Del.icio.us (Exercise #13)

I found del.icio.us really easy to set up. I've already starting adding links to the page I created . I really like that I can bundle stuff into different categories based on the tags I used, so I can have sections for work, wedding planning, and hobbies/political interests. I like the fact that I'll be able to look at my bookmarks no matter what computer I'm on. I've always found it frustrating when I've changed computers having to redo all my bookmarks.

It can definitely help with research because it can help you remember where you found good information. Plus you can add notes so you can remember why you liked it. I can see it being as useful for researchers as the citation management programs, like RefWorks. Our library has links under our electronic databases and other resources that allow people to add them to their del.icio.us accounts. It's set up so it automatically takes the user to our off-campus proxy log-in. They log-in, and they can see any of our sites.

I thought it was interesting to see what sites had been bookmarked by a lot of different users. I think seeing that a site has been considered useful by a lot of people and reading their comments can help people decide whether or not they want to use a certain website (kind of like reading people's reviews on amazon before deciding whether or not to buy a book). It certainly shouldn't replace the other methods we stress that people should use to evaluate websites, but I think it could be another tool that people use.