If you like trying out new toys and have an interest in the annotated web, webbed footnotes wants you. Part of an MSc project at MIT, webbed footnotes is a firefox plugin that allows users to post annotations to web pages, as well as read and rate the annotations of others. It’s very news-focused, at least at the moment – testers are only able to try it out with NY Times stories. There are, of course, similar projects floating around. One of my favourites is stumbleupon, which is a random web surfing plugin thingy that allows you to rate and comment on websites. Because I am not so much invested in the “reliability” of “information” (worthy and important as these things are) as I am in participation and play, I love the serendipity factor, the way it is premised on social networks, and the playfulness of the concept.