Yesterday Google released a new “feature” to the Google Toolbar, called SideWiki. It allows users to leave comments on web pages as they visit them. Innovative, you say? I would be a bit more enthused if Microsoft hadn’t already done this 3 years ago with a small app from called Community Bar. It not only allowed the same basic trick, but additionally allowed users to rate pages, tag and categorize them, and even chat with other people who are simultaneously visiting the same page, assuming they also were using the Community Bar. Searching from the MCB took the page’s content into account, creating a context-sensitive search.
|
Microsoft Community Bar |
|
from their site: The Community Bar is an Internet Explorer plug-in that adds context-dependent content to the Web-browsing experience. As a user browses the Web, he or she can exchange notes from other people who visited the same page, chat with other people viewing the same page, tag the page with a bookmark or a category label, view all the in-links to the page, find related pages, perform context-specific search, and |
 |
 |
Apparently, not amazing enough.
You can get Google Sidewiki (along with their toolbar) here. To try the Microsoft Community Bar, you need an account with Process of Change (formerly The Working Network (MCB predates Live accounts) and you can check out information about it at the Microsoft Research site, or the Community Bar site. I’m not really sure if it’s still functional, as the developer’s site states he no longer works for Microsoft.
The Intersection Point 