Try Out Social Bookmarking – Web 2.0 and A Better Way to Search
For years now the web has been a buzz with new ways to socialize, find love or lust for that matter, and mainly do things we could or would not do from outside the confides of our own home. We are all just crazy-productive with all these new forms of networking, information, and collaboration, well, aren’t we…? I would guess that you probably already think it is all too-neat or you probably wouldn’t be reading this blog.
Now take another idea: Bookmarks. I have these things EVERYWHERE. I have some at work, I have some on both my laptops, I have them on my servers. I leave them like little pieces of me in coffee shops, work… I have so many of these things collected for so many years, I had given up the idea of even thinking of them as useful items. Almost.
So in my search for tools that span Internet and computer boundaries I have found a way to not only place and organize all of my favorites, to look at other’s favorites with like minds, but I have also found a way to look at comments that other’s have left on that those pages.
This article covers the some of the tools out there that merge both bookmaking and social networking. – DV
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The term Web 2.0 has been around for a while. Basically, Web 2.0 is the extension of the phrase “the network is the computer” from back in the 90′s that was coined by the creators of Java over at Sun Microsystems. The idea was that no longer was the Internet an information highway interconnecting potentially millions of computers or homes, but the Internet was actually THE computer. If you were around back then, the concept of the network being the computer was a culmination of all the geeky dreams and fantasies that we typed to our closest in the dark of night or we just dared not to tell. Well, Web 2.0 is here, and although exciting… well it is exciting, but perhaps it is no longer quite the stuff of fantasy. Maybe be it should still be.
Now it may make some sense when you see some of the old timers posting in the forums and blogs with a sigh and a yawn about the excitement of “Web 2.0″.
Perhaps I should write an article on the secret fantasy’s of geeks and why when many of the early concepts that have become reality, the reality seems to have missed the highpoints. Different topic, different post.
Interaction is certainly a concept of Web 2.0. Having your data somewhere on the Internet is useful, it gives you the potential to get to that data from anywhere in the world if you are connected. The added benefit is that you can give access to that data to others, share that data, and have potentially millions of others act on that data, creating the potential for infinite collaboration. Infinite collaboration potential, an amazing concept that I think few have really been able to achieve gracefully, and one that most people who were not here during the early days of the Internet (and some that were) take for granted.
Social Networking
What is there to say that you don’t already know about the topic of social networking? If you have a MySpace, Facebook, MSN Spaces, any of these things you have already joined in the social networking aspects of the Internet. If you don’t know what social networking is, or need a refresher, click here.
OK, Dharma get to the bookmarking part
So here I am, a rider and occasionally a driver on the information super highway, but here I am basically swamped with shortcuts, landmarks, and favorites that are strewn over my computer resources like so many yellow sticky notes. My organization of these reminders is scarce at best. Why should I organize them? Over the years the links just die, or I can’t find the ones I want, and besides a Google search is good enough right?
Google Search Enough? You think so?
I have been known to be like a trapeze artist when it comes to Google search. Being in a technical field for so long, the secret to information has not necessarily been if you know where to find the answers, but what question to ask while you are searching. At times you need to be part clairvoyant to get the answer you need from a Google search. If you have ever searched the same topic at the same time as someone else, you probably know what I mean. One of you eventually asks, “what did you search for?”
But has this changed again…?
What if you could hook into the searches of other Google clairvoyants, and also cut past all of the stores and ads getting to a better search result quicker. And… what if you could collect and organize the bookmarks you decide to keep in one place?
Yeah! That is what I’m talking about.
Social Bookmarking, a way to organize, share, and steal favorites… plus more…
I went out and gave a try to a few of these social bookmarking sites. So far each tend to cater to a slightly different audience that appreciates a feature or two. Here is a list of some of the more popular social bookmarking sites:
Delicious , Magnolia , Stumbleupon , Diigo
I suggest that you check out a number of these sites on your own.
What does Dharma use?
In the end, I actually use two different bookmaking sites in tandem (Delicious and Diigo). These two sites actually work well together so I can use features that I like from both.
Delicious
I really like the information in Delicious. Delicious has been around a long time, and has had a technical audience following for quite sometime. This means that there is quite history of data that I can find there. I can look up some technical information and some one has already done the work of finding me some of the better articles on the topic… sweet! Another plus is that a number of my friends also have accounts on Delicious, and since we trade ideas together and are of like minds, it is nice to see what they are thinking of and I’m sure the opposite is true as well.
Delicious also plays nice with my appreciation of the old art of web design where there is a minimalist site that doesn’t use images or videos. My delicious page comes up real quick on my browser.
Because of these items I use delicious as my “web 2.0″ search engine.
Diigo
Although fairly new to the social networking scene, Diigo offers me a few things the others do not.
- Diigo, unlike other sites allow users to add comments to each web site. When you search for a site you can see and create annotations on the site that can be shared with others. In this way you can collaborate your favorites, and annotate the pages. I have used this feature more as a lurking feature right now, but the collaborative nature of this feature within a group appeals to me, and I would like to see how it might work with a specific group.
- Very neat client feature that plays happy into my love for tools that allow me to save things both to the network and to my computer. It has a feature that each time I add a bookmark to Diigo using the Diigo toolbar, it adds the favorite to my IE favorites.
- One thing that Diigo does which was different and is fairly new to Delicious is private bookmarking. This features allows you to share certain bookmarks and allow others to be private.
- Bookmarks added to Diigo can automatically be added to my Delicious site. Well that just about makes this combination of tools almost perfect.
Here is an image of the Windows IE toolbar that allows annotation and the sidebar that allows you to see annotations from others on that page. Although not visible in this image, if you click the highlighted portion you would be able see the floating sticky note on the page, listing other’s comments as well. Very neat features… and that only covers a few of them.
What do I recommend?
If your requirements bookmarking match mine I would certainly recommend a combination of Delicious and Diigo. But there are many reasons to choose a social bookmarking tool. I recommend trying a couple out and seeing what works for you.
Be sure to comment and let us know if you have found the ultimate bookmarking tool that fits in with your geeky dreams…
Articles that may interest you:
Other tools Dharma V. has tried out
Delicious , Magnolia , Stumbleupon , Diigo
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