I created a Delicious account and a Diigo account. Both are social bookmarking sites, and thus make it possible to organize bookmarks of various websites and either keep them private for your own use or share them with the public. With the amount of websites we all use, bookmarking has become a necessity. Both Diigo and Delcious offer rather basic service, although Diigo seemed more useful because it allows the user not only to bookmark a site, but also to highlight certain parts of it.
Pinterest, another social bookmarking application, seemed a little different from the other two. The use of images and the virtual board offered a more appealing interface, and it also seemed to highlight the social part of social bookmarking. Here I could more easily join in communities with similar interests and have access to a wider array of information.
I do feel that, as social media sites multiply, it becomes more and more difficult to discern the necessity for these services. With google sites, blogs, twitter, rss feeds, delicious, diigo, pinterest, facebook, etc. each offering different ways to organize and access information on the web, the acts of simplification have the potential simply to create more places one has to look on the Web. This seemed to be the case with both Delicious and Diigo.
I agree with your commentary about Pinterest being more visually appealing. Image is really important when you have to stay current and "cool" in the sea of technology. Part of why people love Apple products is that that look awesome as well as provide a great visual interface. I think I will use Pinterest in the future but I don't see myself using the other two. The social part of bookmarking is the key to getting people to access the tool. I think the libraries can really benefit from using Pinterest and I am curious how many libraries have a Pinterest account.
ReplyDeleteWow, I didn't even realize you could highlight with Diigo. Glad I read your post, you clearly grasped it a little better than I did. And you make a good point about social media sites needing to prove themselves are necessary. The turnover from what's hot to what's not is really speeding up. It's something to be wary of.
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