I'd never been the hugest fan of del.icio.us, the social bookmarking web site. For those not "in the know," del.icio.us is a barebones web site that allows you to bookmark (or "save") web pages online, so that you can access your bookmarks on any computer connected to the Internet. For example, say you're surfing the web at home, and you use del.icio.us to bookmark a link on landlord-tenant law. Then, the next day at work, if you want that bookmark, you just visit your del.icio.us web page, and there's the link for your reference.
You can also tag links, i.e., describe them in your own words. So you might tag that landlord-tenant law link as: landlordtenant, realproperty, work, ClientABC. (One huge drawback with del.icio.us is that your tags have to be one "word," i.e., no spaces.)
Through del.icio.us, not only do you have a new tool in your mobile office, but you also have a catalog of all your links for "ClientABC." Or a library of useful links related to "landlordtenant." It helps organize things and also, if you're working with others, to share information.
Also, you can mark private links as "do not share," so they're only available under your login. Good thing to note to protect client privacy over your research.
There may be more robust bookmarking tools, but del.icio.us is stable (technically and corporately--they're owned by Yahoo!), easy to use, and the web standard. Try it out; it's usefulness will ultimately outweigh it's clunkiness.
(Photo courtesy of Flickr: cote)
No comments:
Post a Comment