Social bookmarking

About the tools

Delicious

'Delicious is a social bookmarking service that allows users to tag, save, manage and share web pages from a centralized source. With emphasis on the power of the community, Delicious greatly improves how people discover, remember and share on the Internet.' (http://delicious.com/about)

Delicious doesn't purport to be designed for particular types of documents or websites. The 'About' page is very simple and straight forward and targeted to the widest possible demographic.

It requires registration and the installation of two buttons on your web browser. I saw no option to uprgrade registration.

Diigo

'If you browse or read a lot on the web, we believe you will find Diigo indispensable. Diigo is two services in one -- it is a research and collaborative research tool on the one hand, and a knowledge-sharing community and social content site on the other.' (http://www.diigo.com/about)

Diigo, like Delicious, focuses on webpages, but in addition to social bookmarking it expands its scope to encompass the highlighting of text and annotation, lending itself to the more research focused user.

Both Diigo and Connotea require registration and the installation of a browser button. Installing the optional Diigo toolbar gives the user more functionality. There is the option to upgrade your Diigo or Connotea registration for a fee.

Connotea

'Free online reference management for clinicians and scientists.'
(http://www.connotea.org/about)

Like Diigo, Connotea markets its product with a strong emphasis on research for professionals. The website mentions the capability of linking to documents such as PDFs.

All three tools are similar to EndNote in that they pool your resources to a centralised source with ease. Like the tools, EndNote allows you to 'bookmark' useful information, in this case specifically references. EndNote differs from the tools in that there is no real social aspect or potential for exploration. It is defined by a more rigid purpose and structured accordingly.

The tools operate on much the same principle as Bookmarking/Favorites, but they take it to the next level with a greater capacity to organise and share information in more sophisticated ways.

The social aspects of all three tools include the ability to share bookmarks with other people as well as a display of the most popular bookmarks across a variety of subjects. You can also set up a network whereby you can see what sites your friends are tagging, which may also be of interest to you and vice versa. Delicious focuses more on shared interests, whereas Diigo and Connotea, in addition to this, allow users to connect with people possessing specialist knowledge.

Using the tools

Delicious

Delicious doesn't make the option to import/export bookmarks very visible at all. The only way to access the application is to go through 'Settings.' They obviously don't want users signing up with other social bookmarking sites. I attempted exporting my Delicious bookmarks to Diigo and EndNote with no success.

Diigo

Finding import/export of bookmarks option, like Delicious, requires a bit of exploration of the website. The screen that appears for the import of bookmarks clearly displays icons of other bookmarking sites, simplifying the process. Diigo had two import options one for other online bookmarking sites and one for browsers. I tried both when importing bookmarks from Delicious and Connotea to no avail. The export option is not as aesthetically pleasing or straightforward as the import option. Again, this highlights the fact that these bookmarking sites are businesses and ultimately want your exclusive custom.

My attempt to export my Diigo bookmarks to Delicious also proved unnsuccessful, or so I thought. Two days later I received an email from Diigo stating that my bookmarks had been successfully exported to Delicious. I expected the process to take a few hours at the most, but at least it worked...eventually.

I was surprised to find that Diigo offers to simultaneously save bookmarks to three other services including Delicious. The Diigo toolbar must be installed first. You then go to 'Tools' and select 'Save Elsewhere.' I successfully simultaneously saved a bookmark on both Diigo and Delicious. Trying to export bookmarks to EndNote was a futile experience.

Connotea

I found Connotea to be by far the easiest site to use. The import/export options are clearly set out on the right hand side of your personal library page. I experienced no difficulties in bookmarking Schamber's article 'What is a document?' from week 1. Importing bookmarks from Delicious was practically instantaneous. After some troubleshooting I finally worked out how to export my bookmarks to EndNote. Initially I clicked on 'Export My Library' and selected the 'Download for EndNote' option. Windows didn't recognise the file type so the file wouldn't open. Eventually I tried a different tack and chose the 'Download RIS' option. My EndNote library immediately opened and imported the data. The title of one of the websites had a couple of incorrect characters and the only reference information recorded from all the bookmarks was the URL.

The social aspects of the bookmarking sites are definitely useful to have on hand when opportunity arises, but the majority of the time I think I would use it more as a personal tool. That said, I and a number of other students have accessed the Delicious page of an RMIT staff member. Her bookmarks are an invaluable resource that she's happy to share for educational purposes. I'll probably continue using my Delicious account because the bookmarks reflect my general interests rather than a specific focus on research.