What is social bookmarking?

If you’re not familiar with the term social bookmarking, it’s typically used to describe tools that allow users to save links to their favorite sites on a web server. This allows you to access these links from any computer with an Internet connection, making them easier to share than bookmarks or favorites saved on your computer’s hard drive. Social bookmarking tools also make it easier to categorize links and to find new sites that are recommended by people with similar interests. Some social bookmarking tools offer many additional features that are ideal for collaborative learning, allowing users to create groups and discussion forums and even call attention to specific webpage content with virtual “sticky notes” and highlights. However, many of these features have yet to be implemented in a refined and reliable way.

How do I evaluate social bookmarking tools?

That depends largely on how you plan to use social bookmarking. Here are the criteria I use when evaluating different tools based on my needs and what I believe faculty will value:

1) Ease of Use: Do existing tags automatically show up when you start tagging a new bookmark? How many clicks or screens does it take to rename or delete a tag? How many to edit a bookmark?

2) Groups Features: Can I create groups? Can the be private (by invite only)? I don’t want to just subscribe to other people’s stuff…I want a topic-specific group that shows me just the links my groupmates have posted.

3) Page Annotation: Can students make notes right on the webpage? Can they highlight content and make virtual sticky notes or comments on specific regions or bits of content?

4) Page Caching: Will the tool reliably save an archived copy of the text of the page? What about images, video, audio, and Flash? Does the archived copy still reference the live site in order for the media to be visible? (I tried archiving a page in Furl that had Flash content, and the archive duplicated the Flash object so I had two of them stacked on the same page. Furl also seems to look for any media content on the live site, so I’m assuming the archived copy won’t display most or some of the media if the live site goes away.)

5) Support: How supportive are the developers and the user base? If I post a message in the forum, how long does it take for someone to get back to me? How helpful are the FAQs and documentation? (Are there FAQs, for that matter?)

6) Popularity and Longevity: How popular is the tool? This is more important if you’re interested in using the tool to get recommendations from other users. It’s also helpful if you’re concerned that the tool might disappear one day.

7) Export Options: Can I get my bookmarks out of the tool in a standard format like HTML? I think all the tools I’ve tried allow this, but it’s still a good thing to check on before you invest a lot of time customizing stuff in one tool.

8) Multi-tool Bookmarking: Can I bookmark a site in the tool and simultaneously send the bookmark to my browser’s bookmarks or favorites folder and other social bookmarking tools (e.g., de.licio.us, furl, etc.)?

What’s next?

In my next post, I’ll talk about some of the social bookmarking tools I’ve tried and offer recommendations for anyone looking for a better way to save, manage and share their favorite sites.