Collaborating on Searches

With the rise of web 2.0 and social networks this year I predict 2009 will be the year where collaboration of searching online really takes off.

ReFrame It is a browser plugin that lets users highlight text on websites and add notes in the sidebar. The highlights and notes can then be shared with friends.

Search Together from Microsoft is a plugin for Internet Explorer that lets users share websites with notes. It seems very similar to AIM. There doesn't seem to be any feature where users can highlight specific text on each individual website.

Google's Search Wiki lets users promote or remove search results. Users can also apply notes to search results and add any websites Google may have missed. You can even see other people's results for the same search. I think the Search Wiki has the potential to become a lot more collaborative in the future.

Collaborating Online

VoiceThread A VoiceThread is a collaborative, multimedia slide show that holds images, documents, and videos and allows people to leave comments in 5 ways - using voice (with a mic or phone), text, audio file, or video (via a webcam). Share a VoiceThread with friends, students, and colleagues for them to record comments too.

Twiddla calls itself "team whiteboarding". A very easy to use web based interactive whiteboard. Think of it as a smartboard in your browser. You can upload files, record video and audio, save a session, and embed it in a website.

Skrbl is another website that offers a sharable online whiteboard.

Examples of people collaborating online.

Telephono has musicians record music than e mail it to the next musician. Each musician can change everything or add nothing The song keeps getting e mail from musician to musician. A play on the childhood game of telephone.

NY Times columnist is writing a thriller novel over Twitter. Followers are able to comment on the story as it unfolds. THese comments may effect the course of the novel. Could a group of students write a story collaboratively over Twitter?