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  • Why My Bookmarks Are Not Delicious

    By Joshua Kim August 8, 2010 5:28 pm EDT

    Eric Stoller and his discussants make a compelling case for using Delicious.

    I'm no longer a Delicious person, and was wondering why the service has lost its utility in my digital life.

    Some possibilities why I no longer use Delicious:

    The App, the iPad and the Touch: Reading content on the web feels so 2007. I don't Delicious because I don't bookmark, and I don't bookmark because I'm no longer searching for and jumping around the web looking for content. Nowadays I consume most content on my iPad or Touch, using apps such as the one from the NYTimes. The app may restrict where I go, meaning less variety but a higher quality consumption experience. I imagine that over time more of the magazines and journals I read will morph into apps, providing high quality multimedia reading and viewing experiences on portable devices. Reading the NYTimes on my Touch or iPad is better than through a browser because I'm in "lean back" consuming mode. If I'm on my browser it means that I'm on my computer, with all the attention pulls from e-mail and writing projects.

    Landing Not Searching: Do you spend much time search the web and bookmarking new places? Most of my daily web time is spent on the same few places. I scan insidehighered.com and nytimes.com/tech, with the articles and blogs basically fulfilling my daily educational technology dietary needs. The downside to this behavior is that my ed tech diet is less varied and less rich. With time not quality reading material the commodity in scarcest supply, having a daily edited digest to my professional interests becomes my default gateway to my web-based reading.

    The Blog, the Audiobook and the Podcast: Web surfing and web reading take up less time, as these activities are replaced by writing (often for the web). Less time consuming on the web means less time bookmarking. Digital consumption is also moving from browser reading to listening. I can listen to a podcast, say the NPR technology or education podcast, while doing something else (like driving, running or the dishes). With more content to consume, more opportunities to produce, and the same amount of hours in the day - we all need to find ways to do two things at once.

    Browsers Are For Collaborating and Creating, Not Consuming: My browser time is spent on Blackboard, in Basecamp, or on Google Docs. All collaborative and creative spaces, none of which are appropriate for bookmarking and Delicious.

    Do you Delicious?

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Comments on Why My Bookmarks Are Not Delicious

  • Posted by glen on August 8, 2010 at 7:45pm EDT

  • I find my self using the tagging function in Google Reader much more than Delicious. Or if I need to store links to academic documents I use Zotero.

  • And one more reason
  • Posted by Andy Shaindlin at Alumni Futures on August 8, 2010 at 8:15pm EDT

  • Good observations, especially the collaborative aspect (last point). When I do bookmark, I no longer use Delicious, having switched in the last year to Diigo. Annotation, forwarding and blog integration are all aspects of Diigo that make it more functional for social bookmarking than Delicious.

  • Posted by Russ on August 9, 2010 at 4:15am EDT

  • I found reading (sorry, "consuming that content") to be a bizarre experience. "So 2007"? "higher quality consumption experience"? I think Nicholas Carr may have been right after all.

  • I must be so 2007!
  • Posted by Steve , Professor of Economics at University of Mary Washington on August 9, 2010 at 8:00am EDT

  • I use delicious to categorize things I read or otherwise find for courses I teach. I have a delicious tag for each course. Those content streams are sent out via RSS to the appropriate websites for each of my courses. This makes it easy for me to "grab" news articles and other content that I discover through my normal reading which are relevant to my courses. Prior to social bookmarking, I would often think "This would be good for such and such a course." Sometimes I would even save a copy of the article, but the process was time-consuming and not very efficient. Only occasionally did the content actually make it to my students. The new process is painless, and almost effortless. Most importantly, my students get a regular stream of new content which is usually more interesting than the textbook. Like fine wine, not all things old are inferior. If this makes me so-2007, so be it! ;-)

  • Moved to Evernote
  • Posted by Brenda , Director, UMKC Women's Center at University of Missouri-Kansas City on August 9, 2010 at 8:30am EDT

  • I used to use Delicious, but have found myself using it less and less once I started using Evernote over the summer. On Evernote, I can save not just links, but also files, notes to myself, emails, etc. Having everything in one place is easier so I'm in the process of moving my Delicious links over to Evernote.

  • Posted by Barbara Fister on August 9, 2010 at 10:15am EDT

  • I use Delicious because I often see something I want to return to and think about more or something I suspect I will want to share with colleagues or students. I take notes there on what I think when I first read the piece. I could use Diigo or Evernote (or Zotero and keep track of all kinds of things), but Delicious works for me at the moment and is the simplest to manage.

    I'm bemused by the dialectic between consuming (reading) and producing (writing) - they're much more connected in my habits.

  • Posted by Monica Berger , Library at NYC College of Technology, CUNY on August 9, 2010 at 12:15pm EDT

  • I've scarcely used Delicious since I've discovered Evernote and Dropbox. I generally print web content to .pdf and then download to subfolders under "to read" in Dropbox.

  • Revealing too much of my tech inadequacy
  • Posted by Beth on August 9, 2010 at 1:00pm EDT

  • HELP! I have just begun using delicious after my computer got a virus and our IT department wiped my hard drive without backing up 4 years worth of bookmarks... but it was my first tiptoe into this sort of thing. I am a "dead tree" reader. I have books on shelves in my office. And I saw my bookmarks on my computer the same way -- things I went back to over and over for new insight (OWL at Purdue, Chicago Manual of Style, various sites in my field...). So I am asking all of you for comments on the strengths and weakness of various options before I work too hard on delicious only to discover something better...

  • Another vote for Diigo
  • Posted by zelda on August 9, 2010 at 2:15pm EDT

  • Diigo is the way to go. Get an educational account, and thereby minimize the ads you see.

    Diigo can bookmark, highlight, annotate, and is full-functioned for social uses (in classrooms, research groups, etc.).

  • Another Diigo user
  • Posted by Cherie , Associate Professor, Communications Department at Hawkeye Community College on August 9, 2010 at 4:45pm EDT

  • I used to have a Delicious account, too, but found myself not using it as often. I have just recently begun using Diigo and am fascinated with the possibilities it offers for posting notes and photos as well as links. I look forward to showing it to my students this fall.

    I was very intrigued to read Joshua's account of how his Ipad has changed his reading/browsing habits online. However, for those of us not blessed with an Ipad, it's still handy to make note of good resources. And, as I move from home to work, from a desk top PC to my Dell netbook on the go to my office computer and the classroom, it's helpful to have information that I can access regardless of which computer I'm using.

  • Depressing
  • Posted by Jim on August 12, 2010 at 8:15am EDT

  • I do try and keep up with your blog, but the unabashed "I consumer via apple products now" seems to be any but about the internet and teaching and learning online. I mean, what if i stood in front of a class and said "There are a lot of great resources on the web, but given there are no apps for them, I only read the NYT and Wired." I mean come on, this is nuts---and I really think you have not only overstated the value of these devices, but your becoming a rather transparent booster for them. Very weird, aren't we, as instructional technologist and professors, supposed to occupy a critical position in regards to technology for teaching and learning, and shouldn't your role as a blogger/journalist for Inside HigherEd demand a bit more application of those critical skills?

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