"I'm not really interested in technology for the sake of technology. I'm interested in how it helps people connect and work with other people," says Meredith Ringel Morris, a computer scientist in the Adaptive Systems and Interaction Group at Microsoft Research. Her tool SearchTogether, shown below, is a plug-in for Internet Explorer that makes it easy for groups to share the work of searching without duplicating each other's labor. Bookmarked websites appear in a frame beside the main browser window, along with users' comments and ratings. A chat window at the bottom of the screen lets users discuss results in real time if they're online simultaneously. Morris says that collaborative search combines the two activities she thinks people are most interested in doing online: communicating and gathering information. She's also working on a tool that will help groups search collaboratively when sharing one computer, which could be particularly useful in classrooms. --Erica Naone
