Remembering on the web - 5 reasons why online bookmarking is the wrong tool
One common task while browsing the web is making sure you will be able to recall a valuable information you are just looking at. This article aims to prove that social bookmarking as in delicious, simpy, magnolia et al. is the wrong tool for that task.
Clarification
According to comments here and on reddit, it was obvious that my intention of this post was somehow misunderstood - partly because of the original misleading title (was: “.. - 5 reasons why social bookmarking doesn’t work”). Maybe these adaptions from an xkcd comic does clarify:
Right tool: Use bookmarks to get things done
I think, derefr sums this up very nice:
I find a GTD approach works well: what next action are you going to apply to this bookmark? If it’s just “well, it was neat!” you have no reason to save it (perhaps share it, but not save it), and can throw it away.
The same goes for using the tag “mycomment” to follow up discussions you’ve partaken or “toread” to know what to read once you’ve got some free time. These bookmarks all serve a purpose that is clear to you while bookmarking. This also helps you picking an appropriate tag. No critique on that one.
Right tool: Sharing links
It is clear that bookmark sharing sites such as reddit, Digg, or Stumbleupon that all focus on link sharing have proven that this concept works. Delicious, Simpy, Magnolia et al. all have features to help you share your bookmarks. No critique on that one.
Wrong tool: Remembering potentially interesting links
This is what this article is dealing about: Saving bookmarks that are not useful to you now but - without yet knowing what you’ll use this bookmark for - you save it because it is potentially interesting in the future. I think that doesn’t work and the 5 points should prove that.