I confess, this was new to me. If you have heard of http://del.icio.us then you are (or were) ahead of me. So wutizzit?
First, let’s step back. What would you say is the biggest challenge in taking advantage of the world wide web? The amount of information now available to anyone with an internet connection is just unfathomable. Think about all those books in your house that you haven’t read. Think about all the books in your public library. Those are a tiny fraction of a tiny fraction of the information available on the web. And every time some inspired person puts up a blog entry, there’s more. Some folks (like Google and Microsoft) are trying to basically put all human knowledge on the internet.
Yikes! So clearly the #1 challenge is to be able to find the information that will be of interest or of value to you. That’s why there are search engines, and why Google has a market cap equal to more money than there is in the galaxy. What you need for the web is a guide. But who knows what’s there and what’s good? The crazy people who stay up all night surfing the internet, that’s who. And your kids (if not in the previous group). And you, and your colleagues, and…everybody collectively.
It works like this – you find a website that is a good source of information or amusement or whatever, and you think your like-minded compatriots would or should find it interesting, so you register it on a social bookmarking site.
You want to find a web site on antique pocket watches. You Google it, but end up with all kinds of sites that are too commercial, or not what you want. So you go to del.icio.us and see what websites others recommend.
When you first go to the del.icio.us website you can see what others have bookmarked, but if you want to participate in the tagging, you have to install a small applet. When you do, it places two buttons into your browser, one to see your tags, and one to tag the current page:
There are other sites that do social bookmarking. One other example is http://myweb.yahoo.com. The Yahoo site lets you specify with whom you want to share your bookmarks.
Try it, it’s fun! And maybe even useful?
It works like this – you find a website that is a good source of information or amusement or whatever, and you think your like-minded compatriots would or should find it interesting, so you register it on a social bookmarking site.
You want to find a web site on antique pocket watches. You Google it, but end up with all kinds of sites that are too commercial, or not what you want. So you go to del.icio.us and see what websites others recommend.
When you first go to the del.icio.us website you can see what others have bookmarked, but if you want to participate in the tagging, you have to install a small applet. When you do, it places two buttons into your browser, one to see your tags, and one to tag the current page:
There are other sites that do social bookmarking. One other example is http://myweb.yahoo.com. The Yahoo site lets you specify with whom you want to share your bookmarks.
Try it, it’s fun! And maybe even useful?
