The Evolution of Social Bookmarking to Social Organization

Social bookmarking is not a particularly new phenomenon - the concept has been around since 1996 with the advent of "itList," which offered both public and private online bookmarking options. It was the early part of the 2000s, however, that saw social bookmarking take off, as well as the coining of the term itself in 2003, by Delicious. Since then, a host of social bookmarking sites have been launched, including Stumbleupon, Ma.gnolia, Furl, Diigo and Reddit, to name just a few. What appears obvious at present is that these sites are evolving into something well beyond mere convenient repositories for links that users can "take with them" wherever they have a computer and an Internet connection. They are, in short, turning into a means of online collaboration that is akin to "cloud computing."

Now, the concept of "cloud computing" is a bit overblown, as evidenced by the complex descriptions for what is, in essence, "computing online," as well as the host of television commercials touting the concept exhaustively. One particular social bookmarking site, however, represents a very useful set of tools for those who read online extensively and who need to share notes, bookmarks, images and more with other users. Diigo, one of the social bookmarking sites that came out in the middle part of the current decade, touts itself as having evolved from its "1.0" version (online bookmarking) to its current Diigo 5.0 version, which the spinners at that company note can help one "collect and organize anything" and "access anywhere and easily share."

While there is a certain amount of marketing going on with Diigo, those selling the product truly do have a great tool to work with. The fact that it is free makes it a simple choice for those interested in trying it out. Those new to social bookmarking may find Diigo a bit difficult to learn at first, but the reality is that it's fairly intuitive and has many features. A simple rundown of the primary and most useful features will give one a feel for what the service can do.

Bookmarking and Organization

As with all social bookmarking sites, the primary function of Diigo is saving online bookmarks. How those bookmarks can be annotated and organized, however, is at the heart of Diigo's power. In addition to merely adding a given webpage to Diigo, users can also create "floating sticky notes" on a page that are then available to other Diigo users if "public" is selected as the note option, or available only to that user creating the note if "private" is selected. It is also worth conveying that all the functionality within Diigo can be utilized in public or in private, so that it can be an entirely open platform, a truly personal organizer, or something in between through the use of groups.

In addition to the floating notes, Diigo also offers users the ability to create custom titles and descriptions for a bookmark, tag bookmarks for later retrieval and search, organize bookmarks via "lists" either at the point of creating the bookmark or after the fact, mark a bookmark quickly as "read later" as a note to come back to the page, automatically "Tweet" the page to Twitter or take a snapshot of the page that can be viewed from the main Diigo console. Other functionality among the bookmarking and organization elements of Diigo include highlighting certain sections of text (which is then still visible when visiting the page again, as well as being readable in the Diigo library console), capturing and storing a cached version of a page, saving images and making general notes that are then available for search and retrieval through the Diigo console.

Group Collaboration

The creation of groups is the collaborative element of Diigo that makes it a valuable tool for businesses. Groups can be open to the public, by invite only, or available with the permission of the group administrator. For businesses seeking to allow their employees to collaborate online, the private group option will allow multiple individuals to bookmark web pages and images and make notes about bookmarks that are, in turn, available to others in the group. This is especially valuable for web designers, application designers and for business models where online reading and research is common.

Networking with Other Users

While it falls outside the standard collaborative concept of the "group," the networking features of Diigo allows for easy connections with other Diigo users, making groups and networks searchable and the bookmarked contents of other users with related interests readily available. This functionality is an excellent resource for those seeking information outside standard search channels, as well as for those looking to connect with others in their industry.