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A Del.icio.us World

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A Del.icio.us World

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by Beth Baldwin

1 What is del.icio.us?
2 Who can use del.icio.us?
3 Who had this del.icio.us idea?
4 How is del.icio.us supported?
5 Conditions of Using del.icio.us
6 Works Cited:

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What is del.icio.us?

I had the same question a few months ago. I had heard about this website called delicious and had no clue what the purpose of the site was. I decided to try it out. Del.icio.us is a social bookmarking website which bookmarks webpages to the site instead of a personal computer. This allows for sharing of the bookmarked websites on del.icio.us unless a person sets their personal bookmarks to private. On the whole it is to make it easier for a person who bookmarks many websites to organize and retrieve those sites from any computer. Del.icio.us also asks for words to “tag” your bookmark. Tagging is when a user selects words to define the bookmark so when another user searches del.icio.us those keywords will lead to your bookmark. The user who added the bookmark may have many different words to tag a particular bookmark, which makes it easier to organize bookmarks and to find later on.

"Tour Del.icio.us" by Cobotelar
http://www.youtube.com/v/BSrFYWhf_fQ

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Who can use del.icio.us?

The simple answer: anyone.

The del.icio.us idea is for anyone who does any type of searching on the Internet. Internet users who do a lot of research or just surf are the ones that frequent del.icio.us. Many use it just to keep themselves organized. It is also an easier way for users to share their websites with others, especially if it is important in their work or school. The biggest advantage is not being tied down to a specific computer. The user may use any computer to access their del.icio.us account.

An interesting example of anyone being able to use this website is some libraries are using del.icio.us to bookmark creditable websites for patrons to search. Using del.icio.us as a library tool is a way for libraries to bridge an informational gap between the library and patrons. According to an article on Library Journal’s website (http://www.libraryjournal.com) titled “Tags Help Make Libraries Del.icio.us: Social Bookmarking and tagging boost participation” many patrons know how to use sites like MySpace and Facebook which are social networking websites, but are unaware of sites like del.icio.us. Having this resource in the library not only is a benefit for the staff but for teaching the patrons about the concept of social bookmarking and the advantages to the idea. In the article, there is also mention of a website called Library Thing (http://www.librarything.com), which works similarly to del.icio.us except is specifically for cataloging and tagging books. These social sites are helping libraries come more into the new generation of information.

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Who had this del.icio.us idea?

The creator of del.icio.us is a man by the name of Joshua Schachter. He came up with the idea after he began getting websites to add to his first creation, Muxway. People kept sending him pages, he kept bookmarking those sites to his computer, and eventually figured out that he needed a way to organize them. He initially was trying to solve his own problems and figured out it was a problem others had as well. He decided to release it to the public and call it del.icio.us in 2003. He was unaware of what a big phenomenon tagging would become later on, especially with the creation of the idea of Web 2.0. According to del.icio.us’s own blog on September 26, 2006, there were 1 million registered users on del.icio.us.

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How is del.icio.us supported?

Currently del.icio.us is owned by the Yahoo! Corporation. Joshua Schachter sold del.icio.us to Yahoo! in 2005. Del.icio.us was sold for around $30 million. Del.icio.us was added to the other Web 2.0 sites Yahoo! has acquired. The have also bought out YouTube (www.youtube.com) and Flickr (www.flickr.com) both sites also use tagging to help organize and search on their websites. Even though Yahoo! now own del.icio.us, Joshua Schachter continues to be in charge of the website in New York City. All of the other eight employees of del.icio.us are scattered throughout the United States and continue to work on the site as well.

According to the Yahoo! Investor Relations website (http://yhoo.client.shareholder.com/faq.cfm) Yahoo! has 12,400 employees and they are traded on Nasdaq. Any given person can buy shares of the Yahoo! Corporation through a stockbroker. So Yahoo! is publicly traded and run by a board of directors.

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Conditions of Using del.icio.us

There are many users who access del.icio.us in their everyday life. Each of the users bookmark their own choices of websites. This makes each user responsible for themselves when viewing websites bookmarked on del.icio.us. Del.icio.us is in no way responsible for what any individual links to from their website. Del.icio.us also retains the right to remove any materials, which might be under any type of copyright, and ban any repeat offenders who post said copyrighted materials. Other users may at any time notify del.icio.us and report any type of abuse to their website. As a user registers to del.icio.us, they are now under the terms and services of del.icio.us and must abide by those terms. If a user does not agree, they may delete their account at any time with no questions asked.

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