The enormity of the web nowadays makes it increasingly difficult to locate valuable, relevant content. Social bookmarking allows users to ‘vote’ for websites relevant to a category using ‘tags’. The fact that real people are tagging (ie: voting for) sites means that they’re being personally recommended. Wouldn’t you rather search for sites that have been personally recommended rather than Google’s algorithmic interpretation?

Just like a lot of other Web 2.0 services, there are loads of social bookmarking sites on offer in a variety of flavours, all with weird and wacky names. What they all have in common is the ability to tag and categorise sites you like. Your tagged bookmarks can be kept private, shared within a network (your class or fellow staff members for example) or shared with the world. I started using Delicious as a repository for all those sites I knew I’d probably never visit again but were interesting enough to be tucked away somewhere ‘just in case’. It wasn’t long before I realised there’s a whole lot more to it.

The more popular social bookmarking services include; Delicious, digg, reddit, Technorati, Furl and Blinklist. Services such as Diigo enable you to even add sticky notes to web pages (particularly popular among other Education Blogs I read).

I’m going to Delicious for the examples below. When I refer to ‘bookmarks’ it may be what you’re used to calling ‘Favourites’.

So how do I ‘tag’ a site?

First of all
Simply head over to Delicious and sign up for a free account.

Then
Wherever you see the Delicious symbol Picture 1.png, click on it. You’ll be taken to your Delicious account and asked what you would like to tag it with. Add as many tags as you like.

Or

If the delicious symbol is not present, go to your delicious account, click on Save a new bookmark, enter the URL > click Next > add the relevant tags > click Save.

You’ll notice from the screen shot on the right, if people have already tagged that site delicious will even recommend tags for you.

What are the advantages of bookmarking a site socially?

  • You’re helping others looking for information on topics according to the relevant tags
  • If you know other people using delicious you can recommend and share links within a network
  • Other people can subscribe to your additions
  • You can collect as many bookmarks as you like without cluttering your browser’s bookmark menu. It’s like you’re building your own library of resources.

Follow up posts will include instruction on how to use social bookmarking as a research tool, how to subscribe to bookmark feeds and how to share sites within a network.

If you have any questions or would like to share how you are already using social bookmarking we’d love to hear your comments.

Written by Brad Halcrow.
Brisbane Beyond Chalk Facilitator