Hot key activated

If this year's buzz was the virtual world, next year's might be something called the "metaweb."

With Google  unveiling plans of connecting social networks — sans Facebook, another project aspires to cast its net over the entire web.

A nonprofit called ShiftSpace has created an app for the Firefox browser. The function allows users to manipulate any website they wish through a layer of the web only fellow ShiftSpace users can see, according to Josh Spear.

In addition to utilitarian features like highlighting content and adding notes, ShiftSpace is including the ability to add video, and alter images and text.

Watch a video about the project.

In its infancy, ShiftSpace offers grants to programmers that would like to help advance the project, via Turbulence.org. This open source approach puts the success of the effort into independent developers' hands.

In the virtual sector a similarly ambitious user-powered project is Metaplace, which gives users the tools to create their own virtual worlds and connect with other virtual destinations.