Best way of tackling this problem? Hard to explain

[Cromulent]

Okay this is not really a programming question as such but it is very much a programming related subject.

I'm looking to develop my first plugin / product to add some basic integration with Magento. Basically what I want to happen is that when a user makes a post with the name of a product in the Magento store it turns it into a link either to the direct product itself, or if more than one makes a little a Javascript drop down menu that lets the user select the specific item that they want information on.

What would be the best course of action to take on this? Would writing my own BBCode be the best approach or would something more drastic be required? I'm not really looking for programming help with this just some ideas on the best way to approach the problem as I am new to development with both vBulletin and Magento so need to get my head around the way they work on an internal level.

Thank you for any help.