAZ right now, there's a bunch of stuff about people traveling, info on what's happening at the expo, news about Tempe extending it's contract, course preview videos, and lots more.

It's kind of neat to streamline stuff and easily find info related to a specific subject.

Quite the opposite - it's kind of genius marketing. Especially when a hash tag completely takes off. It's essentially FREE marketing. Of course not everyone uses hash tags, but if you are on Twitter you at least know what they are.

Using my homer example, my alma mater made it to the Final Four last season. The university's athletics department had been using the hash tag #watchus all season and slowly the fans began to as well. During March Madness it was trending nationwide. They got SO MANY people to use that hash tag from pride and support. All free. Great PR.

So you include the hashtag word to make sure your tweet is included in the correct conversation?

Is there no keyword search for Twitter? Is the hashtag required for that word to show up in a search?

You can still do a keyword search without a hash tag, but depending on how generic it is you might not get the specific results you're looking for.

Let me caution you though.  Now hashtags are also used as a joke/sarcasm to bring attention to something. 

I don't know, something like "I put on 5 lbs this week #chocolatechipcookiesrock"...

Obviously that hashtag is HIGHLY unlikely to return any other posts to follow, but it's an odd way to make a silly comment.  I like when posted by reputable sources.  I follow a couple news agencies on twitter and follow their links and suggested hashtags to get additional stories/comments on the issue.

THIS is a funny example as well.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57dzaMaouXA

I wouldn't say it's to be included in the correct conversation, it's more of a to allow people to see/find your tweet on a particular topic.

I could tweet all day long about IMAZ for example and the only people that would see it are people who follow me, so if I put #IMAZ in all my tweets then thousands of people will see them and be able to interact with me if they want to.  I just did a search on #IMAZ and it's a lot of fun.  Tons of people posting pictures of what they're doing to prepare and where they're at in their journey to Arizona.  It's a whole new window into the sport that really gets me pumped up.  

I remember when I was heading to IMWI I tweeted something about being excited for the race with a #IMWI hashtag on it and @IronmanTri (WTC Official twitter) retweeted it and wished me luck.  It was pretty cool and I got a rush of about 50 new followers from that retweet that everyone following @IronmanTri saw.

#Yep #you #don't #want #to #overuse #hashtags #because #it #gets #annoying

Oh you youngin's and your new fangled social news medias, I reckon I'll never understand it!