"What is del.icio.us, and why should I use it?"That's a grand question, which I probably glossed over because my brain has been saturated with the jargon of social media, Web 2.0 and social bookmarks.
The easiest way to explain social bookmarking is to show you a living example (in this case, del.icio.us):
del.icio.us is a "social bookmarks sharing" service, which just means you can save your bookmarks online (with notes and descriptions), and if you like, you can share them. That just means that other people can see them. (I'm sharing my bookmarks; you also have the option of creating private bookmarks that only you can see).
There are a variety of different and convenient ways to
save your bookmarks on del.icio.us (including bookmarklets and browser
extensions) -- their instructions are pretty good.
Even if you don't want to use the social sharing part, there are other reasons why you might use online bookmarks. For example, if you want to get to your bookmarks from different computers (if you're traveling, or have multiple computers) -- as long as you have access to an internet connection, you can get to them.
Also, they're searchable and you can organize them in a variety of ways (including the use of tags). And most of the services have a backup/export feature, so you can keep a copy on your local machine.
There are a bunch of different social bookmarking sites -- del.icio.us is just one of the more established and more popular ones. You just need to find the one that interests you and register for an account (which is usually free).
Also, once you get the sharing bit down, there are other social sharing Web sites out there that add a voting component to things, so that you can see the newest, most highly-rated or most popular links that people have submitted.
Just like many free Web services, you should play around, find the ones you like, and use them in the way that makes the most sense for you. Our job is to make it easy for you to do this.
(In a purely coincidental yet somewhat fitting turn, the song I'm listening to right now is Over the Rhine's "All I Need Is Everything", which would be a pretty good theme song for this sentiment.)
Thanks -- Joe
4 comments:
I did not think of the use from other computers part. That would also include other browsers! DUH! smart way of doing it! Think I will try this. It is so hard to find anything in my favorites anymore.
He's such a nice boy.
wowie Joe!
I love it when you quote my buddy Monponsett!
hugs,natalie
I'm a long time delicious user and it's a handy service. I get access to my bookmarks on other computers and that is a plus. I use it with AOL's Open Ride to get my bookmarks in that application. I use a tag roll on my photoblog as it lets me share links without the need to make a new entry.
When I upgraded to a new PC, I used delicious to store all the software links I needed to download. Made the transition speedy with all the Firefox extensions and such.
I could do a an info-mercial for del.icio.us. It rocks.
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