This article was published on June 30, 2010

Bounce turns any website into a collaboration white board.


Bounce turns any website into a collaboration white board.

When you’re working on websites in today’s world, chances are that you’re not always face to face with your clients, or even your team.  One of the constant challenges is keeping track of feedback and collaboration, while sharing ideas.

Bounce, from ZURB takes an interesting approach to this process, by giving you an interactive screenshot where you can highlight areas and then leave notes.  As ideas change, you simply take another screenshot, leave more notes and keep progressing.

Initially, I’ll have to admit that I was a bit underwhelmed by what Bounce was offering, but a quick talk with Dmitry Dragilev from Bounce really opened my eyes.  According to Dragilev, the site is seeing traffic from instructors teaching web development, companies are using it to troubleshoot customer problems and of course people just like us here at TNW who are using it to tweak their sites.

At the main page, all you do is enter a URL.  Bounce then goes to work to provide you a screenshot of the site that you entered.  Once the screenshot is displayed, that’s when the magic begins.  You can click and drag to select areas, then add notes to your selection.

Once you’re done making your notes, you have a couple of options.  You can log in, and the site will remember the notes you’ve made in the past.  You can also choose to share your thoughts via Facebook and Twitter integration, which adds an interesting social swing to the application.  The next time that some major website makes a front-page blunder, I’m guessing that Bounce’s traffic is going to skyrocket.

Bounce is an introductory tool, to be honest.  The idea is that if all you need is a quick point-and-type tool to help you fix a small problem, then Bounce is a great answer for you.  However, if you want to get more in depth with privacy, code capturing and SEO elements, you can sign up for a Notable account as the two sites are parented by ZURB.

However, it’s still a great tool, introductory or not.  It’s hugely useful, for a number of scenarios.  Oh, the fact that it’s also free to use and requires no sign up doesn’t hurt matters, either.

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