Geek.com Geek News - Signs of the times: high-tech on eBay ClipDoc is a program that claims to be the next logical step in instant messenger evolution. The program synchronizes two users' screens in several ways that allow the users to communicate in ways current instant messenger programs do not. The two users can concurrently view programs other than the instant messenger together; for instance, they can open a Word document and view the contents at the same time. What's more, while viewing the Word documents they can write or draw on the screen as though it were a whiteboard, and both users will see the writing. Synchronized Web surfing works nicely as well. The tool promises to be a powerful aid to long-distance collaboration.

ClipDoc has existed for some time, but failed to catch on in the competitive instant messenger market. In an effort to get noticed, programmer and owner Chris Majors has put the technology up for sale on eBay in an auction called "World's first graphical instant-messenger." Majors describes the program, all its capabilities, a short bit about why he thinks it's a worthy investment, and a starting bid of US$1.5 million.