Most people use the Internet to do research of some kind, and more and more people are doing so as part of their job or volunteer efforts. Often that means that the information gathering is done as a group with multiple people gathering and commenting on information. Web-based tools like del.icio.us or Spurl can be used for this purpose, although they seem to be designed more to support public collaboration and serendipity rather than the work of a closed, focused group of individuals. Our Pearl Comments system works really well for that kind of work. Here are some of the things our customers have told us:
- Pearl Comments’ ease of use encourages quick, casual commenting (create a short note, expand on it later).
- Having a private comment space with room for as many colleagues as you need is very valuable.
- Creating and viewing comments using the browser sidebar keeps everything in context.
- Pinpointing sections of a web page is useful, natural and convenient.
- The ability to quickly apply filters and view subsets of comments encourages people to build on each other’s research efforts.
Within our own company, we use Pearl Comments for everything from competitive analysis to sharing solutions to thorny software development problems.