From Geek to Peak

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Social bookmarking has become my constant companion these days. Any task that involves online research means using that friendly little Del.icio.us widget in FireFox or Safari.

For those of you who don’t know what social bookmarking is, or have never visited Del.icio.us (the best known social bookmarking site), the idea is extremely simple and therefore extremely powerful. Instead of hording away your bookmarks in some private cubbyhole, you tag them using the Del.icio.us service and share them with the community at large. You can even add little browser widgets that let you bookmark things you run across to make this task easier.

When you come across an interesting page (such as this blog post), you can bookmark it and then tag it using keywords. For most pages, Del.icio.us will provide you with recommended tags, including a full set of the tags you’ve already used in the past. You can also add comments of your own.

Another extremely useful way to use Del.icio.us is as a search engine. If you’re interested in a certain topic, run a few keyword searches and see what others have bookmarked. It’s an easy way to explore a wide range of topics. You can easily add anyone else’s bookmarks to your own personal set. 

How do you keep them organized? Easy enough–you can sort them alphabetically or by frequency, view them as a tag cloud, and even bundle tags together to form more pleasing arrangements.

Give it a try, see what you think. Check out my tags at http://www.del.icio.us/myerman