Top 3 Social Bookmarking Sites

I have been sick... sick, sick, sick! I just got over a bout with bronchial pnuemonia; and, combined with other health issues I have, I've had a hard time getting over it. My apologies for the lack of posts, but if you noticed the lack of posts - that means you missed me!

Social Bookmarking is the way to store your bookmarks online and access them from any computer with an internet connection. That's the easiest definition I can think of. By clicking the link "social bookmarking" above, you can read the Wikipedia article that describes more about what it is, it's history, and learn about words like "folksonomy" and "tagging". For the general audience that this blog is written for, however, the definition above should work just fine!

So let's say, for example, that you like to bookmark sites when you are browsing the web. But, when you go to a friend's house, you no longer have access to those links. If you use social bookmarking, you can access those links from anywhere. Also, let's say you collect a group of links about gardening. You can "tag" these links with "gardening" and then send those links to a friend. Social bookmarking sites are also convenient for finding new websites on the internet.

The three sites that I am going to talk about today are Diigo, Delicious, and StumbleUpon. There are lists with over 125 social bookmarking sites published out there on the internet today; my research finds these the best.

 

1. Diigo

Diigo is a social bookmarking site that allows you to gather all sorts of information - not just bookmarks. For example, it allows you to highlight portions of web pages and attach sticky notes to specific parts of a web page. So, suppose I am collecting information about gardening [[as a side note: I hate gardening. I don't know why I'm using this as an example. My mother in law does the gardening at my house because I am ~truly~ that incompetent. I digress]], I can actually highlight and use sticky notes on specific areas of a web page for later research.To do this, there is a toolbar that is available that turns your browser into a research powerhouse - and this tool is available for Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Flock. There is even a minimalist tool that can be used with other browsers, such as Opera, Chrome, and Safari. In summary, the choices with this tool are endless.

The information and notes you can collect can then be shared with other Diigo users or even those who do not have a Diigo account. While I found it easy to share specific links with other people, I couldn't figure out how to share a whole collection of links / information to users who are outside Diigo, so this might be something to keep in mind.

Another highlight of Diigo is that they have ipad, iphone and Android applications that allow you to take your bookmarks on the go. For a mobile girl like myself, this is indispensable.

If you are a self-directed learner or a college student like myself, this is one tool you want to check out.

2. Delicious

Delicious is very popular - very, very popular. Although simpler than Diigo and seen as more of a "take your bookmarks with you" type of site, and is much simpler in it's use. Delicious allows you to save a webpage as a bookmark, "tag" it with the appropriate tags (it even suggests tags for you, if that webpage has been bookmarked before) and send the link to your friends, if you wish. Armed with extensions to your browsers (you literally only have to right click on a webpage with the firefox extension), Delicious is easy to learn and easy to use.

The downside of Delicious is that although it's tasty (ha ha), Delicious is not very easy on the eyes. Don't get me wrong - it's a fabulous tool and gained it's popularlity for a reason because of its' ease of use - but for me, I am addicted to the pretty websites. I know that design isn't everything, but if a user interface is boring to look at, it's no fun.

In time, you will soon learn what a fantatic I am for Android smartphones. This site does not have an "official" Android application, although there are applications built for Delicious on the Android Market. Instead, Delicious has decided to support Windows Mobile. Yeah...

Like Diigo, Delicious is a very cool tool to find new and interesting websites. They have a popular bookmark stream, where you can see who is bookmarking what on the internet. If I was teaching about social bookmarking, this is the site that I would start a newbie out on.

 

3. StumbleUpon

StumbleUpon is a social bookmarking site / recommender system built into one. When you sign up for the website, you are asked a question about what your interests are. Then, you are taken to a website, where you have the option to "like" it or not. You can also share the link on Facebook, Tweet the link, or send it via email. You can also add a site manually when you visit your StumbleUpon profile.

StumbleUpon is very fun, and great for finding new, interesting content. Be careful though - this site can be a time waster! Of course, there's a StumbleUpon Android application available in the Android Market, too.

 

I hope you enjoyed my post. I'll try to keep them coming as I continue getting better. If you are in Minnesota, enjoy the beautiful 80-degree weather we are going to be having this weekend :)

Angie