The present invention is directed to a technique for collaborative
browsing among users at two or more different PCs. In an illustrative
system in accordance with the present invention, copies of selected URLs
are shared among collaborating PCs, each of which uses the URL to
retrieve the corresponding document. In this system, a PC is configured
to select hyperlinks for itself and one or more other PCs. Each URL
corresponding to a selected hyperlink is communicated via the Internet
(using standard Internet protocols) to a server. The server broadcasts
the URL to the collaborating PCs each of which retrieves the
corresponding document in conventional fashion. The server knows the IP
addresses of the collaborating PCs through a collaboration set-up process
which occurs in advance of the actual collaborative browsing session.