@Marcus they work but are far less convenient than a custom channel. eg, my channel "FOSS" includes hashtags #Linux, #FOSS, #Firefox, #FirefoxNightly, #Thunderbird, #Arch, #ArchLinux, & several others. To do it manually just by my saved tag search links requites the tedium of having to do all those searches individually in series, not automatically in parallel as done by the channel.