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What is social bookmarking?

Social bookmarking involves saving bookmarks online so you can access them from any computer as well as share them with others. There are several websites that allow you to do this: Furl, Backflip, ma.gnolia, and del.icio.us. Del.icio.us (now owned by Yahoo!) is one of the most popular ones. When you register with del.icio.us you have the option of installing special browser buttons that allow you to add any page you visit to your online bookmark collection without having to go to the del.icio.us site.

Del.icio.us also supports importing bookmarks from most web browsers, so if you already have a collection of bookmarks on your computer you don’t have to start from scratch when you set up a del.icio.us account. Once you have added bookmarks to your del.icio.us account (either by posting or by importing), you can use tags and bundles to organize your bookmarks into categories. The use of tags is a key feature of most social bookmarking sites. Tags are similar to keywords you can use to browse or search your bookmark collection.

Del.icio.us makes it easy to share your bookmarks. You can build a network of other del.icio.us users you want to share bookmarks with, or you can use the built-in RSS feed to share your bookmarks with anyone on the Web.

This brief guide (PDF) covers the basics of using del.icio.us to save and organize your bookmarks online.

See It In Action

These movies require Quicktime Player.

  • Registering for an Account (1m51s, 2.5 MB)
    This movie shows how to register for a del.icio.us account so you can start saving your bookmarks online and sharing them with others.

  • Saving Bookmarks (2m04s, 2.4 MB)
    This movie shows you how to save bookmarks to your del.icio.us account by using a special browser button or by entering the URL on the del.icio.us website.

  • Tags (1m22s, 1.7 MB)
    Learn all about tags in del.icio.us. Tags are labels you can use to organize your bookmarks in del.icio.us so you can find them later.

  • Bundles (1m4s, 1.6 MB)
    This movie shows you how to use bundles to organize your tags into categories.

  • Managing Bundles (1m, 1.5 MB)
    This movie shows you how to remove tags from a bundle and how to rename and delete bundles.

  • Managing Tags (39s, 900 KB)
    Learn how to rename and delete tags.

  • Importing Bookmarks (1m13s, 2.1 MB)
    This movie shows you how to import your bookmarks from your web browser into del.icio.us so you can access them from multiple computers.

  • Accessing Bookmarks (1m1s, 1.5 MB)
    There are several ways to access your bookmarks. The easiest is by using the special "my del.icio.us" browser button. This movie shows you how to access your account using your browser's address bar, including how to access individual tags or a set of tags.

  • Del.icio.us RSS Feeds (55s, 1.3 MB)
    One of the best features of del.icio.us is that it automatically creates RSS feeds for most pages. This movie shows you how to access those feeds.

  • Changing del.icio.us Privacy Settings (50s, 1.3 MB)
    By default, del.icio.us bookmarks are public (except for imported bookmarks). This movie shows you how to change your privacy settings.

  • Adding Users to Your Network (29s, 752 KB)
    Del.icio.us allows you to add other users to your network so that you can share bookmarks with them. This movie shows you how to add someone to your network.

  • Adding Users to Your Network-Part 2 (30s, 780 KB)
    This movie shows you another way to add a user to your network, while you are on their del.icio.us page. It also shows you how to remove users from your network.

  • Network Privacy Settings (24s, 556 KB)
    This movie shows you how to block other people from seeing who is in your network.

  • Using the for: Tag (33s, 796 KB)
    This movie shows you how to share a bookmark with another user with a special for: tag.

  • Using Subscriptions (30s, 736 MB)
    This movie shows you how to subscribe to a tag in del.icio.us. You can subscribe to multiple tags in del.icio.us. By subscribing to a tag, you can track all bookmarks saved with that tag in del.icio.us.

  • Adding Bookmarks to a Website (1m14s, 1.9 MB)
    Learn how to add your del.icio.us bookmarks to a website or blog. This movie shows you how to create a linkroll.

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Tech-Ease for Mac is your source for just-in-time answers for classroom technology questions. A companion Tech-Ease for Windows site is also available. This collection is a part of the Educational Technology Clearinghouse and is funded in part by a grant from the Florida Department of Education. Copyright 2008 by the Florida Center for Instructional Technology, College of Education, University of South Florida.