A brief explanation of what social bookmarking is:

A Social Boomark is a form folksonomy. Websites are marked by users of specific (bookmark) service. Some services give you access to tiny icons or buttons that can be integrated into your browser. Once you add an the icon you can mark your favorite sites quickly. You can add a brief note & create your own tags (keywords) to make returning to your bookmarks easy. This style of bookmarking is called 'social' because you can browse the bookmarks of other users who have similar interests. Yasue has invites you to peek at her bookmarks Del.icoi.us so this might make more sense!

What makes social bookmarking unique & interesting?

• Some services allow you to sort your bookmark by dates, which is insanely handy when you're researching a topic on the internet! This is also fantastic if you have scads of personal (browser contained) bookmarks sorting them into folders can be a pain!

• Because you add the keywords, it's easy to locate your favorites later; for example, if you think "Squirrel Sandwhich" is the ideal keyword set for this website, by golly, you can locate it again by using the keywords squirrel sandwich later!

• Access to your favorite bookmarks from any computer, since the content is stored on the internet.

• Discover websites bookmarked frequently by others.

• If you're mind numbingly bored, browse the bookmarks of users with similar interests.

• Some websites pay big bucks to push them up in the ranks of search engines, making some of the truly good sites harder to find; social bookmarking is user driven, so you may find info that's more relevant to your interests.

• Advertising plans like Google's Ad Words have created a rise in scraper websites--often disguised as "info websites"--which rely on "hot topic" keywords, but are nothing more than ultra generic pages set up to generate pay-per-click revenue when visitors click on links. Social bookmarking acts as a sort of funnel, by specifying highlighting content other humans found helpful or entertaining. Here's a Wiki on how search engines work.
  

You will need to create a user name & password for (most) of these services, however, they are all free to use. Yasue has joined all community of the top three on this list below. Lida is a StumbleUpon junkie. The interface design and content of these tools varies greatly. The summaries below are a simple overview of each tool. Follow the links for more information.

Del.icio.us.com: Tends to focus on business, media, media arts, and family.You can organize your tags by creating categories, making it easier for you to find similar topics. Like the example above (Squirrel Sandwich) you are in control of deciding the meaning the bookmarked pages have to you. Based on my research (aka being a browsing junkie) Del.icio.us is the one of the mostpopular on this list; keep an eye out for their icon on websites you visit.

Digg.com: Focuses primarily on technology & science, although a variety of bookmarked sites can be found too. The Digg system is designed for minimal bookmarking spam. Bookmarks are voted up or down in rank by the community. Digg notes must be saved within a limited time frame & it is necessary to prove a human is Digging a story by entering a series of letters displayed as an image.

BlueDot.com: is geared to a very broad audience and has a huge variety of dot categories to browse, all of which are listed by popular tags. Both blog writers & readers will find enjoy what BlueDot offers. Membership is not required to Dot your favorite websites. You will need to enter an email, but fret not, for they will not send you any spam. The user interface is very appealing on BlueDot and members can create a profile. The advantage of the profiles: learn a little about members, find someone who shares common interests, send a friend request, & increase the number of new pages you'll discover.

StumbleUpon: tailors website recommendations based on your personal browsing habits! HOW cool is that? Like the others it is also a social bookmarking tool. When you are bored silly, click on Stumble and it whisks you away to a website you may like.

Wetpaint (the SEA host) has made marking this site easy for users of the social bookmarking services above. If you like this site, you can use the bookmarking buttons located near the bottom any page, within the Tags panel.

There are several other options for bookmarking. Here's an article that examines how they work, with a comparison & descriptions of various ways they are used near the bottom. Social Bookmarking Tools: A general Review for D-Lib Magazine.

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