Beyond collecting and storing information, new tools for thought allow users to resurface, connect, and generate knowledge. Whether visual or textual, this new breed of tools encourage users to link their ideas together, find interesting patterns, and create original content based on their research.

The computer can look at every word on the page, every phrase, name, quote, and section of text, and show me a "map" of the words and ideas behind which lay the most interesting ideas I might want to know about. Links are no longer lonesome strands precariously holding together a sparsely connected Web, but a booming choir of ephemeral connections ... See more