Earlier this week, Web browser pioneer Netscape has released a public beta of Navigator version 9. Among several nice features (which still can't beat the powerful yet unknown Opera 9) Netscape Navigator 9 jumps on the Social Networking bandwagon with the possibility for the users to share interesting stories [they] find with millions of people and vote on stories submitted by others as [they] browse.
An interesting feature indeed, which is similar to other social sites such as Digg and Delicious, it relies on Netscape's start page Netscape.com. That means you need to go to Netscape.com to read other people' s opinion on the story or topic you want to submit (as with Digg and al.).
Now, wouldn't it be cool to be able to share your opinion on that story directly on the web page you read it ?
Fleck does that, somehow. Launched last year, Fleck is a Web annotation tool for marking up blogs, Web sites, and social networking profiles with little sticky notes. See the snapshot for a quick view (Credit: CNET Networks). With Fleck, no need to jump from one site to another : you get the message right onto the relevant page.
However, you still need to go to Fleck.com before sticking your note in order to give the URL of the page you want to add this note to.
Those necessary steps are quite annoying. The ultimate user-experience would be for anyone browsing the Web to be able to leave a note or a vote or a feedback onto any web page without being forced to go back and forth between different sites.
Anyone willing to make this last sentence really true ?As stated on Fleck/About : " Fleck.com wants to add a new layer of interactivity to the web. Fleck is inspired on a story written in 1945 by Vannevar Bush and an article titled 'We Are The Web' by Kevin Kelly.
Vannevar Bush predicted a machine called the Memex that would allow people to surf from one information page to another. Some people say that Hypertext and the World Wide Web are based on or at least inspired by the Memex.
One thing that the Memex had and the web doesn't is the ability to add new content to every page it contained."