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Social bookmarking. |
A background to social bookmarking |
Where did it all start |
Although search engines remain the most popular means of finding information, people are growing increasingly disenchanted by the need to search through pages of “junk” in order to get to the data they need. They are forced to sift through substandard entries for sites that understand how to “fool” or “game” the search engine.
Social bookmarking was originally known as ‘Folksonomy’ which refers to the construction of open-ended organization systems that allow multiple internet users to sort web sites and their elements. Imagine a directory, but instead of relying on one person’s or team’s assessment of how things should be sorted, any participating user may influence the pattern.
In a folksonomy, individual categories are created by the use of 'tags'. Users sort online material and tag it based on its composition. Tags are roughly the equivalent of keywords, if one prefers to look at them from a “search engine” model. They are simple descriptors indicating what the post or page is about.
A site about “Help-me-park.com Gatwick meet and greet airport parking” might be tagged “Help-me-park.com” “Gatwick Parking” “meet & greet parking,” etc.The folksonomic or bookmarking system, just like the search engine, is constantly evolving. The difference is that the folksonomic alternatives grow from the bottom-up, with real users influencing outcomes and values.
Search engines evolve from the top-down with programmers attempting to find new ways to stay ahead of Webmaster efforts to exploit algorithms and in hopes of providing relevant information. The search engine’s programming determines relevance in that model.
With folksonomy, the will and opinions of participants makes the difference, for example, if I ask my trusted friend if he knows a good building contractor, he tells me and I trust his opinion - he has ‘tagged’ the builder |
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Social Bookmarking’s History |
Social bookmarking refers to the process of organizing content using tags. It is an outgrowth of folksonomic thinking. Those who have only recently discovered social bookmarking may be surprised to know that the idea is over a decade old.
Sharing ones’ bookmarks online began in 1996. A variety of sites attempted to grab market share in the social bookmarking field, offering opportunities for people to create bookmark “tags” that could be shared with others.
Unfortunately, the quest to grab users was not accompanied by an understanding of how to make their participation profitable. When the dot-com bubble burst, fledgling social bookmarking sites were among the casualties. |
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After the Bust |
The dot-com bust may have beaten social bookmarking, but it didn’t stay down for long. In 1997, the introduction of del.icio.us brought the concept back to life. The del.icio.us site allowed for the importation of an individual’s bookmarks (‘tagging’), making them visible to all participants. The site was well received and developed an instant following.
Not only were people able to use the service as a means of finding information, they were also empowered to help shape how others might find information. The growth of del.icio.us demonstrated just how popular social bookmarking could be.
There was a cooperative and communal mindset on the part of many participants, who found themselves enjoying the opportunity to use peers as gatekeepers, instead of relying upon computer search engine results. |
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Social Bookmarking’s Future |
Today, we continue to see a constant injection of new ideas into the social bookmarking field. These sites are constantly evolving and improving.
Social bookmarking continues to evolve based on user needs and participations. It truly has become a grassroots tool of information organization and discovery. Even more exciting, most experts on the subject don’t believe social bookmarking is close to reaching its high water mark. In fact, the unprecedented level of multi-party involvement may imbue it with evolutionary capabilities that never render it outmoded.
Many of today’s social bookmarking sites also utilize a search-engine style interface to allow for simple information access. Although these are often tag-driven, some have also begun to use algorithms designed to make inferences from the tags and how they might relate to other tags.
Those who advocate for a more pure form of folksonomy might not appreciate the use of pre-programmed decision making in the social bookmarking arena, but users often find the “engines” to be helpful tools as they search for information.
Social bookmarking allows web users to be the judge of a good web site; it is conceivable that social bookmarks will in the future bare relevance to rankings within search engines. Many people believe that with the uncontrollable growth of the internet it is only via systems where individuals can truly rank a web site that we can hope to receive the information that we all crave. Social bookmarking systems are a way to achieve this in some degree. |
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Words from Help-me-park.com - for the benefits of search engines our web product http://www.help-me-park.com is loaded with key words such as ‘ gatwick airport parking’ , ‘gatwick meet & greet parking’, whilst every effort has been made to make the content remain readable we at help-me-park.com must feed the hungry search engines with a 3 course meal of keywords. It is a vicious circle but we are dedicated to giving our customers the best service and the best web site we can.
To this end we hope our customers will take time to bookmark our site and expose our service to others. We cannot tell you what to write about us , so our service and web site will be our only measure of your comment. If you are happy please tell others - if you are not please tell us first - we do actually care what our customers think. |
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