Social Bookmarking!

Delicious

I didn’t really know much about social bookmarking before starting this subject, but delicious was mentioned in another subject I am doing and I had a quick look at it but didn’t create an account until now.

 It seems useful and time saving to have all your book marks in one place so don’t have to go searching around for them and they are easy to access, but don’t know how much I will use it and how often I will actually access the site or my account unless I have to look for something I saved or searching for something specific or perhaps even assignment related. I’m not sure how much I would use for fun or recreational activity. I had a bit of trouble setting it up especially the bookmarklet tool because of browser incompatibility so I downloaded firefox but later realized it had worked on internet explorer so that was a bit frustrating.

According to the website, Delicious is a social bookmarking service where you are able to save all your bookmarks online in one place so you can access them from any computer anytime anywhere. You are also able to share them with others and view what other people are bookmarking. The website also allows you to view most popular bookmarks and it uses ‘tags’ so can save under a topic or name to describe the bookmark. This aids in organising unlike other bookmarking.

I am doing a group assignment for another subject and our topic is book friendly cafes in Melbourne so I thought I would try and look up some bookmarks on that topic and managed to find something related to it but I will have to spend a bit more time on it and maybe alter my search terms a bit. I also saved some bookmarks related to information management as well as books one of which is all time best reads.

Favourites also work in a similar way but it saves the bookmarks in one long list and they become difficult to find and if you have more than one computer you will have different bookmarks in different places so you can easily lose track of where you put what and where they were saved, not to mention it is time consuming to find. In comparison with delicious they are all in one place and you can organise and sort them into groups with tags.

Library Thing

I can see myself using Library thing a lot more than delicious and I would most probably use it as a tool to find new books to read. The tour of the site gives a handy overview of the functions and features of the site and how it can be used. It is described as a cataloguing and social networking site for book lovers. I discovered here that you can obtain information on local bookstores, libraries and festivals and also book related event such as book signings and author readings.  I think I could get many ideas about what books I would like to read or would interest me and reviews and recommendations by other users of this site would be very helpful.

It provides a great way of keeping record track of books I’ve read instead of writing them down and trying to remember on the top of my head. Furthermore is easy to use and navigate and it is as simple as typing in a genre or author and this can be starting point for you to discover new books. I do love books and this is a wonderful way to share them and it is great to view what others are reading or have read and if you have similar tastes you can also take away ideas of what might be an interesting read. I have already started adding books I have read and what I would like to read and hope to join some groups and interact with other users and maybe even write some reviews and make recommendations!

I set up a Google doc so my buddies and I can discuss the social bookmarking sites we have chosen, Delicious and Library thing. I have posted my thoughts and I'm waiting for my buddies to add theirs and then I will report back in my next blog post.