del.icio.us, the Bookmarks

So, I'd been introduced to the del.icio.us concept several years ago, while still in college. I've finally gotten back into it, primarily as a means to easily keep my bookmarks in sync between computers. I'm going back and forth between it and Google Bookmarks; so far, I'm finding that I like the networking aspects and Firefox integration of del.icio.us. However, I've just learned that they're integrating with Google Notebook, so I'll have some re-evaluating to do.

This is a continuation of the social networking phenomenon that I discussed earlier in regards to things like Facebook and LinkedIn. I've surprisingly kept up with most of these items, including (occasionally) this blog. Granted, I don't think I have too many readers, as I don't have any comments on my posts, but that's fine. I've found myself surprised at the benefits of both putting my thoughts on virtual paper, and at keeping in touch with friends, even if it is infrequently and indirectly.

The concept of tags (which Gmail, and Blogger for that matter, calls labels) is one that I've found interesting. From an organization standpoint, it fits my own ideas, since it allows me to put things in more than one category. As you may have noticed, focus is not my strong suit. From the implementation in del.icio.us, and other networking sites with similar concepts such as flickr, I have the advantage of pulling other items on a topic I might be interested in. This lets me treat the web in general the way I often treat Wikipedia. For an example of this concept, see this comic from the amazing xkcd.

So, I've added a del.icio.us network badge to my blog; as you may have noticed, a number of new sideboard items have been added. Feel free to check them out. Who knows, maybe I'll start to get more readers, linking to me because I linked to them, or from del.icio.us itself. That reminds me, I need to go tag my blog.