Thing 11 - Tagging and Del.icio.us

I think tagging is a great idea. I have been tagging my posts and photos all along, and I can really see the benefit of doing so, especially in a social setting, where the labels can help others understand what you think your post/photos/bookmarked sites are about, and why you think they are important.

I had been aware of del.icio.us for quite a while, and I always thought it was pretty cool as a place to save one's bookmarked sites--a really nifty little tool. It was great to learn more about the concept of using tagging to make it a powerful search tool, as well.

I set up my del.icio.us (by the way, I find the spelling of the name quite a little irritating) account and proceeded to mark and tag some of my currently bookmarked sites. I ran into a technical difficulty of some kind, maybe due to the enhanced security of IE 7.0 (which I recently started running). The glitch prevents me from simply tapping on the "tag" button to mark a site; all that happens when I do so is that a "zip" kind of sound is produced. The only way I found to bookmark a site was to check the "del.icio.us" button menu for "more about this page." In addition to getting the bookmarking history of that particular page, I'm offered the chance to bookmark it for myself. If no one has bookmarked the page, I'm out of luck--I can't bookmark it, either.

I tried adjusting my security settings, allowing pop-up windows from del.icio.us, etc., all to no avail. I read all of the help pages and FAQs at del.icio.us, and then finally sent their support people a note requesting advice. I just received a very nice automated response, and I am to hear back from them within 24 hours. I will post again when I do.

Despite my initial difficulties using the product, I am excited about really using it. On a personal level, it will allow even greater organization of my bookmarked sites as well as insight into other sites that might be useful to me.

I like what libraries are doing with del.icio.us. I think that the tagging ability can be very helpful to reference librarians and patrons alike. Once the initial learning takes place, del.icio.us seems to be an easy and quick way to locate sites that have been scrutinized for accuracy, authority, and applicability to the need of the user.