Twitter’s Secret Handshake

... hashtags have transcended the 140-characters-or-less microblogging platform, and have become a new cultural shorthand, finding their way into chat windows..

Read the full post:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/12/fashion/hashtags-a-new-way-for-tweets-cultural-studies.html?_r=2&smid=tw-nytimes&seid=auto

Source: @SteveCase on Twitter