Let's Surf the Web Together

By: Gina ImperatoWed Dec 19, 2007 at 12:21 AM

The Internet is supposed to be all about community. But visiting sites has been a solitary pursuit -- until now. New browser tools allow "tour leaders" to take groups to interesting sites and let users create "trails" to track their journey.

Finding new users to chat with is easy too. Just search the Odigo member directory, or use the service's Web-site directory (which covers more than 10,000 topics), and you can connect to other Odigo users. Unfortunately, users have to be online for you to make connections with them, and searches can be so specific that they may not turn up any users at all. For instance, when I did a search under "business" for people with expertise in beverages, I found no matches. But when I searched for consultants who know something about e-commerce, I found quite a few folks.

If you're looking for a fun and easy way to stay in touch with far-flung family members and friends, as well as for an opportunity to meet new people, Odigo is a reasonable way to go.

Gina Imperato (gimperato@fastcompany.com), a Fast Company associate editor, is based in San Francisco.