I just discovered a slick new web 2.0 tool that most of you have probably been using for months now. I don’t know how this slipped under my radar because it’s something that I’ve been looking for and think should get more widespread attention.

I was doing some searches for ajax-based free messageboards to join up with Nerdflood for open discussion that isn’t related directly to specific posts on the blog. What I discovered was Bordee.

Bordee is a basically a virtual messageboard that works via a Firefox extension (also works for Flock, which is my browser of choice). You install the extension and then receive a handy little icon in the top-right corner of your browser that indicates when you run across a page that has a Bordee messageboard attached to it. Any user can begin a Bordee discussion on any webpage. The Bordee page is not created on the website server, but on the Bordee server, and then discovered through the extension when you visit the site. It’s a truly amazing little piece of functionality, and I really hope this catches on. Right now visiting various high-tech traffic websites like Techcrunch, digg, and Flickr only show a couple of “hello, world” type of posts. I see tremendous potential with this kind of system. So much, that I went ahead and created a Nerdflood discussion page! The page exists on its own, but if you download the extension and visit this site, the page will become available through the extension interface, which is slick and easy to use.

As with any social system, it only works if people actually use it. So, with that, I encourage you to go to Bordee.com and install the plugin and get talking! It takes very little effort to have quick and easy access to discussion that can occur at a whole new level within the context of an existing website. It’s fantastic, and I really hope it gets more use.