Save every Web site: best bookmarking tools
What if you could save every single Web site you like with the click of a button? Of course, you already can; these three great bookmarking services stand out from the crowd.
By Elsa Wenzel (September 28, 2006)
The best way to collect cool Web sites used to be to save them to your browser‘s menu of bookmarks or favorites. But the more you saved, the easier it was to lose track of the pages within an ever-growing list of folders. Thankfully, the
Web 2.0 generation of bookmarking tools is more sophisticated and simpler to use. Now you can save long lists of favorite sites online and tag them with topics for easy searches. You can either keep those bookmarks to yourself or put them in the public eye and see what other people save.
We focused on three standouts. The text-simple interface and tech-friendliness of Del.icio.us has won over 1 million users, though newbies may wish it felt a little more fun. Because it‘s the most popular, however, Del.icio.us can show you that lots of folks are chuckling over, say, a baby toupee site this week.
Windows Live Favorites‘ options for social networking are limited to integration with Windows Live Spaces. We like that Favorites‘ colorful interface can display bookmarked pages. Microsoft‘s tool organizes your bookmarks with subject tags as well as folders.
Diigo is the most useful tool for take-it-with-you research. It not only organizes and tags bookmarks, it also lets you mark up Web pages as you would a paperback book--with sticky notes, highlights, and comments--then share those notes with others.
Other noteworthy bookmarking services include StumbleUpon, a dangerous time killer if you‘re trying to work. Click the StumbleUpon toolbar button, and it throws random Web sites your way; save and rate worthwhile pages yourself. StumbleUpon lets you fill out a detailed personal profile, as does
Blue Dot, whose popular tags include design and music--and which can be fed into your MySpace profile.
eSnips is another neat bookmarking/social-networking hybrid.
There‘s a lot of overlap between bookmarking tools, RSS readers, and news aggregators. In general, turn to bookmarking tools to store sites for the long term. RSS readers, such as
Bloglines, deliver the latest news.
Aggregators such as
Digg are handy for rating and finding motley news and Web sites held in high esteem by other people. And if you want to pool together content old and new, you can make a custom home page with a service such as My Yahoo,
Netvibes,
Jeteye or Windows Live.com.
Del.icio.usWindows Live FavoritesDiigoStorage 5MB 2MB (1,500 items) Unknown
Organize by Tags, labels, groups Tags, folders Tags
Browser required Any Internet Explorer, Firefox Any
Import bookmarks from Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Flock beta Internet Explorer, Firefox, Del.icio.us Internet Explorer, Firefox, Del.icio.us
Interface Text; some small thumbnails Text; shows bookmarked sites within the window Text
How to delete bookmarks One by one One by one or select with the Ctrl key One by one or select all on page
How to change tags Rename either one by one or with a bulk replacement Rename one by one Rename one by one
Social networking features See and subscribe to other users‘ feeds Integrates with Windows Live Spaces See and subscribe to other users‘ feeds; share annotated Web pages
How to add bookmarks from your browser Bookmarklet, third-party extensions Bookmarklet, toolbars for Internet Explorer; built in to Flock beta browser Bookmarklets, toolbars for IE, Firefox, and Flock beta
Take notes on bookmarked pages No No Yes, highlight text or add Sticky Notes and Comments
Search bookmarks Tags, URL, site name Tags, URL, site name Tags, URL, site name, comments, text on bookmarked Web pages
Ways to manage duplicate tags Group; do a bulk replace Arrange in folders Group; do a bulk replace
Bookmark simultaneously to other services Use extension such as Foxylicious to sync with Firefox Bookmarks Use Windows Live Toolbar to sync with IE Favorites Yes, to browser and Del.icio.us, Yahoo My Web, and seven other services
Post bookmarked content to blog Link rolls, tag rolls, badges Link rolls Link rolls, comments to WordPress, Blogger, LiveJournal, TypePad, Movable Type, Windows Live Spaces
Del.icio.usWindows Live FavoritesDiigoRead the CNET editor‘s take
