The Moss-Free Stone

Checking the Techcrunch feed this morning, I learned that a new wrinkle to the social world of Web 2.0 has been unveiled: the social dictionary. The site is Word Source, and it appears to be a useful online dictionary. It is clean and ad-free and words can be looked up simply by typing the desired term at the end of the URL. The social aspects of the site include the ability to upload images into the dictionary (I can see the possibilities for jokesters–”When you look up ugly in the dictionary, I bet they have your picture!”), add tags to words (a thesaurus comes to mind), and, get this, rank words based upon popularity. Rankings include like/dislike, the “perfect word”, “I am this word”, and other “useful” categories. The site also includes a jumble game and hangman. I can’t see the actual significance of this, but if it can save just one person from a limited vocabulary, then maybe it will all be worth it!

Technorati Tags: dictionary social online tagging