Instead of hoarding all of those fantastic bookmarks and favorites why don't you share, categorize, rate, and describe them with the world? Social bookmarking sites, such as Digg, Del.icio.us, and Furl, are considered by many to be an accurate pulse point of what's what on the Internet and in the Blogosphere.
Social Bookmarking is different than Social Networking, but has a similar group aspect – users share their favorite links, and "tag" them so others interested in the same topic can find them. If you've yet to jump into Social Bookmarking, either as an active user or a consumer of the news they produce, there's never a better time than the present. Here's a quick rundown on our favorite three of the many, many out there:
Digg.com - Digg is mostly "tech" focused and "users submit stories for review which users then vote (or "Digg") the stories they feel are most important." At the moment, Digg covers everything from gadgets, programming, online, and "geek stuff," but comments made on This Week in Tech make it seem like they may be jumping into other verticals over the next 6-9 months. As readers may have noticed in earlier posts about Digg, it's a New Media Sense favorite and not a day goes by without it being checked multiple times a day.
Del.icio.us - Del.icio.us was the first social bookmarking site and is often considered the founder of user "tagging". Instead of saving your "favorites" and "bookmarks" to your browser, Del.icio.us allows web surfers to quickly save their favorite sites to a common, portable, space. When you add a bookmark, a window pops up and asks you to add a description, keywords, and a rating. Del.icio.us aggregates the top sites and pages that were saved, creating a "best of" list by day and by mentions.
Another site, Furl.net was the second social bookmarking site and added a nicer user interface. Both tools have developed toolbars for IE and Firefox in order to make the collecting, sorting, and ranking of these bookmarks easier and more convenient.
These social bookmarking services are much more than just popularity contests — they are realtime ways to follow the market, where the blogs and web pages are what are traded. And the more folks that invest in sharing their bookmarks and favorites, the more accurate the real time market indices will be. You know someone is on to something by how much it's being copied, and Social bookmarking sites are no exception – rarely a week goes by without the announcement of another "Digg-like" site hitting the 'net.
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