Help With Social Bookmarking Sites

What's with these icons that lead me to login screens?

These icons let social bookmarking site users flag web pages as interesting in one or two clicks.

They're a trendy way to attract herds of visitors on web sites.

The more icons on a web site, the more likely it gets bookmarked looks like a Christmas tree.

Why should I care about social bookmarking sites?

The main benefit of using a social bookmarking site is that they let you keep your bookmarks when you switch computers.

These sites typically let you organize your bookmarks using keywords ("tags") rather than category trees. And users tend to find tags more natural to use.

These tags then let you to spread information to other users. Reciprocally, they let you discover information found by others via tag-specific RSS feeds. The resulting cooperative classifications are called folksonomies.

Interpretation differences, gossip, lemmings with an agenda and spammers then invariably ensure that folksonomies have a low signal to noise ratio.

How do I use social bookmarking sites?

It's super simple. Log into del.icio.us, Digg, Furl or Reddit and click the relevant icon on web sites that you find interesting.

There are of course many more social bookmarking sites and tools. But none of these really stand out.

The exception is Yahoo! MyWeb, which is in beta at the time of writing this. It lets you easily import your bookmarks, and it integrates with the Yahoo! toolbar.

Expect Google and Microsoft to roll out similar services soon. Users crave to search in bookmarks, not to mention the opportunity for context-aware personalized search.

How do I add bookmark icons to my blog?

It's super simple too:

If you don't feel like editing WordPress template code, the bookmark me plugin is bundled with Semiologic Pro, and it works out of the box with the Semiologic theme.

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