Demo

• @ is required leader char for autocomplete
• Links result from text parsing (not first class input objects)
• First element is highlighted: Down, enter keypress or pointer press is required to activate.

Research

Twitter

• @ is required leader char for autocomplete
• Links result from text parsing (not first class input objects)
• First element is not highlighted: Down, enter keypress or pointer press is required to activate.

Google+

• + is required leader char for autocomplete
• Links are first class input objects (the same +foo text could be a link or not depending on user input)
• First element is highlighted, enter selects
• All legal name chars (including space!) keep autocomplete up. Non-legal chars (such as numbers) terminate autocomplete without creating a link.

Facebook

• Autocomplete activation is based on some hidden rule rather than a leader char, which may be fuzzy.
• Links are first class input objects. Deleting also happens word-wise, which is interesting if you just want the first name linked.
• First element is highlighted, enter/pointer press selects
• Any non-word chars terminate autocomplete, so you can only match on first or last, but not both.