Share your favourite sites with social bookmarking

From news to blogs to videos, check out what other people are finding online

By Andrea Grant

When graphic design student Brock French wants to catch up on the latest buzz in the art world, he turns to social bookmarking. By clicking on links saved by friends on sites such as Del.icio.us and Digg, the Toronto-based artist unearths obscure yet intriguing articles and blogs.

“You can find out what’s popular and where people are getting their information,” he says.

Social bookmarking web sites take bookmarking on your web browser to the next level. The content here is user-generated. Users post links to their favourite sites so others can check out their picks.

Getting started

The first step is to become familiar with the various social bookmarking sites. Once you’ve found one that suits your interests, set up an account. Registration is generally free and as easy as choosing a username and password.

Social bookmarking is about sharing and saving links for future reference.

The hard part, says professional blogger Erin Balser, who writes for the Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen Fansite, is deciding which site to join. “I have accounts with all of them,” she laughs, “but most people settle on one or two.”

Once you start using social bookmarking, you’ll notice linking buttons all over the Internet. The Toronto Star, for example, has a bookmark option that lets you post an article from the newspaper to any of 34 bookmarking sites.

Tips for beginners

Balser offers first-time users a few tips.

Try multiple social bookmarking sites to see which one suits your needs.
Take site tours and read FAQs to learn about special features.
Study privacy policies to know how much of your information is being shared.

There are many social bookmarking sites and joining is usually free and simple to do.

Keep in mind that bookmarks are public, so you can browse any user’s links — and anyone can browse yours. Join networks related to your interests, and the newest and most popular bookmarks in that area will be automatically filtered to your profile page. Once you post a link, it will be stored on online profile pages that are accessible from any computer.

Adding tags, or keywords, such as recipe or museum, to each bookmark makes finding links later a snap. Use a site’s internal search engine to search for specific tags both within your own and others’ bookmarks.

Choosing the right site

You can join as many sites as you want, but keep in mind that not all sites are created equally.

There’s something for everyone.

Del.icio.us, http://ma.gnolia.com and Furl are great for organizing information. Use them to collect recipe links, create shopping wish lists or gather research material for a work project or upcoming vacation.
Windows Live Favorites lets you take your favourite web sites with you. Import your browser’s bookmarks to Windows Live Favorites and organize them by tags or folders. Log into any computer with Internet access and you can easily visit the sites you’ve bookmarked on your home PC. Since you don’t share your links, privacy isn’t an issue.
Hugg is a good option if you’re interested in the latest environmental news.
Sugarloving is a good bet if you want to share information related to beauty and fashion.
Digg, StumbleUpon and reddit act like alternative news sources. Users submit links, often from obscure sources, and control the popularity of certain bookmarks by voting for or against them. Check out the site’s most recent bookmarks to discover what’s hot now.

You are what you bookmark

Social bookmarking can also be a way to add your own stamp to information you find online. “It shows your personality,” says French. Since your bookmarks reflect your interests, they can say a lot about who you are.

A social bookmarking site is a social search engine that grows stronger as more people use it.

And if, like French, you’re a little sheepish about some of your bookmarks — one of his earliest linked to an article about Russian ninjas — remember that you control what you reveal. Change your privacy settings at any time if you feel your information is too accessible — or embarrassing.