In a move surely meant to help compete against the popularity of micro-blogging service Twitter, Facebook today announced the addition of a new "tagging" feature, one that allows users to specifically reference and link to their friends when they mention them in their Status Updates. When you write a status update, one that you would like to grab the attention of a specific Facebook user or help others find the profile of that person, simply type the @ symbol in front of their name. When the status update goes live, the person's name will become a link. Other users can click on it to be sent their that person's profile. At the same time, a notification will be sent to the linked person, to let them know their being mentioned.

In a blog post announcing the new feature, Facebook engineer Tom Occhino spun it to seem like a natural extension of the "tagging" system Facebook has already been using for photos.

"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. 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."

Occhino also warns that the new feature won't be available to all Facebook users at first, that full use will be delivered over the course of the next few weeks. 

With more tagging comes more notifications and so far there are few details as to what options will be given to users to help manage the influx of notifications this update will bring.  

The similarity to Twitter's messaging system is unmistakeable. Twitter users direct their messages to each other by using the @ symbol in front of their usernames. It also changes the name into a link that heads directly to that person's account, making it easier to connect with other users.

Already both companies have introduced applications that allow their users to access the competitor's service, Twitter users can send messages to Facebook here, and Facebook users can arrange to send their updates to Twitter here.