Twitter has a long history of letting its users create standards and then finally adopting them as site features. First came the @ reply, whose history was recently examined. Next, the # hashtag morphed into Twitter's full "Discover" tab — complete with advertising opportunities. Now another common standard will automatically be turned into links when viewed on Twitter.com - $ stock symbols, commonly referred to as "cashtags." Twitter announced it in a tweet that indeed contains a stock link that is clickable on the web, much as it has been on various Twitter clients before today. Clicking on a ticker link takes you to a straight Twitter search for the symbol.

Twitter has been working to make its website better at showing related information in "expanded Tweets" that, in part, make it so a user doesn't need to leave Twitter.com. While the tweets with stock ticker symbols don't yet show expanded information, we imagine that it's an obvious opportunity to do so.