When the del.icio.us team recently added social networking features, I kind of groaned to myself. I didn’t look at it very closely because I was busy and half feared that I’d discover a case of annoying social software and that would make me sad.
When a fellow Yahoo suggested that I put a del.icio.us network badge on my blog, I groaned to myself again. I don’t “do” JavaScript badges on my site (for a number of reasons that I may write about later). If you look closely, you won’t find any. (AdSense doesn’t count!) But that forced me to look into this “network” though enough to put an “add me to your del.icio.us network” link under my linkblog in the sidebar.
I’m not sure if anyone even noticed it, but I’ve somehow managed to attract about 100 “fans” on del.icio.us. That’s cool and all, but what I’m really digging is that people in my network are staring to tag things for:jzawodn. That means the links show up on my my “links for you” page.
This is turning out to be way more interesting than I first expected. Now when people come across something that’s “interesting” but not essential for me to see, they can note that and go on with life. No need to IM or email me. Eventually I’ll see it. Probably. Maybe.
This sort of lossy (or disposable?) link sharing is great for cutting down on inbox and IM clutter. And the unobtrusive implementation works in a way that doesn’t ruin del.icio.us by trying to turn it into the next great social networking thingamagoo.
Bookmark murdok:
Jeremy Zawodny is the author of the popular Jeremy Zawodny’s blog. Jeremy is part of the Yahoo search team and frequently posts in the Yahoo! Search blog as well.
Visit Jeremy’s blog: Jeremy Zawodny’s blog.
