Couch.it is the new wiki application on the block. I got pointed towards it because it is running on top of CouchDB. But having mucked around with it for a bit I have to say that it’s not just a good example of the kind of thing you can do with Couch, it is also the most exciting take on Wiki software I’ve seen for a while.

What is there to like? Well firstly there is the idea of the anonymous wiki that you can create on the fly. Products like GitHub have significently reduced the barrier to setting up an open source project. Just choose a name and that’s it you are away coding and sharing your code.

Couch.it is the same, got some text that you need to organise? Got some ideas you want to get down? Just create a wiki, write some stuff and then if it is working out claim it and give it a decent name. Couch.it just feels totally spontaneous.

It also totally resolves the issue between using a wiki-syntax (in this case Markdown) and having the pretty WYSIWYG interface. The near-realtime preview is fantastic and makes you wonder why you have ever had to click on another tab or button to see your preview.

The site has a really unfussy design (except for the goddamn rounded corners (stop it, this isn’t 2006)) but gives you a few customisation options.

The support has also been great and turnaround has been good on issues.

The subdomain naming is really easy to use, compare how easy it is to mucking around with settings in something like Google Sites.

If you are looking for a wiki or you want to see some CouchDB in action I totally recommend this site.