IBM and historic school of higher learning Cambridge are teaming up, and they seem to have the future of collaborative software on their minds. The new IBM Center for Social Software at Cambridge will allow students, professors, and IBM’s own employees and partners to study, test, and implement various Web 2.0 projects. There are currently several prospective products in the pipeline:

Beehive: A social networking site for IBM employees.

Social Accessibility Project: Make websites accessible for those with visual impairments.

Many Eyes: Search for patterns located within a map or spreadsheet then discuss them with others.

Bluemail: A “web 2.0 email reader.”

Olympus: Second Life-style three-dimensional avatars in a decidedly non-Second Life environment — your desktop.

Turning our attention to the world of video, there’s Panda. Panda allows you to load streaming videos to your site without having to deal with establish video providers such as YouTube. The entire process is covered by the software, from letting people upload videos to embedding them in other sites. The only potential drawback to a system like Panda is the initial set up. Programming novices need not apply. If the prospect of coding doesn’t scare you, however, we suggest giving Panda a shot. Total control over your videos is a wonderful thing.

Yahoo has introduced a feature that allows users to play music from within a search. When a user searches for a recording artist, a Rhapsody-branded audio player will appear at the top of the search. Each user can listen up to 25 full songs a month. Any song over 25 will be cut down to a thirty second clip. Despite the limitations of the Rhapsody library, the new Yahoo music search is perfect for those who wish to try before you buy.

Blogger Frank Deardurff has written an interesting piece concerning the common mistakes people make when designing opt-in pages. For those unaware, an “opt-in” page is a site that offers a free goodies such as a newsletter to its users in exchange for their names and e-mail addresses. According to Deardurff, poor writing, the need for excess information, and non-existent follow-ups are all reasons why many opt-in sites fail. Fix these problems, he writes, and you should be getting responses in no time flat.

And to finish out the week, we have FoxTab, a fun little extension that brings Firefox up to the “visual” bar set by browsers like Chrome. When activated, FoxTab gives you no less than five different ways to view your open tabs, ranging from a standard stack to a Vista-like flip animation. Despite the dreaded “beta” tag, FoxTab is a great, stable way to add a little bit flash to the venerable browser.