Beyond blogging will be "dotting," if a new website launched by a team that includes two University of Washington Information School graduates catches on.

Kabir Shahani and Ross Yearsley, Informatics majors who graduated in 2004 and 2003, respectively, are among the 10 people behind Blue Dot, Inc., a Seattle-based company led by former Microsoft and Amazon developers. Their site, www.bluedot.us, launched in July 2006, allows users to find, save and share Web content with friends and family for free. Through this communication, which Blue Dot describes as "social discovery"--a term it has trademarked--users are able to learn more about one another.

"Many social networking sites, such as MySpace and Facebook, ask, 'Who do you know?' and require users to share personal information," says Shahani, Blue Dot's "Dot Connector" (in charge of communications). Blue Dot asks, 'What can I learn from my friends?' and answers with social discovery--the use of the Web as a way to communicate and share with friends."

By installing two buttons onto their Web browser, Blue Dot users can instantly share personalized Web links, called Dots (another trademarked term). Dots can be created about news, events, videos, music, books, restaurants, sports, shopping, or anything else they find on the Web. They can also post comments about, categorize, and rank Dots as they are created. Once saved, all Dots are organized and displayed in Blue Dot's searchable online collection of personally selected content. Blue Dot can also be integrated into blogs or other social networking sites to keep personal pages fresh with little effort.

"Dotting isn't a substitute for blogging," says Yearsley, Blue Dot's "Dot Mechanic," (Web developer) "Dotting is a great option for people who don't want to do the work of maintaining a blog, but still want to have a fresh, personalized online presence. Dotting is really easy, and it fits into your normal Internet usage seamlessly."

They maintain Blue Dot's appeal will extend beyond young professionals. "Our target user is anyone who uses the Internet to find information," Shahani says. "We've found that our most active users are young professionals, who are in front of their computers for many hours during the day. But Blue Dot users span many generations because they see it as a quick and convenient way to stay connected through the sharing of Web content. By Dotting places I go and things I find interesting on a daily basis, I've found a great way to maintain relationships with people I don't see often. When I meet friends I haven't seen in a while, it's like no time has elapsed, because we've been connecting through Blue Dot."

According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Blue Dot has already attracted $1.5 million from a group of angel investors including former Microsoft Senior Vice President Richard Fade and former Starbucks Senior Vice President Don Valencia. The company plans to make money through targeted advertising and affiliate relationships with sites such as Amazon.com.

Shahani, who previously was a project manager for Avanade, a global consulting firm and joint venture of Microsoft and Accenture, joined Blue Dot through his friend Mohit Srivastava, a former Microsoft engineer who co-founded the company in October 2004. "I was excited when they told me they had hired their first Web developer--who happened to be fellow iSchool alum Ross Yearsley," he recalls. "It was totally coincidental."

Yearsley, who previously worked at Fluent Communications and Microsoft, was Blue Dot's third employee. "I was impressed by our founders and wanted an adventure," he recalls. "They found me through Monster (an Internet employment site)."

After working at a large company such as Microsoft, they admit there are cons as well as pros to working for a Pioneer Square startup. "It's very raw, which is both a pro and a con," Shahani says. "Pro because you have the experience and insights into what it takes to build a business from the ground up, and what it takes to succeed in a competitive, global, marketplace. You can fully expect to learn something new every day--making the experience gained exponential in many cases. Con because you are removed from the perks of a large corporation. We all worry about budgets and spend money as if it's our own. There are no big dinners out or huge expense accounts. There are no buffers, either, no human resources department, no training, etc--you deal with everything together and take each challenge head on. For me that is a pro, but I can see how others might think it's challenging."

And exciting as well. "We have made huge strides in creating a truly innovative and unique culture, and I'm having a blast with this amazing group," Shahani admits. "We have implemented a 'flat-lattice' structure, which means we have no managers or bosses. Everyone is accountable to the whole group, and we make decisions together. I firmly believe that it's because of this empowering environment that as a company we have been able to execute with such amazing precision and speed."

Both Blue Dotters credit their broad Information School education for preparing them for the variety of skills needed in their real-world experience. "The courses helped cultivate a way of thinking around information system design that has been invaluable," Yearsley says. "The great thing is that you can approach this from a number of different angles: usability, information architecture, coding. The Information School really helps you put it all together."