Last week, everyone’s favorite social bookmarking service Delicious, redesigned their site and re-branded themselves, dropping a few full-stops in the process.
While I really like the new look and appreciate the new approach Yahoo! is taking for its social bookmarking service, I have to ask the question:
Is bookmarking relevant anymore?
Let’s face it: when most of us are looking for information, we usually search for it, or ask someone we know might have access to that information. Managing a collection of bookmarks — whether in a messy browser system or on a tag-based social web system — is a tedious task and quickly becomes unwieldy.
Tools like Twitter, Google Reader, Tumblr, and Evernote all make bookmarking systems like Delicious obsolete. They offer easy access to collected information through searching, sharing, and questioning rather than a rigid system of taxonomic organization.
The new Firefox 3 Awesome Bar is going to do even more to kill bookmarking: instead of needing to remember URLs, users can simply remember what the page is about and type that into the address bar. The browser now “remembers” for the user. Brilliant.
I stopped using Delicious about sixteen months ago, finding the practice tiring and tedious. Was that a bad idea? Am I missing something here?
Do you still use a social bookmarking service? Has your use declined over the past months?
I have to say no, my use has not declined. I use delicious extensively as a personal organisation tool, more so than sharing with others. The primary reason is I want my content on any computer or device I use. Unless I’m missing something, browser features don’t fit this bill.
If only I could turn delicious on the paper in my life…
Interesting to say you use bookmarking as a personal organization tool Dara. Have you looked at tools like EverNote and PersonalBrain that do the organization in a more intuitive way than simply bookmarking?
Here’s a pretty great post on bookmarking and tools like Personal Brain.
Vasta -
I thought delicious was old and out of date. It seems I “stumbled” onto something worth using a month or so back! Yes I use it for a couple of reasons: It’s ubiquitous. Even if someone does not use it they are very familiar with the logo. Second, to keep track of articles I like or think others may like. Third, relevant information for people who “follow” me.
I think the First reason is most important b/c I’ll bet my bottom dollar that tomorrow there will be sun and there is a tool that takes care of #2 and three.
kk
I’m with Dara.
I’m a delicious fiend. I use it to move all kinds of information around and as a publishing tool (i.e. I just wrote/found this.. it is line with your research). My delicious network is one of my most valuable online resources.
I’ve dabbled with evernote and tinderbox for and expanded version of this kind of functionality and have yet to find something better for managing web info than delicious.
I don’t really understand your comparing delicious to twitter or tumblr. Isn’t that a case of apples and oranges?
Ah, silly me for not explaining my comparison. It’s simple, really.
These days, if I find something exciting on the web, I share it on Tumblr instead of bookmarking it on Delicious. That way, people following my tumblelog can interact and respond to the link through reblogging and adding their own comments. Easier to track a threaded conversation that way than on Delicious.
Similarly, if there’s something I’ve seen before but can’t seem to find it anymore, I just ask on Twitter. Usually, I find what I’m looking for in 30 seconds, which is just as quick if not faster than searching through my Delicious tags (if I tag them initially properly).
Of course, to each their own: maybe I just gave up on Delicious too soon?
Hey Vasta, I’ve read about them, but as a creature of habit I can’t fathom a move just now. Nothing I’ve read has made me want to invest the time in migrating and learning. Once the masses point out a new tool that is a revolution from the existing tools I’ll take a closer look. For now I’m happy with delicious…
delicious has not become obsolete yet. Its still mighty useful. Sure I’d love more graphs and more robust social networking but for what it is, it does it well and definately has value. If nothing else it has great long term value serving as an easily indexed archive, great for reference.
I find delicious is only getting better the more I use it. Firefox 3 makes good use of it too. Local bookmarking may be dead but social bookmarking is far from it.
On that note, google reader integration would be wonderful.
Definitely looks like I jumped off the Delicious bandwagon too quickly. Maybe I need to give it a try again? Any tips for the user just jumping back in?
^^
Make friends with some prolific bookmarkers with similar interests who like tagging stuff with “for:sameer” :)
I use it for personal organisation as well. And there are a lot of people who link stuff for me (who aren’t on twitter or any other service). I use it like I use most web services, register, link, install a firefox app, add people who I think will find cool stuff and who I will want to send stuff to. You can even start with me:
http://del.icio.us/laljif
and here’s a couple I think you might like:
http://delicious.com/laljif/visualization
Thanks guys. I probably won’t be signing up really soon — just too much on my plate right now — but will be sure to hop on as soon as I get some time to make sure I can get set up properly.
I use del.icio.us extensively, but not for sharing. I have a variety of tags … “calendar” for Seattle event sites that I check once a month, “tobuy” for things I may want to grab at some point in the future, and more recently, “tobuyforhouse” which my boyfriend then subscribed to the RSS feed of, when we were moving into a new house together.
Marina, you were the one that inspired me to give Delicious another shot back over a year ago…I tried using it in a similar manner as you, but it still didn’t fit in the flow of how I used the internet.
Kia ora Sameer!
I’m glad you wrote this post.
I subscribed to del.icio.us just last month under pressure following the Web2.0 craze. Yes I use bookmarks - in Mozilla. No I can’t see that delicio.us is any different.
I tried it a few times. It was easier to use the old folder system I’d constructed for my bookmarks. Consequently I continue to use Mozilla bookmarks and don’t use delicious. During which time Delicious has made changes to its name.
I wonder what was wrong with del.icio.us?
Ka kite
from Middle-earth
The name change was a good idea, I think. Too many people were struggling with the spelling, so it just made sense…
Google has taken over the world!! Or at least mine. I don’t need to share bookmarks with anyone really. So I find Google Bookmarks & Notebook to be more than adequate.
As I search & surf using iGoogle I can “Note” a site to check out later. And if I like it I can add it to my Bookmarks. I can then access my bookmarks from my Google browser toolbar or access ALL my major information from ANYWHERE using my iGoogle account.
Ah, Google. I almost forgot about their bookmarking options…
…have you tried Delicious Duffman? Does Google really make it easier than Delicious?