Social Bookmarking

Social bookmarking is a user-defined taxonomy system for bookmark s. Bookmarks here are referred to as tags. Unlike storing bookmarks in a folder on your computer, tagged pages are stored on the Web and can be accessed from any computer. Web sites dedicated to social bookmarking, such as Flickr and del.icio.us, provide users with a place to store, categorize, annotate and share favorite Web pages and files.

Here are some examples of social bookmarking sites:

1. Digg.com

Digg is social bookmarking and social networking gone a little crazy due to the fact that anyone can submit a Digg (site), and then anyone can comment on those same Diggs. For me the most interesting feature of Digg has to actually be the comments on the sites and stories, since the Digg community is not shy about letting folks know how they feel about a particular Digg. Primarily focussed on geeky, technology-type items.

2. Reddit

Reddit is a social bookmarking Web site that works much like Furl and del.icio.us: you register a username and password, and then start submitting and sharing your bookmarks. Reddit is similar to del.icio.us in that users are encouraged to vote on the links and stories that they feel are deserving of being in the top dog spot: it’s kind of a popularity contest, so to speak.

3. StumbleUpon

The beauty of StumbleUpon, to my mind: you are able to take advantage of a vast network of dedicated Web searchers who are finding utterly brilliant sites and sharing them with you. I do have to warn you, though – StumbleUpon is an incredibly addicting way to search the Web. I found myself up till 1:30 AM one weekend, blearily clicking the Stumble! Button over and over again, because the quality of the sites are just so amazing; you just keep on coming across stuff that instantly merits a bookmark of your own.

4. Delicious

Here's how you might use del.icio.us: Once you've registered, you can install buttons to yourtoolbar . If you visit a Web page that you want to save, you click a "tag" button. A window pops up with the URL and page name and optional fields for you to add notes and tags. Tags are single-word descriptors -- this is how social bookmark systems categorize content so that you and other users can find it.

5. Diigo

Diigo is one of my newest favorite Web tools. Not only can you use Diigo to save your favorite Web bookmarks, yalso ou can use Diigo to put sticky notes on websites, highlight stuff you like, comment, and more.