Some things never change. You would think that with Del.icio.us, Google Bookmarks and all the other social bookmarking initiatives, nobody would be doing it the old fashioned way with, you know, actual bookmarks. But AddThis tracks what people do on a huge collection of websites. They offer a simple yet powerful widget that makes it easier to share URLs with bookmarking services. Because they do this they can provides statistics about the bookmarking and sharing activity of users.
More people now share URLs via Facebook than Del.icio.us. But Bookmarks or Favorites, are back, stealing the first position from Google Bookmarks. And yes, they mean “browser bookmarking”. Actual bookmarks, in browsers.
Interestingly enough Facebook has just taken the third spot away from Del.icio.us.
Top Bookmarking/Sharing – October 2007
I think we can look at this as yet another reality check. While we, the Web 2.0 industry, think that everybody is doing the ‘web thing’ just as sophisticated as us, most people are still using the tools they’re familiar with. And IF they’re are using a tool, it’s.., of course, Facebook.
say no more; our commercial ‘boss’ always (and I mean always) looks up the firm he is actually working for using…Google;-)
One must keep in mind that del.icio.us have made an active commitment to social bookmarking. It seems to me that therefore almost all users will have a bookmarklet, browser extension or something similar installed. I think it would be more interesting to ask why people would choose the “addthis” button over the “del.icio.us” button they have installed in their browser.
The fact that this service caters to relatively inexperienced users also helps explain why the “favorites” option is still so popular. Bookmarking blog posts (isn’t that where addthis buttons mainly appear in?) in local, hierarchical storage really doesn’t scale.
Now I do believe that Facebook can make inroads, both for new users and experienced bookmarkers who want to share a link with “all” their friends instead of just their del.icio.us network.
http://www.my-favorite-websites.com/ is nice as well, nice and simple with no faff.
I use http://www.vizited.com. I love the design of the website. It does exactly what it promisses: your bookmarks made izi! Bookmarks are saved as thumbnails, you can tag and search and even share it with your friends.
It’s still in beta, but the makers listen very carefully to wishes and feedback from users. So send in you wishes and find them implemented in the next update.
Check it out. I can recommend it.