Del.icio.us is not scary

 A lot of people are scared of web 2.0, but what most people don’t realize is how easy and not scary it is to use and learn.  There is so much mystery around web 2.0, that if you know just the smallest amount of basics, you suddenly are credited as a maven or expert.  In reality, it is painfully easy to learn the basics, and set yourself apart from the masses. 

I’m going to discuss social book marking.  Working in the industry, I was confused about what that social book marking meant.  I knew that you could bookmark sites on your toolbar, but what were sites like Digg or del.icio.us? 

Partly because I was bored at work, but I decided to open a del.icio.us account-to see what the big deal was.  I opened an account, but didn’t know what it did, or why anybody else would want to open an account. 

After about a month on del.icio.us, and really only using it once, I have a basic understanding of social book marking. 

Del.icio.us lets you “bookmark” your favorite websites.  You do this under the “Bookmarks” tab.  Basically what del.icio.us is, is a list of your favorite websites.  This comes in handy when there are so many that you have to remember.  Some might also be technical, or have weird numbers/letters in them, so this makes it easier to access because remembering www.employer.example/fakeid3874943 can be difficult. 

Why is this a good/useful feature?  Why not just write down all of your websites on a piece of paper, or save your bookmarks to your browser toolbar at work?  Well, you might wash your piece of paper, or loose it-and you can access del.icio.us at any computer, not just your work computer.

There is also another feature called “People”.  This lets you follow other people’s bookmarks.  I see why some people might use this feature, but personally I prefer my privacy and don’t really care what other people are looking at. 

Lastly, there is a “Tag” tab.  This lets you group/organize your websites.  For instance, you can save your work calendar, or work e-mail log in page-and save them both under your “Work” tag.  If you collect recipes, and you have a bunch of cookie and cake recipes-you can create “cookie” and “cake” tags.

Advertisers also measure how many times their website is bookmarked, so there is another use for social bookmarks, although that is more for agency purposes, and less for individuals. 

Overall, I can see the utility of social book marking, and think that this is another trend that is only going to grow as more and more tech savvy youngsters step into the digital world.