Academic

I have been using Firefox since 2005, and I generally like the browser, but a few weeks ago, I converted to Chrome. I have been tinkering with Chrome since its release, but I have been waiting for extensions (particularly Xmarks) before taking the plunge. This week Google launched an extensions site, which is terrific.

My favorite new (to me) extension: feedly.

One of today's "top picks" on the extension page is DotSpots. There is no easy way to explain this annotation service. You have to see it ...

What is your reaction to this? I confess that my initial reaction was overwhelmed. 

Truth be told, I do not have enough time to sort through the day's emails and news stories and blog posts and Facebook updates ... the idea of reading and evaluating dots (distributed objects of thought) from people I don't even know seems a bit much.

Nevertheless, the vision is enticing: to harness "the power of ordinary people using freedom of speech and open collaboration to inform each other and to raise our collective intelligence."

Something tells me that a year from now we are all going to be reading dots.

UPDATE: As long as you are doing extensions, try Cooliris. Wow!