It is the process of saving bookmarks to Internet websites and tagging them so they can be found later. Tagging your bookmarks is associating different keywords so you and others can easily access and view them later. In the past when we found a website we liked we would either bookmark it on our web browser or add it to our Favorites list.
While this may served its purpose, the bookmarks could only be found if you were on your computer. Social bookmarking allows you to save these bookmarks on a website where they can be viewed from any computer. An advantage of social bookmarking is that it allows you to share these web pages with friends, family members and even strangers. The sites give you the option of setting your bookmarks as private or public.
Who uses Social Bookmarking?
When social bookmarking sites like Simpy, Furl and del.icio.us first came into use, it was used a lot for academic purposes. Teachers and professors were able to bookmark valuable teaching resources and study notes so they were able to share them with other instructors and students.
The usefulness and convenience of social bookmarking soon made it something that was done by anyone wishing to share websites and articles. Today even amateurs are able to open social bookmarking accounts and join in on the fun.
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
There are so many advantages to using social bookmarking. At the very least, it offers many opportunities of organizing information, storing it and sharing it with others. With the proper use of tagging, viewers can easily find information on almost any topic. All they have to do is type in the tag or keyword and anything connected to that tag will pop up on the screen.
Many social bookmarking sites have a voting option where readers can vote on an article or click on it so others know how many people have read this post. The advantage of this is that the newest and best websites are usually listed on top. It saves a lot of time that otherwise would be spent siphoning through page after page of articles trying to find the one you're looking for.
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
As with any new technology or invention, we're always going to find some disadvantage to discuss or talk about. The main disadvantage of social bookmarking is that because it's so easy to use, many amateurs that are unfamiliar with the purpose of tagging are using it. By improperly using tags or using the wrong kind of tags, the information may become cluttered and be almost similar to our traditional search engines. Like anything else in our lives, the more you experiment with social bookmarking, the more you'll learn and the more you'll have to contribute.