Fleck

03Apr07

Fleck is a really neat way of annotating webpages. I have been using Firefox plug-ins/extensions like kaizou, JumpKnowledge an Sketcher, and I have to say Fleck is way easier to use. The user experience is much better.

Fleck reminds me of this start-up back in the first dot com boom called “Third Voice“. The idea was exactly the same – let web users add annotations to any web page! In 2001, web hosting companies banded together to stop Third Voice. They argued that annotations were “web graffiti”. I wonder if they are lurking in the corner waiting to make the same arguement again.

In 1999, he and two colleagues launched Third Voice, a free browser plug-in that allowed Web surfers to annotate any site with their comments. The idea was to spark “inline discussions” among Web users, promoting a new civic mindedness that would keep corporations, government and the media honest.

But the seemingly innocuous “sticky notes” gained enemies quicker than users. Launching a grassroots campaign called Say No to TV, some 400 independent Web hosts banded together to gag Third Voice, which they likened to “Web graffiti.”

Read the full article: Third Voice Trails Off…. 

What’s neat about Fleck

• Very easy to use, especially with the Firefox extension
• Drag and drop sticky notes
• E-mail annotations to your friends
• Save your own “Flecked” pages

What’s not so hot

• Still buggy (it’s only in beta)
• You can’t categorise your flecked pages
• Hard to search previously flecked pages

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