Thinkature (www.thinkature.com) bills itself as 'real-time collaboration' for the Web. As a remote-collaboration tool, it's pretty darn effective, albeit with its own quirky feel.

It's easiest to think of Thinkature as a 'shared whiteboard' with one black pen, 4 shades of pastel sticky notes, and an infinite clip-art album.

• Standard point-and-drag control
• Pen draws freehand - black only - but the resulting lines & squiggles act like independent objects. Draw a squiggly circle, then click and drag it somewhere. You can't erase part of the line - it's an object once it's drawn.
• "sticky notes" are used for text. Click - type - resize.
• Connector tool links sticky notes

 Thinkature Review Continued...

What takes Thinkature up a serious notch is the infinite clip-art album - you know it as the Web. Thinkature provides Yahoo image search on-board. If you want an elephant in your drawing, search for "Elephant", and then drag-and-drop the pachyderm image you like best. You can also upload your own images (e.g. co-worker's faces) directly.

It's a more impressive technical feat than you may think, as the whole thing is not a Flash app; it's actually a dynamic HTML screen/surface.

The design philosophy is definitely KISS - a select few tools. That being said - pen colors would be really nice, and simple shapes like boxes and circles likewise. (Try drawing a freehand circle with a mouse - yech.) By contrast, the built-in IM and built-in voice chat I could do without.

If you need to explain something to someone on the phone, this is definitely worth a try. The fact that they can draw on it at the same time can make for unexpectedly rich results.

Price is right - free so far. Give it a try.