As a long time user of google bookmarks to store my bookmarks online, I resisted the urge to join one of what I considered pointless social bookmarking services. Finally the limitations of google became too much, as did the popularity of these sites I was avoiding.
I’ve tried a few out and have settled for Delicious. It seems to be the most in tune with what I need. I’ve written a summary of the top three though.
Delicious
In my opinion this is the best site. It allows you to bookmark your site using tags instead of folders (folders were so last century). The great thing about Delicious is that when you have multiple tags on an item, you can filter your results by multiple tags too, so for example, I may have a large number of items tagged with iphone and also application, but I can select iphone, then application to get down to exactly what I am looking for. Application and download will bring me a different selection etc.
Another great reason for using Delicious is its really good Firefox plugin. It makes tagging (adding) a breeze and has a nice advanced search facility. There are a nice selection of shortcut keys and it integrates well with the bookmarks menu.
Pros include a really well designed interface and clean website. Cons include the limited ability to make comments that others can read about sites in a way that say Digg does. Delicious is run by Yahoo and I suspect it’s size will allow future development to continue well.
Digg
Digg is the second most popular social bookmarking site on the net at the moment. Instead of a well organised selection of tagged pages, Digg concentrates on other user’s comments. There is a nice javascript toolbar that can be used on any site by attaching the http://digg.com/yoursitehere style URL usage. Digg will nicely create a short style URL for you to which is good for sending to people. Digg is just great if you want to find out what other people thought about a site you are visiting.
But the cons include very limited tags that are pre-set. There’s no multiple tagging. There’s no slick lookup facility in firefox like Delicious. In my opinion, Digg is limited to just a system for comments on sites. I need something more.
StumbleUpon
Stumble is based around a thoery that you will want to find quality websites based on what you already like but that you don’t know exactly what you want. You program in your keyword likes and hit the ‘Stumble’ button and it will take you to a suggested site. On all sited you can rate them with a yes/no good/bad style judgement. This goes back in the system and helps rank sites for others to stumble upon.
I like the design and I like the idea. The quality of sites is generally gquite good, but I simply am not sure about the idea of being given stuff at random, even if it is based on my taste. Again the bookmarking faccilities seem quite limited.
Conclusion
If you want to find something cool and random in your spare time, stumble upon is quite cool. Digg also offers a similar random service. Both sites are quite good for commenting too. They have javascript toolbars that don’t need to be installed and can run through the url only which is handy. No installation needed. But the real pro will want Delicious. It has a far more advanced system for managing your bookmarks and is supported by a superior interface that can be added to Firefox. All three offer RSS feeds, the ability to add friends links and a personal profile. If only Delicious offered better commenting tools, it would be ultimate.
