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Galaxy Zoo is an online crowd-sourcing effort to classify the types of galaxies in large surveys. The initial Galaxy Zoo operated from 2007 to 2009 to classify objects photographed by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), displaying the object to the website-visitor, prompting for input as to whether the object appeared to be elliptical or spiral as well as to the direction of the spirals. They were generally in the z=0.06-0.08 range. Tens of thousands of volunteers classified millions of galaxies. Results of the survey have been published and galaxies of research interest were found. Subsequent efforts included Galaxy Zoo 2, and now the name Galaxy Zoo is an umbrella name for such galaxy-identification efforts.
Based on the Galaxy Zoo effort, other similar crowdsourcing efforts in science (including astronomy) and scholarship have been initiated, the overall project being called Zooniverse.