toosigma

For those who haven’t jumped on the social bookmarking bandwagon already, let me just extol some of it’s virtues for a bit. I started using del.icio.us several months ago, and it’s definitely been a handy tool.

First and foremost, del.icio.us solves the problem of having one set of bookmarks but three or four computers from which you want to access them. I had actually gotten to the point where I never bothered bookmarking anything, no matter how interesting it might have been, simply because it was easier and more efficient to memorize how to get someplace (via search, links, etc.) than it was to keep all the bookmarks on my various machines synchronized. I can’t imagine how many useful links I lost during that time period due to lapses in memory, and if it provided no other benefit at all, del.icio.us has proved useful in this regard. There are several projects underway to synchronize bookmarks between multiple machines, but they all typically require a specific browser and the installation of some software to utilize their functionality, which eliminates their utility on non-configured machines.

Second, del.icio.us uses a (relatively) new method of organization. Instead of sorting everything into various hierarchical folders, you simply assign a series of “tags” to describe the details of the link. This allows for a remarkable degree of flexibility, since you can tag a link that deals with two related but disparate topics (for instance, the graphic design skills necessary to create a role-playing map) under both categories without requiring a duplication of the link. To accomplish the same task under a folder-based system (as is currently used in all modern browsers), you’d need to copy the link into both the “Graphic Design” folder, and the “Role Playing” folder, or just struggle to remember which of the two you decided was more important when you first saved the link.

Finally, there’s the added benefit that it is a “social” networking site. If you want, you can look up all the tagged links for a given day, finding out what other people find interesting or useful enough to tag, which is an excellent way of sifting through the giant trash-heap that is the Internet. You can also keep track of a group of particularly insightful surfers, using their trailblazing bookmarks as a means of increasing the signal-to-noise ratio of your own efforts. Honestly, not since the inception of Google’s PageRank algorithm have I found a system that equals the benefit of this feature. You can even collaborate with your real-life friends to trade links.

As mentioned in a previous post, I’m working on a method to integrate my del.icio.us bookmarks into my website. If anyone else has a del.icio.us account (or even one of the other social bookmarking sites), please let me know so I can start snooping through your data, to see what interesting gems you’ve come up with. For those interested in my own, feel free to browse my repository.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 15th, 2006 at 11:26 am and is filed under gadgets, productivity, review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.