The positive side of living with information overload is that we have all become accustomed to making informed decisions (or at least having the option to make an informed decision).   We also have the option to use a variety of tools to help us make informed decisions.  “The right tool for the right job” applies to information management just as it does to construction projects.  The needs of the job influence which tool is appropriate and the needs of the person using the tool influence which tool is appropriate.

Bookmarking applications were created to aid us in our web based information overload.  Bookmarks within the browser are sufficient for some folks but others have different needs and different preferences.  They tend to gather a good deal of urls, often with the need to share, organize or place notes with the bookmarks.  Some users want all of these things.  Some only want a few.

Below is a table of the most popular bookmarking applications today.  By itself, the table may not tell us much but combined with general knowledge regarding popularity of the sites, we can ascertain which ones are likely to stick around and in which populations.

Bookmarking Sites

Delicious may not have the incredible Alexa Traffic Rank that Digg has but those who use it are completely addicted to it.  Delicioust ranking #1 in the 100 Tools for Learning tells us educators like it.  The list is compiled from the contributions of 189 learning professionals (from both education and workplace learning).  They had shared their Top 10 Tools for Learning both for their own personal learning/ productivity and for creating learning solutions for others (last updated August 12 2008).

The highest acclaim I found from the academic community for a bookmarking tool came from Jo Guldi, a PhD student at the University of California, Berkeley.  She uses Delicious.com to not only organize her bookmarks but also to find interesting resources.  For her, the social piece of Delicious is very important.  She finds great value in being able to view the bookmarks of her connections.

And with the library community, based upon the libsuccess.org wiki which is chock full of great content for librarians, the bookmarking tool of choice is again delicious.com.

Now, we must keep in mind that both of those testimonials were placed in 2007 and we all know how quickly the landscape changes on the internet.  If we look at our table, the new kid on the block is Jeteye.  Jeteye’s recent Alexa 3 month traffic rank change makes one take notice.  Because the Jeteye structure encourages multimedia (and is super easy with the drag and drop functionality), I expect the more visually acute wanting to share their online findings to gravitate toward Jeteye.   Because Jeteye is so visually focused, the popularity of Jeteye will depend entirely upon attracting users less concerned with saving and sharing text links than saving and sharing pictures, videos or graphically focused websites.

And for those less graphically focused, the choice will be StumbleUpon.  Super easy.  And with an added feature of providing you sites it assumes you will like based upon other sites you have given the thumbs up or thumbs down.  But again this is where the user is important.  The user will be someone either who values other’s opinions, likes to provide input to an online community or both.  Not all users fall into that category.

Right tool.  Right job.  Right user?

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 6th, 2008 at 7:03 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.