Today, the possibilities for creative collaboration are light years away from what they were even just a decade ago. With new apps like Google Wave, and websites like Oozil providing a whole suite of free tools for collaborative communication, it’s almost counter-intuitive to work alone anymore.

Some of the greatest talents and minds in history have always known the power of working on a team. For example:

John Lennon and Paul McCartney

Almost anyone of any age knows the songs of the Beatles, and the groups two main songwriters undoubtedly represent one of the most successful music collaborations in history. Over a period of just seven years, between 1962-69, they published around 180 songs written collaboratively. Unlike many other music partnerships, Lennon and McCartney each wrote both music and lyrics.

Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro

While Hollywood partnerships usually last about as long as Hollywood marriages, director Martin Scorsese and actor Robert De Niro have made a total of nine films together, and their partnership is ongoing. Their projects include some of the undisputed greatest films of all time, including Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and Casino. Their collaboration is well into its fourth decade with the recent announcement of The Winter of Frankie Machine.

Ellery Queen

If you’re not familiar with Ellery Queen, chances are your parents or grandparents are. In a series of novels that spanned 42 years, Ellery Queen was one of the most successful mystery writers of all time, transitioning from popular books to radio, TV, and movies. The name was the pseudonym of two writers, Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee, whose collaboration was so effortless, they only needed one name.

Coco Chanel and Pierre Wertheimer

Great collaborations don’t always have to involve two creative types. Sometimes they just require one creative type and a benefactor who recognizes the other person’s genius. Such was the case with fashion designer Coco Chanel, who benefited from theWertheimer’s expertise on commerce as well as his capital to launch Chanel perfumes. While the deal later went sour, working with Wertheimer ultimately made Chanel a very famous and very rich woman.

Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield

Sometimes it helps if you’re already best friends. In 1978, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield opened an ice cream shop in an old gas station in downtown Vermont, after learning ice cream making through a correspondence course –the early version of learning it online. You now know them as the names on your carton of Ben & Jerry’s

Larry Page and Sergey Brin

Though some say they disagreed about almost everything on their first meeting at Stanford University, Larry and Sergey quickly became friends. Cramming their dorm room with cheap computers and armed with Brin’s data mining system, they ultimately used a rented garage to start up what ultimately became Google.

What do all these great collaborations have to do with Oozil? Everything. Enabling collaborative work is one of the driving forces of Oozil, and you can be part of it. With Oozil’s tools, you can find the Lennon to your McCartney, or the Larry to your Sergey, without even leaving home.

Oozil’s got your ticket to ride.

By Elizabeth Kelly

The ad world attracts some interesting people, and no wonder. The level of creativity required to come up with a unique idea that stands out in a sea of unique ideas is sky high. While you may be familiar with some of the big names in the history of the biz, like guru David Ogilvy, or founder of modern advertising David Lasker, some of the famous names that have worked in advertising may surprise you.

Herschell Gordon Lewis, for example. While he may not be a household name, he’s well-known to horror movie fans and cult film buffs as the father of “the splatter film.” Also known as the “Godfather of Gore,” Lewis started producing and directing low-budget films in the ’60s, such as Two Thousand Maniacs. Lewis recouped his minimal investments in spades, cashing in on the movies’ drive-in popularity and the burgeoning interest in horror movies.

Lewis was a master of marketing, and no wonder. He started out as an adman, working for an agency and teaching graduate courses in advertising at night. He then moved on to directing commercials for Alexander and Associates before he turned to film directing. Despite his notoriety as a filmmaker, Lewis still cranks out the books on marketing and also teaches seminars. He has a new film planned for 2009.

Comedian and TV star Bob Newhart also started in advertising, working as a copywriter for independent film and TV producer Fred Niles in Chicago in 1959. Newhart and one of his co-workers entertained each other with humorous phone calls, which became the basis of his audition tapes and helped develop the schtick that would later make him famous.

Other funny men have also worked in advertising, such as Stan Freberg, who voiced a multitude of Warner Bros. characters, and Don Novello, who worked in Chicago as a copywriter for Leo Burnett before donning priestly garments as Saturday Night Live’s Father Guido Sarducci. Terry Gilliam, the filmmaker and Monty Python cast member responsible for the comedy troupe’s bizarre animations, worked at an advertising agency when he was fresh out of college.

Actors who have worked in advertising before becoming famous names include Sir Alec Guinness, who wrote copy before making his stage debut, and Rick Moranis of Ghostbusters and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids fame. Pretty in Pink director John Hughes also started as an ad man.

It’s not just funny guys and filmmakers who worked in the advertising world. Some of the greatest literary writers have also written ad copy, most notably F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of The Great Gatsby (and the man who coined the term “The Jazz Age.) Mystery writers Dorothy L. Sayers and Dashiell Hammet (The Thin Man) also worked in the ad biz, Ms. Sayers using it as the subject of one of her acclaimed ’30s novels, Murder Must Advertise.

If you find it surprising that advertising attracts so many brilliant minds, Oozil doesn’t. That’s why the site was created: to bring together today’s best creative workers. Whether you seek the next great literary mind, a forward-thinking filmmaker, or a comic genius who can turn out witty phrases, Oozil is the meeting place.

Find the next big thing at Oozil –even before it’s the next big thing.

By Elizabeth Kelly