Social Bookmarking: From Delicious to "Google Bookmarks"

Good things will go away, and when they do, they are replaced with better things.

When you and I first began exploring the Internet, one of the concept we learned early was how to "bookmark" or "favorite" a site. That technique kept us from having to re-type the URL each time we went to a commonly-used site. The downside was that making a URL a "favorite" on one computer did nothing on any other computer. Furthermore, if someone else was interested in what sites we have made a "favorites," we have efficient way to share the list which them.

Enter "social bookmarking" and a site called "Delicious." Delicious allowed you to save your "favorites" on a website. You could then go to Delicious from any computer and access all of the items. Delicious allowed you to "tag" each favorite with one or more subjects. You could then search for a tag and find all of your sites to which you had attached that tag.

The only problem was an announcement that Delicious was going to sunset. As it turned out, that did not happen, but droves of people immediately began looking for an alternative. I was one of them. The replacement quickly cam in the form of Google Bookmarks. 

If you already have a Google account, log into it, and then go to Google Bookmarks. You will see a line which states, "Bookmark pages more easily. Drag this bookmarklet to the Bookmarks bar of your browser." Follow that little set of instructions. In fact, you will want to perform this same operation on each of your computers, because it provides a quick and easy way to add items to Google Bookmarks.

When you visit a website and decide you wish to add that site to Google Bookmarks, simply click that little bookmarklet. A box appears with the title of the website and URL already completed. All you have to do is add whatever tags you wish. You can also add optional comments. When you save, the box closes, and you have just added that site to your Google Bookmarks.

As you enter a tag, suggestions appear with tags you have already used. This feature is a time-saver and also helps prevent typos in your tags. Want to find all the sites which have been assigned a certain tag? Simply go to Google Bookmarks and click one of the tags in the left-hand column. You will see only the sites to which you had assigned that tag.

Incidentally, I can get to Google Bookmarks with one click. On my igHome personalized homepage, I can set the links on the black bar at the top of the page to anything I wish. I have one of them labeled "Google Bookmarks."

Without a doubt, the day will come when Google Bookmarks will cease to exist. I am also confident that when that say happens, something better will have come along.

Good things will go away, and when they do, they are replaced with better things.