Techniques are described for user-controlled annotation and sharing of one or more digital items. Examples of digital items that may be shared with other users include digital representations of graphic images, photographs, audio segments, songs, video segments, movies, and text (such as lists of favorites (e.g., a list of favorite books, a list of favorite movies, and a list of favorite places to visit)). A user may make a digital item available to other users of a computer network, such as an instant messaging system, a chat environment, or a subscription-based computer network. User-entered annotations, such as textual comments, may be associated with a digital item, and a user can select which other users can view and/or change all, or some, of the annotations.