I’m probably a typical web user. Whenever I see a website page or a blog post that has something interesting, I’ll bookmark it in Firefox (or add it to favorites in Internet Explorer).
That’s the traditional way of keeping track of content out there you want to refer to again.
What if you want to share your bookmarks? Not easy with a standard Firefox or IE installation without add-ins or plug-ins. And adding links in two separate browsers is a real pain.
That’s where del.icio.us comes in.
If you’re a del.icio.us and Firefox user, you’ll love what’s new with this social bookmarking service. Take a look at this screenshot of my del.icio.us account page:
Notice the left hand sidebar – your tags and your bookmarks of everything you’ve posted to your del.icio.us account. Similar to Firefox so far (well, except the tags).
Now look at the top of the screenshot and notice some new icons next to the address bar – one marked ‘tag’ and the other the del.icio.us logo – as well as a new del.icio.us toolbar above the Google one.
That’s where this gets really interesting and extremely useful.
The folks at del.icio.us have just made your bookmarking and tagging far more useful by integrating Firefox and del.icio.us through a new plug-in.
So instead of having your Firefox bookmarks and a separate set of sharable bookmarks on del.icio.us, you can combine the two into a single set of bookmarks at del.icio.us which you can choose to share or not. Plus you can access those bookmarks from any computer connected to the net, using any browser.
Of course, you don’t have to integrate your Firefox bookmarks – you can install the plug-in and still keep things separate. I can see where you might want to do this, eg, if you have things like online banking or other sensitive links in your Firefox bookmarks.
The good news is you can be selective re which Firefox bookmarks you integrate with del.icio.us, so removing any concerns about your sensitive links.
Once you have things set up at del.icio.us, you can then manipulate the links and how they’re displayed. Sort in alphabetical order. Sort your tags the same way or entirely differently. Other options to help you efficiently manage your links. You can export them and save a backup file on your computer.
This is a terrific tool! For me, it also means that finally I will get to use del.icio.us far more extensively than I have to date. Be better organized. No more adding to static bookmarks.
If you’re not yet a del.icio.us user, this will surely tempt you and bring you into the world of tagging and sharing the content you find valuable.
[Edit] One thing I didn’t spot until just now – a new menu item in Firefox squeezed between ‘History’ and ‘Bookmarks’ that shows all your del.iciou.us content just like the traditional Firefox bookmarks list, but also with a choice that displays all your content by their tags.
From here, you can also manage your deli.icio.us network, your subscriptions, import bookmarks, and a bunch of other things.
Oh this is so useful!
