#15 - Tagging: mmm.... Del.icio.us

Exercise fifteen dealt with tagging and social bookmarking.

I'm no stranger to tagging: I tag blog posts and my photography on a regular basis on several websites, and I use a little goodie called netvibes as my homepage, which has all my favorite bookmarks listed according to tag.

I started checking out del.icio.us, and I couldn't believe I hadn't jumped on board this runaway train long ago! I like that you can add comments regarding bookmarked sites if you choose to, and I really like that you can see all the tags used to describe the bookmark, not just your own.

I immediately started finding things I wanted to check out, and so I made an account. I explored a little, added a little, and searched out some URL's that I typed in. Did you know that several people have tagged www.kdl.org?

An observation: I find that when I tag a bookmark, I go wild with as many tags describing as many aspects of the item as possible.

Here's my network badge from del.icio.us:



I think this sort of thing is not only very useful for finding new sites in the ever-growing internet world, but it also has it's use as a portable bookmark tool, allowing a user to access their items easily from anywhere they log into their account. I also see potential use in a library setting because it's a way of searching and sorting websites not only by subject, but also by popularity. This would allow library staff and/or patrons using internet to find websites pertaining to their interests easily and without all the "sponsored link" garbage results that occur when using a big-box site like google, yahoo!, or MSNseach.