Pushnote: What is it?

Pushnote is apparently “a browser add-on that enables users to leave comments on any site they visit.”

Users need to sign up for an account, download an add-on for their browser, and can then comment on sites. For example, if you visit a shopping site, much in the way of e.g. Amazon reviews, you’d be able to leave notes that others can see, as to whether this is a good deal, link to a site with better information/price, compliment a site (let’s not forget this – people are much faster to critique than compliment).

What might this do?

In a world where the morass of information on the web can be overwhelming (and, let’s face it, full of inaccuracies to catch the non-critical viewer), this gives options for feedback on sites, especially those that (shock horror) still stick to straight ‘slick marketing’, although it appears that there’s no option for the site owner to censor sites – so allowing for cyber-bullying and undeserved reputation damage. This all contributes to an argument for training people in how best to use such social media tools.

Why now?

Stephen Fry, involved in the startup since June 2010, tweeted yesterday to his 2million+ followers. Well known for causing sites to crash by linking to them from his Twitter account, there’s definitely been a buzz about Pushnote over the last couple of days, and multiple stories appearing on Google!

Have you signed up?

I have, and the following icon has been added to my browser… but currently it’s saying that I’m a “pioneer” and that none of my Facebook or Twitter friends have signed up (which I can’t quite believe!), so I have to find people by name… so far I have just followed Stephen Fry! So… I haven’t quite worked out what to do with it yet…. I tried to log onto it via my phone yesterday, but that didn’t appear to be successful, so this morning (after a reminder via a Facebook friend), I tried again…

So, if you’ve signed up for Pushnote, let me know, so I can see about some interaction! My user name is Bex Lewis.

Testing Commenting

So, clicking on that plugin link (on whatever page I’m on), gives a nice simple interface into which I can type my comment and decide whether to post that comment to my Facebook and Twitter accounts. Note that Twitter I have signed up for 2 accounts and it’s not giving me an option for just one, it appears to have to go to both if I select Twitter (wonder if that will change in a later updat

e).

Now, if I return to that page, the plugin has gone green, indicating that there is a pushnote conversation available. Click on it, and the screen above reappears, and presumably allows other

s comment, and build up a conversation. I can see an interest in this, particularly in getting students to comment critically on page content (getting them to think that information is not ‘right’, not ‘fact’, and that critical thinking is required), and also for staff, who are undertaking research, to cross-comment on others interested in similar fields, and promote dialogue across institutions.

Will it fly?

Who knows, if Stephen Fry’s followers pick it up, and find it as simple to use as I have, then maybe! Once I have worked out how to find some friends there, that is… and nothing has yet appeared in my Twitter/Facebook streams…