As I mentioned in my last post, I usually spend my free time at Nico Nico Douga, the Japanese video-sharing website like YouTube.
This site, which earned the Japanese Good Design Award in 2007, is famous for its unique commenting system.
Here is the captured movie from Nico Nico Douga transfered to YouTube (you need to have an account to access Nico Nico Douga). See the white texts sliding from right to left? Those texts do not exist in the original movie. They are the comments posted by the viewers. The comments are overlaid directly on the video synced to the specific time. This allows the viewers to post a comment to certain scenes and it also creates a sense of a shared watching experience.
Today, 1 in 3 Japanese in their twenties have the account of Nico Nico Douga (Wow, I didn't know that until the last second). It is one of the most rapidly growing website in past five years.