Social bookmarks are a way for internet users to store, organize,
search, share and manage web pages on the internet that they find of
interest. They replace the traditional method of browser-based
system of folders by encouraging users to organize their bookmarks
with tags. Social bookmarking means storing your bookmarks online,
tagging them, and sharing them online with other users.
Users from all over the world bookmark sites or specific pages
using their favorite social bookmarks. They can search through their
bookmarks by keywords or by tags, and can access their bookmarks
from any internet connection. Almost all social bookmark sites have
the same basic features like browser bookmarklets for one-click link
saving, RSS feeds, tags and sharing capabilities.
In a bookmarking system, users save links to web pages they want
to remember or share by the use of RSS feeds. These bookmarks can
then be organized into a list of tags that describe what the site is
about. People are always searching for information, and search is
probably the most important application on the web for surfers to
find what they are looking for. Search engines give more relevancy
to sites that have been recently modified or have added new content.
This is where social bookmarks are one step ahead, notifying
users when a site has been updated through the use of the RSS feeds.
Instead of going into a search engine, typing something in, you can
quickly narrow down the items to what you are looking for by
searching the tags. You can even search through what other people
have bookmarked as long as they remain public. So, what started out
as a way to send bookmarks to friends has really grown into social
search engines.
Social bookmark sites allow others to see your bookmarks and
comment about them, creating interactivity among bookmark users.
Social bookmarking is all about the collective voice and the power
of the people. As these services have matured and grown more
popular, they have added extra features such as ratings and comments
on bookmarks, the ability to import and export bookmarks from
browsers, emailing of bookmarks, web annotation, and groups or other
social network features. A social bookmarking system can rank a
resource, or website, based on how many times it has been bookmarked
by users, whereas conventional search engines rank resources based
on the number of external links pointing to it.
Social technologies are here to stay, and are already growing in
popularity. Social bookmarks continue to be one of the driving
forces of this evolving web. It is all about labeling the web,
making it easier to find the content that you're looking for by
passing on what you've found. For users, social bookmark sites can
be useful as a way to access a consolidated set of bookmarks from
various computers, organize large numbers of bookmarks, and share
bookmarks with contacts. Social bookmarking can allow you to share
the sites that you own to others with relevant tastes, driving
traffic to your site, and creating valuable backlinks.
