OurStory tells your story with a little help from your friends
Want to make a timeline of your life, but can't remember every single detail? That's cool, if you use OurStory, an interactive Web timeline of, well, anything.
The site officially exited beta on Tuesday and launched Wednesday here at Demo 07. OurStory lets users collect and organize photos, videos, and blogs chronologically. It's a social timeline, because you can invite your family and friends to contribute their own content to your timeline or just add their comments. If you prefer, OurStory can be antisocial too; set it so no one can help you or see the timeline you're filling out.
OurStory is integrated with Blurb, which will print any timeline into an actual book. Creating a timeline is free, but if you want stepped-up features-- like the ability to make multiple timelines, and control, down to a single person, who can see and add content to your story--you'll have to shell out $40 a year.
(Credit:
OurStory.com)
Erica Ogg is a CNET News reporter who covers Apple, HP, Dell, and other PC makers, as well as the consumer electronics industry. She's also one of the hosts of CNET News' Daily Podcast. In her non-work life, she's a history geek, a loyal Dodgers fan, and a mac-and-cheese connoisseur. E-mail Erica. 
At the same time, remember that even some of the most successful Web 2.0 ventures started out small. Flickr and YouTube made it big, but it took time. Likewise any service that thinks it through and tries to improve on its competitors has a good chance and unseating the big guys, just like Firefox is doing with Web browsing.