One of the best aspects of the internet is its ability to allow people to share information with each other – and one of the best ways to do this is to use bookmarks to save a page to come back to later. People use them to keep track of websites that have interesting information; it’s easier to make a bookmark than it is to memorize or write down the address of the website. But most people don’t realize that it’s not only possible to save bookmarks on the internet but you can now share them with others interested in the page’s information as well. However, sharing one’s bookmarks actually has many more benefits than most people realize, which is why people should find out everything they can on social bookmarking and decide if it’s right for them.
Using social bookmarking is one of the best ways to share information with others without having to give them the information yourself. For instance, when a social bookmark is made on a social bookmarking site, the person who actually bookmarked the page can add a unique summary to tell others why the page should be used as a reference point. These social bookmarking sites also allow something called “tagging” – you can apply a word or phrase to a page, such as “recipe” or “video”, so that it’s easier to narrow down amongst other bookmarks.
These sites also use a special “tagging” system where, one word or one phrase labels can be
added to the bookmark like “recipe” or “review”; this is a way of categorizing the bookmarks so that they are grouped together if they are about the same subject, which makes them easier to sort through and find.
The actual concept of social bookmarking emerged back in 1996 when the website iList was launched. Within three years of this, the demand for ways of sharing information across the internet became so strong that several other companies based on social networking also launched. But when the website known as Delicious in 2003, the concept of social bookmarking truly blossomed – it was Delicious that truly revolutionized the tagging system and coined the term “social bookmarking.” Their tagging system now only allows the use of normal tags but also of something called “tag clouds” – categories that related tags can be filed under to make seeing using them easier.
There are many advantages to using social bookmarking. The sites can be searched for bookmarks using generic keywords and many results will pop up. And the system itself makes navigating sites easier, since clicking on a specific tag gets rid of all unrelated tags. Social bookmarking allows people to share their favorite websites without even speaking the same language.
Tags: Social Bookmarking