Actually hashtags began on forums and search engines as keywords. Now most forums followed twitters idea of the hashtag sign to shorten it up. Also makes it more "universal". I'm not saying I agree with it but you showed some ignorance there assuming it was all because of twitter. If it wasn't a hashtag we would still be telling people to look at keywords. Would you have said -blam!- keywords too? Where would you like those to go back to?? Stupid, stupid people...