Top 10 Ways to Use del.icio.us
Del.icio.us is an excellent system for archiving your favorite information from across the Net, tracking hot topics, and discovering new and useful sites. The power of del.icio.us comes in the form of it’s “collective intelligence”, which is constantly adding, reviewing, and filtering new information.
The community of del.icio.us allows you to find some of the best resources on the Internet without having to trudge through all of the junk.
It also gives you a centralized management system for organizing information from around the Net. However, many people are unaware of it’s complete list of features and valuable add-ons.
Here are 10 ways that you can use del.icio.us to its full potential.
1. Del.icio.us Firefox Extension
Del.icio.us Firefox Extension should be the number-one del.icio.us tool on your list. It allows you to quickly and easily add sites you like to del.icio.us with a bookmarklet. This tool puts a “My del.icio.us” button at the top of your browser, allowing you to view your save pages at the click of a button.
It also adds a “Tag this” button to the top of your browser, which allows you to bookmark websites while you’re browsing the Web.
If you use Internet Explorer, download this Internet Explorer Extension.
This Firefox Extension has saved me tons of keyboard time.
2. Desktop Shortcut for Delicious
Having to visit the del.icio.us website each time you want to access your bookmarks can be a time-consuming process. Why not plug your bookmarks into your desktop for easy access. You can do this with Delwin for Windows and Delibar for the Mac.
3. Increase Your Search Powers.
There are a variety of ways to search del.icio.us.
To view bookmarks tagged with a specific keyword, type in:
http://del.icio.us/tag/keyword
To view bookmarks tagged with two or more keywords, type in:
http://del.icio.us/tag/keyword+keyword
So for example, if I wanted to look for sites about organization and GTD, I would type in:
http://del.icio.us/tag/organization+GTD
If I wanted to narrow the search even further, I could include four terms:
http://del.icio.us/tag/organization+GTD+office+tools
If you are looking for the most popular sites in any category, than simply type in:
http://del.icio.us/rss/popular/TAGNAME
So if you are trying to find the most popular sites related to GTD, you would type in:
http://del.icio.us/rss/popular/GTD
4. Bookmark from Google Reader
If you’re a fan of Google Reader, then you’ll definitely want to start using Google Reader + del.icio.us. This is a Greasemonkey script that puts an “add to del.icio.us” button at the bottom of each post in Google Reader. With a single click, you will be able to transfer interesting posts from Google Reader into your del.icio.us bookmark collection.
5. Bundle Your Tags
Does your tag cloud look like a huge, disorganized mess. Bundle those tags into related categories for easy access. To organize your tags into bundles, click on the “Settings” link in the top right-hand corner.
From this page, click on “bundle tags” under the tags heading and start creating your own bundles.
Of course, if you’re not into the whole bundling idea, then you can always just use the search box in the upper right hand corner of del.icio.us.
If you want to limit your search to specific tags, then use the prefix “tag:”. An example for all you productivity junkies might be “tag:gtd”.
6. Newsmasher
Here’s a cool Greasemonkey script called Newsmasher that places a small “del.icio.us” tag on the upper left corner of your browser. When clicked, a small window appears displaying what del.icio.us users are writing about the page you are viewing.
This is a great way to get some quick feedback on any website you’re visiting. Quickly find out if people are giving it a virtual “thumbs up” or “thumbs down”.
7. Use the Inbox
Navigate to http://del.icio.us/inbox. Here you can subscribe to various tags or specific users. This is an excellent way to discover new sites that you may enjoy. It almost reminds me a bit of StumbleUpon. Based on the preferences you submit, you will be given a flow of new items to check out.
8. A variety of del.icio.us Uses
You can use del.icio.us in a number of exciting and interesting ways. Here are a few examples
to get you started:
- Bookmark movies you want to see
- Travel planning
- Bookmark books you want to read
- Bookmark things you want to blog about
- Research
9. Publish Your del.icio.us Bookmarks on Your Website.
In addition to all that, you can also share your latest del.icio.us bookmarks on your websites for all of your readers to enjoy. You can do this using Linkrolls and Tagrolls.
Linkrolls display your latest del.icio.us bookmarks while tagrolls display all of your del.icio.us tags in a tag cloud.
You can see these unique features in action at this blog . His bookmarks are on the left and his tags are on the right.
10. Creative Tagging
My final tip is based on a bit of creative tagging. For my most important tags, I place an “@” in front of them. This moves them up to the very top of my tag list. So, for example, for books that I want to read in the future, I have a tag labeled @books. This simple trick allows me to place my most important tags at the very top of the tag list.
If you know of any other del.icio.us tips, please add them in the comments.
Kim Roach is a productivity junkie who blogs regularly at The Optimized Life. Read her articles on 50 EssentialGTD Resources, How to Have a 46 Hour Day, Do You Need
a Braindump, What They Don’t Teach You in School, andFree Yourself From the Inbox.
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Comments
Drew says on May 24th, 2007 at 10:50 am
Great post. I am a huge del.icio.us fan.
I tag websites that i think my friends might like with their initials (or if their nickname is small and unique i’ll use that). I also have little pages for my close friends on my website that spits out a list of the 20 most recent sites that i’ve tagged for them… sort of a geeky way of letting them know that i am thinking of them.
Kim Roach says on May 24th, 2007 at 11:45 am
Hey Drew,
That’s a very cool way to use del.icio.us.
Thanks for the tip!
Stephen says on May 24th, 2007 at 2:20 pm
Great tips. FYI, there has been a major update to the official del.icio.us extension:
http://del.icio.us/help/firefox/extensionnew
It adds a number of major new features, including storing and searching your del.icio.us bookmarks from inside Firefox, as well as a new toolbar for quick access to your favorite tags.
fubek says on May 24th, 2007 at 3:04 pm
When I am in “scanning mode” browsing the web, I tag stuff that I want to save for later reading with the tag “2read”.
Archaeogeek says on May 24th, 2007 at 5:17 pm
Adding on to Fubek’s comment about a “2read” tag, I use a wget script (from lifehacker) to download pages I’ve tagged like that for offline reading on my pda. Good for long train journeys!
Mack says on May 24th, 2007 at 6:23 pm
Drew, could you not just use the “for:username” way of bookmarking for someone ?
MagnoliaSouth says on May 24th, 2007 at 8:12 pm
I’m not really sure why you gave the http://del.icio.us/inbox link as the Inbox no longer exists… and has not existed for quite awhile now.
Instead it is now called Subscriptions and the proper link is:
http://del.icio.us/subscriptions/
Andre says on May 24th, 2007 at 9:16 pm
i have a tag bundle called “bookmarks”, that is, bookmark management, containing tags like @unread, @incomplete (sometimes i have no idea what tags or description to write so i suspend it to a later date), @unsure (maybe unserious, don’t really know, have to read it a while to get an idea etc.)…
EJ Fox says on May 24th, 2007 at 9:47 pm
Let us not forget the awe-inspiring Quicksilver social bookmarking plugin. Ahh…
Andras Csibi says on May 24th, 2007 at 10:52 pm
Fubek, I agree, “toread” tag is pretty useful. But you have to be careful with that, it’s like a Read & Review stack that can get chaotic quite fast, if you don’t empty it regularly.
I have an other cool tag, “weekly”: these are websites that require my attention weekly only. This contains sites like Analitics, Feedburner, Facebook, Digg last 7 days, Digg last 30 days, some forums, some weird blogs that don’t have RSS, stuff like that. Every Sunday night I open everything in tabs in a new window, and make sure I’m not missing anything.
Mack, for:username works only for deli users, obviously
Drew’s trick is for any close friends.
Scott says on May 24th, 2007 at 11:24 pm
Big del.icio.us fan. I publish my daily bookmarks on my WP blog through the “experimental” daily blog posting tool.
To those of you who use a tag like “toread” (I use radar), I would suggest using an RSS module to pull in the bookmarks saved with those tags so you can see them and be reminded that you want to go back and read them. I pair my items tagged “radar” with a del.icio.us module for my Google homepage that pulls in only bookmarks tagged “radar” to keep track of them.
One last thing…using the ampersand is an interesting idea, but that type of folksonomy isn’t really useful meta data to the rest of us who may be interested in your bookmarks. Remember, you’re not just saving websites, you’re helping to create a meaningful taxonomy of the web when you use a service like del.icio.us.
Gagan Diesh says on May 25th, 2007 at 12:37 am
two awesome tips:
1) Use the firefox keyword feature for bookmarking http://del.icio.us/search/?all=%s. That way you type in “de” or whatever keyword you want, and the search term into the address bar and voila you get what you need out of del.icio.us
2) Use the Magpie (http://stii.za.net/archives/43) script to pull in del.cio.us links into your website…we use it at http://www.designstamp.com (the bookmarks on the home page)
Amanda Ellis says on May 25th, 2007 at 1:38 am
Thanks! I’ve added this to my del.icio.us
wu,zhiyong says on May 25th, 2007 at 2:35 am
Thanks! I’ve added this to my del.icio.us,and moved this article translated into Chinese.
nick says on May 25th, 2007 at 3:32 am
When I’m writing a report I like to use del.icio.us to keep track of all of my sources. I use the notes section to write a brief summary and what I’m going to use it for. And I create a new tag for each paper.
andymurd says on May 25th, 2007 at 4:15 am
Just as your “toread” tag, I have “todo”, “toinstall” and “forwork” tags, with each feed plugged into Google Reader. That way, when I get five minutes free I can immediately jump to a useful page to still be productive whilst waiting for downloads or compiles etc.
The RSS feeds from del.icio.us have really improved my productivity.
Jeroen VB says on May 25th, 2007 at 6:09 am
I can’t agree with the number 1 reason on your list, just because i think that the best firefox extension for using delicious has always been ‘Delicious complete’
It’s a lot less obtrusive, yet a lot more flexible than the ‘official’ delicious extension.
It’s got automatic tag completion, compared to your own account, ability to specifiy multiple accounts, …
Check it out, it’s worth a much much more honorable mention, if not the top spot in your list
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2354
Casey says on May 25th, 2007 at 9:52 am
I use a tag for the products I find in online stores that I want with ‘wishlist.’ This makes Christmas and birthday time easier because I can send family and friends to the list.
I often forget to clean it out once I purchase an item though, and I end up having to make product returns.
LouCypher says on May 25th, 2007 at 9:58 am
digg.licio.us
http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/3289
Spencer Ferguson says on May 25th, 2007 at 2:10 pm
Great post. Didn’t even know about some of these features!
Chito says on May 25th, 2007 at 9:59 pm
because of this post, i have decided to sign up (again) for a del.icio.us account. i had never found del.icio.us very useful, until now.
Argancel | ceclair.fr says on May 26th, 2007 at 1:42 pm
Here is another useful tag system:
Here are my own system :
I tag : !brilliant for priceless websites I wouldn’t bear to forget
!daily for sites I check daily
!wishlist
my:installed:apps
my:totry:apps
my:installed:winamp_plugins
special files :
.midi
.doc
.pdf
The license of a software
license:freeware
license:open-source
licence:commercial
Add a * for a collection
example : musicsheet*
The nature of the link:
=feed
=wiki
=blog
Ratings:
****
***
**
*
The website where i found the link:
in:lifehack.org
in:ceclair.fr
samlowry says on May 29th, 2007 at 5:44 pm
11. Discover tags relactions in web using my Tags Everywhere Firefox extension!
TechMalaya says on August 25th, 2007 at 12:53 pm
awesome post. love the self used tag as in @
SEO Freelancer says on January 18th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
A very good Social Bookmarking Article