Week 8 Thing 19

Explored Ma.gnolia from the Web 2.0 Awards List. Ma.gnolia was first in the bookmarking category. Ma.gnolia is a social bookmarking site similar to Del.icio.us. I found the site to be relatively easy to use and navigate. The tutorial and the frequently asked questions are very clear and easy to understand. I had some difficulty adding a bookmarklet to my browser. I wanted to add a Pop-up book marklet but my browser blocked pop-ups. Even though I told it to always accept pop-ups fromMa.gnolia, it did not work. So I used another type of bookmarklet (Mark and Edit in Ma.gnolia) and added it to my favorites. Mark In Ma.gnolia installed without any problems. But I would prefer not to have to go to my Favorites folder and then to the Links folder to use the bookmarklet. Pages on the site have an "Add Bookmark "widget, making it easy to add bookmarks while in their site. You can also add any bookmark found on the site by clicking on an icon under the Details of that bookmark. Ma.gnolia uses a 5 star rating system to let you know what others think about the bookmarks. It also saves copies of the web pages you bookmark. This is an advantage because you will still be able to find the web page later even if it moves. As with other bookmarking sites you can add tags to the pages and search by tags. Ma.gnolia also gives you a way to share your bookmarks one on one or in special interest groups. You can subscribe to RSS and Atom RSS feeds from the site. Although Ma.gnolia 's instructions were clearer and the site easier to navigate, Del.icio.us is easier because I have the icon for it on the tool bar of my browser. So adding book marks should be quicker with Del.icio.us. I want to spend more time comparing the two sites before I decide which one I will use.

Week 6 Thing 13

Spent lots of time exploring tagging and the Del.icio.us site this afternoon. It was really interesting to see the tags that have been used and the sites that others have bookmarked. It is certainly a benefit to be able to view your bookmarked sites from any computer. Using Del.icio.us while doing research would make it so easy to keep track of websites with pertinent information on your topic. Categorizing the sites with tags would help to organize your research sites. Also searching with tags would lead you to other sites on the same topic. While exploring, I found the unofficial tools (3rd party applications) in Del.icio.us. There are some really neat applications. I especially like Thumblicious. It shows thumbnail screenshots of popular bookmarks. I really enjoyed exploring Del.icio.us.