I recently started using the social bookmarking website del.icio.us and I’m beginning to thoroughly enjoy it. For those who haven’t heard of del.icio.us, it’s a web page where you can store all your ‘favourites', rather than saving them to your browser. It means that you can access your bookmarks from anywhere – without having to be on your home computer. It allows you to share them with friends, family, and other del.icio.us users. It’s a great tool for collaborating with co-workers on research projects.
Besides the benefits of access, flexibility, and collaboration, the next greatest advantage for me is that I don’t have to assign each bookmark to a folder. There are no folders. Instead I use tags (or ‘descriptive words’) and I'm able to choose which and how many tags I want to use. To make it even more simple, del.icio.us displays a list of ‘popular’ and ‘recommended’ tags I can choose from – or I can make up my own that are more relevant or meaningful to me.
del.icio.us also has a search tool, and I love having the option of using it when I know exactly what I’m looking for. My searches always turn up results comprised of my links and links (classified ‘public’) from other del.icio.us users. Generally, people bookmark sites they are especially fond of, and so the ability to share, pick, and choose sites from other people’s lists by subject category, is so efficient.
As I become better acquainted with del.icio.us I’m sure I’ll discover even more uses and benefits. You can visit my page and see my public links at http://del.icio.us/juliebudd.
For those of you who currently use del.icio.us, how do you use it, and what do you like or dislike about it?
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ReplyDeleteI've seen the site before but I have a .Mac account and so I can access all of my bookmarks / address information / documents / photos from anywhere. It's pretty fantastic, actually - it's like having a virtual memory stick on you at all times. One of my friends uses delicious but having looked at the navigation, it appears a little cumbersome (& I hate large bolded font; it confuses me!).
ReplyDeletethanks for the post,
maha
p.s. my account doesn't show my proper blog, which is One Female Canuck
That makes sense, I agree that the interface for delicious isn't pretty, but it is user-friendly as far as I'm concerned. Sometimes a bit slow.
ReplyDelete