The Horizon

When I first become obsessed with the internet I was very hesitant to try social bookmarking.  At the time, the only one that I had access to was del.icio.us.  I would sometimes end up on their website and get pretty flustered.  This initial learning curve is what turned me on at first.  All of that information stored in such a simple interface.  It was quite beautiful but I needed some learning before I could fully utilize the services.

The unique design scheme of social bookmarking is what attracts and deters people.  Social bookmarking has turned “tagging” into a near art form that has been gobbled up by anyone interested in creating a more powerful user interface for their web application or service.

Tagging allows for incredible customization.   Firstly, it does not constrain users as to what ways they can differentiate the content they are interested in.  For instance, let’s say that Jimmy wants to collect articles for learning the Python programming language.  Anytime he finds a website that serves this usage, he can add it to his social bookmarking webapp.  When he is asked to tag the website, he — the user — decides how he wants to organize his content.  Instead of a site giving him the popular ratings and usage of Python tutorials, he has the ability to set up experience levels (’beginner,’ ‘intermediate,’ and ‘advanced’) or perhaps tagging what particular aspect of Python is discussed in the article.  This allows social bookmarking sites to maintain near infinite versatility without the need for deciding what users will want to organize their content under.  Part of me wonders if the inventor of this versatile tagging interface was focusing on the DRY principle way too much and just coded a way for each tag to have a view of its own, but that’s besides the point: it’s a gorgeous use of technology and after I become acquainted with its ways, have become fully involved with social bookmarking, almost to the point of insanity. Continue Reading »