EtherPad is a web-based collaborative real-time editor, allowing up to eight people to edit a text document at the same time, and see all of the participant’s edits in real-time, each in their own color.

When multiple people edit the same document simultaneously, any changes are instantly reflected on everyone’s screen. The result is a new and productive way to collaborate on text documents, useful for meeting notes, drafting sessions, education, team programming, and more.

EtherPad is implemented in JavaScript, on top of AppJet, with the real-time functionality achieved through Comet streaming.

On 4 Dec 2009, AppJet: The Platform behind EtherPad has been acquired by Google. Read more.