You were probably expecting me to move on to the next RSS Reader in the extensive list of readers available out there. Well to keep in interesting for you (and for me) I have decided to check out social bookmarks. Before we start checking out these tools, lets take a look at what they are and what service they provide.
There are tons of these tools available out there in the world wide web, and it appears that they have been around almost from the time that Al Gore invented the internet. Okay maybe not that long, but according to Wikipedia the first social bookmarking sites began appearing in 1996. Now that they are teenagers and have captured the attention of mainstream web users, they have begun to multiply and have become well know by name, such as Delicious, Digg, Propeller to name a few.
So you might be asking yourself, "What are Social Bookmarks?" and "Why are Social Bookmarks popular?". Lets tackle the first question. Social bookmarks are online tools that allow you to save, capture and return to web content that you like or want to keep for a later time. These can be articles, web sites, anything on the web that you want to keep for use later. Now you are asking, "Well how is this different from the bookmarking (or Favorites) tool in my web browser?". Technically speaking, there is not much difference except that the social bookmarking tools maintain your bookmarks or favorites out in the cloud of the world wide web. So it is like Xmarks then? Kind of but not really. Social bookmarks are a similar idea except that instead of embedding your bookmarks or favorites into your browser through a plugin they simply store them on the net. The other component that they provide is that they allow interaction between you, your friends, your colleagues, your family, and in some cases everyone else who uses the same tool. Its like Facebook or MySpace, but with articles and web sites instead of personal updates, pictures and games. This is where the "Social" part comes from. Hence the name Social Bookmarking.
So in a nut shell social bookmark sites provide a place on the web to capture, store, organize, search, manage and in most cases share bookmarks for the web sites that you want to remember and use later. They usually involve a tagging mechanism where users can provide an informal categorization of each web site that they bookmark. This allows for searchability and sharing with others. They will also provide some level of security which can allow you to control who sees your bookmarks or within those that you have identified that can have access, which bookmarks they can see.
For a more formal definition of Social Bookmarks please refer to articles on Wikipedia, About.com or for a fun explination in video checkout commoncraft.
For the second question, Why are they so popular? The first reason would be that you are not tied to a browser which stores your bookmarks on your hard drive. This means that you can be mobile and have access to your bookmarks anywhere that you have internet access. But doesn't Xmarks and other similar tools overcome this by storing your bookmarks on a central server and loading to the browser on each computer that you use? Technically yes, but you are still tied to your browser. By using a Social Bookmarking tool you have more flexibility to use any web browser anywhere in the world to access your bookmarks. You also have the ability to share your bookmarks which provides visibility, which can help others, and it allows you to share the things you find with your friends without having to clog their email inboxes.
Next time we will dive in to see what social bookmarking is all about and maybe find more answers to why it is so popular.
There are tons of these tools available out there in the world wide web, and it appears that they have been around almost from the time that Al Gore invented the internet. Okay maybe not that long, but according to Wikipedia the first social bookmarking sites began appearing in 1996. Now that they are teenagers and have captured the attention of mainstream web users, they have begun to multiply and have become well know by name, such as Delicious, Digg, Propeller to name a few.
So you might be asking yourself, "What are Social Bookmarks?" and "Why are Social Bookmarks popular?". Lets tackle the first question. Social bookmarks are online tools that allow you to save, capture and return to web content that you like or want to keep for a later time. These can be articles, web sites, anything on the web that you want to keep for use later. Now you are asking, "Well how is this different from the bookmarking (or Favorites) tool in my web browser?". Technically speaking, there is not much difference except that the social bookmarking tools maintain your bookmarks or favorites out in the cloud of the world wide web. So it is like Xmarks then? Kind of but not really. Social bookmarks are a similar idea except that instead of embedding your bookmarks or favorites into your browser through a plugin they simply store them on the net. The other component that they provide is that they allow interaction between you, your friends, your colleagues, your family, and in some cases everyone else who uses the same tool. Its like Facebook or MySpace, but with articles and web sites instead of personal updates, pictures and games. This is where the "Social" part comes from. Hence the name Social Bookmarking.
So in a nut shell social bookmark sites provide a place on the web to capture, store, organize, search, manage and in most cases share bookmarks for the web sites that you want to remember and use later. They usually involve a tagging mechanism where users can provide an informal categorization of each web site that they bookmark. This allows for searchability and sharing with others. They will also provide some level of security which can allow you to control who sees your bookmarks or within those that you have identified that can have access, which bookmarks they can see.
For a more formal definition of Social Bookmarks please refer to articles on Wikipedia, About.com or for a fun explination in video checkout commoncraft.
For the second question, Why are they so popular? The first reason would be that you are not tied to a browser which stores your bookmarks on your hard drive. This means that you can be mobile and have access to your bookmarks anywhere that you have internet access. But doesn't Xmarks and other similar tools overcome this by storing your bookmarks on a central server and loading to the browser on each computer that you use? Technically yes, but you are still tied to your browser. By using a Social Bookmarking tool you have more flexibility to use any web browser anywhere in the world to access your bookmarks. You also have the ability to share your bookmarks which provides visibility, which can help others, and it allows you to share the things you find with your friends without having to clog their email inboxes.
Next time we will dive in to see what social bookmarking is all about and maybe find more answers to why it is so popular.
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