Meredith Ringel Morris, 29

"I'm not really interested in technology for the sake of ­technology. I'm interested in how it helps ­people connect and work with other people," says Meredit­h Ringe­l Morris, a computer scientist in the Adaptive Systems and Interaction Group at ­Microsoft Research. Her tool Search­Together, shown below, is a plug-in for Internet Explorer that makes it easy for groups to share the work of searching without duplicating each other's labor. Bookmarked websites appear in a frame beside the main browser window, along with users' comments and ratings. A chat window at the bottom of the screen lets users discuss results in real time if they're online simultaneously. ­Morris says that collaborative search combines the two activities she thinks people are most interested in doing online: communicating and gathering information. She's also working on a tool that will help groups search collaboratively when sharing one computer, which could be particularly useful in classrooms. --Erica Naone