The web is undergoing a revolution. Web 2.0, or the 'social web', is much talked about, but are geneticists ready to make the most of it?

Web 2.0 describes internet environments — such as social networking, wikis and blogs — that allow users to collaborate and share information online. Blogs have, by now, become almost ubiquitous. A Google search for blogs related to genetics reveals some interesting sites that, as well as being informative, provide a glimpse of how geneticists use this communication tool.

Mendel's Garden is run by Hsien-Hsien Lei, and offers monthly instalments on topics that range from science policy (such as the story about a biological sample repository on the moon!) to the history of genetics.

A blog from our colleagues at Nature Genetics — Free Association — focuses on newly published primary papers, interviews, and so on.

The Daily Transcript, subtitled “Daily news and views from a postdoctoral fellow in cell biology”, offers yet more discussion on recent publications; in August it also had a posting on laboratory fashion, which featured photos of the 'socks and sandals' look. Among other offerings are the Genomics Policy weblog from the University of Glamorgan, UK, and Pharyngula, subtitled “Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal”.

Based on this survey, most genetics blogs tend to discuss general topics sparked off by recent scientific publications or general press coverage. But another potential application of blogging springs to mind. Benefits of such rapid exchanges of information are clear to anyone who has struggled with experiments that don't work for no apparent reason, or with problematic data analysis. In fact, the 'world wide lab' concept predates blogging itself:BIOSCI/Bionet is a set of newsgroups and parallel e-mail lists used by biological scientists worldwide.