Systems and methods for real-time collaborative computing and collective intelligence are disclosed. A collaborative application runs on a collaborative server connected to a plurality of computing devices. Collaborative sessions are run wherein a group of independent users, networked over the internet, collaboratively answer questions in real-time, thereby harnessing their collective intelligence. Systems and methods for selection among a set of user-input suggestions. The group is divided into subgroups, each subgroup selecting one suggestion from a subgroup of suggestions. The process is repeated with the remaining selected suggestions until one final target is selected, by the entire group, from the remaining suggestions.