DEL.ICIO.US Really Not So Delicious!

Del.icio.us is a tool that has been around for a while now and was recognized as one of the major social bookmarking platforms. You can use it to discover, share, and organize relevant links, so you always know where to find them later.

Social Bookmarking is a means for web users to organize, store, manage, and search for bookmarks of different resources on the internet. Why it's referred to as social bookmarking is that links can be discovered and shared by others, depending on user privacy settings.

Del.icio.us uses "tags" which function like keywords or categories as an organization tool. This website refers to a collection of links that share a common tag as "Stacks."

KEY FEATURES OF DEL.ICIO.US

Del.icio.us is already very intuitive to use. There are seven main tabs you see on the left side of the screen when you are connected to your Del.icio.us account.

•          Search
•          My Links
•          Network
•          Discover
•          Trending
•          Add Link
•          Settings

Del.icio.us has mobile apps for iOS and Android so you can easily save links when you browse with a mobile device as well. Anything you save from a web or mobile device automatically synchronizes with your account, so you always have the latest links wherever you go.

ADVANTAGES

ACCESS YOUR BOOKMARKS EVERYWHERE YOU GO

This remains the biggest advantage of Social Bookmarking as a whole. Most Internet users have several machines that regularly surf the Internet from home, at work, at school, and public libraries.

SHARE YOUR BOOKMARKS WITH OTHERS.

There are countless of reasons why you want to save your bookmarks to share with others. You can use it to share your favorites with different people in your life (friends, colleagues, etc.)

SAVE INSPIRATIONAL LINKS

There are moments when we need a little inspiration. Whenever something inspires you, you can save it to your bookmarks. You can tag well-designed websites, blog themes, logos of companies, beautifully decorated places. Etc.

BUILD A NETWORK

If you've other users who are interested in the same stuff, you can add them to your network. When you are on a user page, which is below the search box at the top right, click "Add network." Now every time you bookmark something that you would want to share with them, they will be listed under Network tags as for a username, or under people tab, depending on whether you are using checklists or browser plug-ins.

CREATE THE ULTIMATE WISH-LIST

The better way to remember all the great things you think you have, but cannot buy it right away, save it to your wish list. Of course, you can create wish lists on Amazon and various other sites, but what if you want all in one place or things from other online retailers without wish-lists.

AFFILIATE SALES

So many people these days who cannot create their own products or websites have decided to become affiliates because they can simply promote a product without worrying about inventory, site maintenance or related costs. Affiliates can earn commission by promoting products with affiliate links on social bookmarking websites.

DISADVANTAGES

SITE ISSUES

When attempting to sign-up for Del.icio.us, I was unable to create an account using just my email address. The sign-up link loaded a blank page. I attempted to access the page from different parts of the site hoping it was an internal link issue. However, the only option for sign-up that would load correctly was through my Google+, Facebook, or Twitter accounts. I wanted to create an account solely for researching and experimenting with the site, and saving, organizing and sharing Web 2.0 bookmarks without using my work or personal Gmail account, because I was not comfortable with this idea until I learned more about how to use the service. Therefore I was only able to explore the site and research the web on it’s purpose, structure and usability. This was a huge put off for me. When conducting a search on the problem, I was able to surmise, that apparently there have been many issues with the site’s dependability since being sold in 2016.

TAG STRUCTURE

No standard in this environment regulates how social bookmarking sites tag links. Examples: - Should people only capitalize at the beginning of the sentence or for each major keyword?

COLLUSION

Like most things in today's world, a scammer can find a way to disrupt the system. If people join groups, sending great bookmarks and control their votes, they are suffering other users who rely on the public to vote on their submission.

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

Due to the advantage of helping their ranking, many people use this service to create back links to their web pages without actually creating unique content. Instead, they simply create junk and add their link and hopes  it helps their ranking.