BOOKMARKS are so COOL!

The first time I heard of social bookmarking I thought to myself, “Wow. This whole Web 2.0 thing is getting out of control. What else can they stamp the word social next to? Maybe social living?”

But after a practical introduction to the concept in a library and media specialist course about the uses of social bookmarking I can easily see how people get addicted, but also see how people can get turned off.

Web 2.0 has become something that has invaded the Internet like the Conquistadors sailed around the globe making the world a smaller place. There is no arguing that the popularity of Web 2.0 applications, software and websites have enticed more and more people to join in on the fun; yet it has also created a seemingly endless amount of Internet left to navigate. It seems that the Internet is competing with the universe to see which can expand faster!

Social bookmarking makes the Internet less chaotic and the equivalent to taking that mess you have in your garage and letting the nice folks at the container store put labels, storage bins, shelving and the what not in to put everything in its place so it is accessible and stored.

Social bookmarking works like any social networking website. You must create a login, a profile is you wish, and you can add “friends”. There is a choice if you want to make your page public or you can make it private. The difference between a social bookmarking website and other social networking sites is the content that it is the basis for the website. It is a website about sharing other websites.

Capitalizing on the common “bookmark” function found in your internet browser (i.e. Firefox and sometimes referred to as “favorites”) where you can save the website addresses of websites that you frequent or simply just want to remember, social bookmarking makes this practice one that a communal thing (watch the video).


When I first found out about delicious or del.icio.us, I was eager to use the site in one of my classes. I just got a class that was reading The Kite Runner and the teacher let me know that they would be doing a research project on Afghanistan and Afghani culture as a cumulative assessment for the book. So I got the kids delicious accounts and we used the site. 

I had mixed results with the experiment. I got many students to use the site, though they did not save sites that they were able to use for their project. I got lots of bookmarks of music, video games, movies, et cetera. Everything but Afghani culture. I guess my expectations should have been higher as I never explicitly states how many websites they needed.

Overall, the possibilities of using social bookmarking as a resource are immense. If I had this site in undergrad or even high school, i’m sure I would have had more quality work because I’d have a frame of reference to work with instead of just getting my B.S.