Are you Del.icio.us?

Do you have a Del.icio.us account?  Yes?  Congratulations, genius!  No?  Keep reading, buster!

Del.icio.us is a social networking website that lets you bookmark online resources, like articles you’d like to refer to later, funny videos, and interesting blogs.  It’s a little bit different from the Favorites folder in your browser, in that you can access and add content to it from any computer, and you can label or “tag” links however you wish and with as many tags as you wish.  And you can share links of interest with friends!

Another great feature is that under each entry Del.icio.us lists the number of users who have also bookmarked that site.  Let’s say you are interested in Mariachi music , tattoo designs, or recipes that use chocolate: you can click on the number to find like enthusiasts and the websites they have also found useful. 

I like to use Del.icio.us as a research tool when Google just won’t do.  Let’s say you are in the market for a new car.  If you type “automobile” into Google, you’ll get about 127,000,000 hits, many of which are irrelevant for the kinds of articles, guides, and reviews you may be looking for.  Key the same search term into the search field on Del.icio.us, and you’ll see the most widely beloved of the 16,317 websites members have saved tagged under the word “automobile.”  You can also type “automobiles shopping” and it will give an even more refined list.

It is easy to register for a Del.icio.us account, but be warned: once you start looking through the fascinating, hilarious, and thought-provoking websites everyone has saved, no one may see you for a while. 

For a great list of reference resources, check out our Reference Department’s Del.icio.us account.

–Bonnie