Social Bookmarking - Links and Tags

You might have noticed that I've started adding Technorati Tags to each of my posts as my contribution to the social bookmarking movement. Before you ask why, let me explain that I'm not even sure that I understand what the heck they're doing. But it's a cool way to look for information on sites like Technorati, where you can search the blogosphere for just about anything.

I've also started posting items to del.icio.us, which you can check out and follow yourself. Those items are also tagged.

And I have a Flickr account, where some of my pictures are tagged, although I've just started adding tags and most of them aren't there yet.

All of these sites are considered part of this Web 2.0 phenomenon, which I've written about before and plenty of others are writing about all the time. (See this Technorati Search on Web 2.0)

Despite all of the above, I don't have a great handle on what's going on, but it's fun to be playing along. Today, I came across an interesting post (thanks to BlackRimGlasses.com) which pointed me to a blog called Eirepreneur, and a post called How Social Bookmarking can lead to the Semantic Web. Talk about a lot of cool connections, and I don't even know any of those guys' names!

OK, so now we've moved from social bookmarking, which I only kind of understand, on to the semantic web, which I really don't know much about. But as I read the post, I became fascinated by the discussion. Just how do we identify, sort and act on information? What kind of markers can we use to pass along our knowledge, and can we find ways to do it that work even when we don't realize what's happening? That's what seems to be happening with Social Bookmarking. It's happening, although we aren't quite sure what "it" is.

This is a dynamic post (to coin another popular phrase.) That just means I don't have a conclusion -- I'm just watching what's going on to see where it goes. In the meantime, consider how Social Bookmarking, or Tagging, or Linking, or whatever you want to call it, might fit into your own world. And don't be afraid to start using it. It's pretty cool and you might even make some new friends along the way. Next, I'm sure we'll all be creating our own MySpace pages.

I'm sure there will be more to come in this area. And, by the way, feel free to add your own thoughts to this conversation by commenting on what I've done here.

Technorati Tag: Social Bookmarking Web 2.0