Social Bookmarkers

The advent of the phenomenon known as “WEB 2.0” that is now revolutionizing the way we use the internet is now re-shaping the internet as we know it. The traditional way we use the internet is usually through web browsers that give us a list of the most relevant web pages that match exactly the word or phrase you are searching for. That is granting that most of the results would be of any relevance to the information you are searching for with most ending up as either a waste of time and effort. This is due to the way search engines work, which is usually through exact phrase matching that can give you a web page that has the “exact” word or phrase or a link to a document that has the same content. The WEB 2.0 revolution is re-shaping the Information Superhighway by first decentralizing the information and then collaborating it with other information whether it be a web page or document that has the highest rating with respect to votes by users like you and me. This ranking is built up as more and more users view a page and rate is as totally or totally-non relevant with respect to a specific topic.

An example of this phenomenon known as Social Media is blogging, where individuals place their thoughts in a manner that could provide commentary and information for other people to use, view and utilize to form their own blogs. It falls under the public domain where the user who reads it gauges the relevance of the topic which is monitored by the individual users as well as the hosting service provider. It de-centralizes information in a way that the information that is made available to the users are not placed within the repositories of big corporations or media giants but within the personal web pages of individuals who choose to do so. When you conduct a search with the up-coming benefits that can be felt more and more each day, you are given by the hosting service a list of results that are arranged according to ranks not according to the web page rating but the rating of fellow users who are either using, modifying or creating the information entries.

One such service provider in the market is Social Bookmarkers who offers concept-search based web sites and applications that allows individuals to store and share bookmarks with online contacts. These information are indexed according to groupings that are set by users and utilized by the social book marking system to retrieve and return the most relevant search results. One of the most noticeable benefits are that bookmarks or links are independent of your browser may it be in the office or at home. When you shift to another computer in another geographical area the bookmarks are stored on a web server thus allowing unrestricted access to your book marks. The relevance of entries or book marks are not controlled by the web page or server but are based on the ranking given by users as they see them fit. In simpler terms, it takes the machine like logic out of searching and infuses technology with social influences offered by book marking systems.

Like all that technology can offer us, social book marking is not perfect system for abuse is possible. One way is to create several dummy accounts and rating bookmarks falsely raising the rating of a page or link without any relevance to high levels. The tag system that these book marking systems use can also be a source of fault for one person might term a “bird” in question simply as a bird, another as an “avian” or other much definitive terms that can allow highly relevant material to be bypassed thus limiting the dissemination of information. Even simple typographical or taxonomical errors can yield undesirable misses and so on and so forth.

As the internet evolves to the rhythm of the WEB 2.0 phenomenon, we are sure to see many changes on how information is stored, found and referred to. Sharing of information will become easier for control is taken out of the hands of the companies and individuals who run search engines and other related services. Information is in a way thrown into the gauntlet allowing the users to judge them according to their importance and likewise relevance.