STA travelbuzz’s Best Travel Tools: Social bookmarking
I’ve always found social bookmarking a particularly clumsy term, but this is what La Internet has decided to name sites such as Digg, del.icio.us and StumbleUpon. They provide, according to the great Wikipedia in the sky:
a method for Internet users to store, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web pages on the Internet with the help of metadata… users save links to web pages that they want to remember and/or share
The key word here really is share. With these sites, you bookmark whole blogs or single articles you like, but your faves also get flagged up on theie homepage for all to see (under categories such as travel), so people can come to trust your wise judgement in matters of internet excellence and follow your recommendations. The more kudos you gain, the more people are likely to Digg or StumbleUpon your own writing, in a variant of the link love that everyone in social media craves.
Which means that it’s well worth spending a bit of time rating other blogs and posts you enjoy, and also putting a handy little ’share’ or ‘bookmark’ button on your own site so others can rate you. The AddThis button is a good option, as it includes all the main social bookmarking sites in one neat badge.
STA Explorer Stevo has been experimenting with social bookmarking; have a look at his latest post where social bookmarking helps him discover some inventive travel photography. And obviously, don’t forget to StumbleUpon his own article if you like his style. Love begats love, people.
