That’s the sad part of bookmarking. If you are using social bookmarking networks that have “popularity contests” and you bookmark articles you wrote, people find out and start accusing you of cheating, forcing your work upon others, and other nasty things. Before WordPress.com had export/backup capabilities, I started adding my articles to Furl, which also added them to del.icio.us and other social bookmarking services automatically, and got flamed repeatedly for promoting my own work instead of the work of others. HUH?

The social part of social bookmarking can be painful when narrow minds gather.

A great explanation of what this Web 2.0 Social Bookmark Flag On The Moon business is all about.

We always come back to the Janus faces of the web, whether it’s 1.0 or 2.0. On the bright side, we have access to lots of valuable information and decent people, on the dark we have the problem of filtering out relevancy and decency.

I love the web, and to a great part live on and by it. I find interesting stuff and interesting people to communicate and cooperate with.

Social networking was always an important aspect of the Net, and by inventions such as syndicated book marking, we may get to know others who share our interests. At the same time, in the best of worlds, we get more relevant information on these areas of interest. Good thing!

Tagging and tag clouds are supposed to conglomerate the essence of information in a certain domain. But does it work that way?

In my experience, a clever search on Google gives more substantial results, as I find others, who already gathered relevant information in a certain area on their site. Search services rank web pages from how many ( good sites ) link to them, which gives a certain amount of relevancy. Tag clouds on the other hand, tends to emphasize ( by colors or size ) what is most popular to read, or worse, how many writers use that tag. In a way the tag only measures its own popularity.

Then we have the ancient ( measured AD* ) problem of the overwhelming amount of information.

In the beginning there were link lists with hundreds of links with no comments, impossible to handle. Now we have lists or clouds of tags, equally cloudy, and they tend to grow beyond comprehension too. Social bookmarking, as fine as the intentions are, may climb the same Sisyphusian mountain.

Communities of millions of people will always be hard to manage and to join in a meaningful way, but nevertheless we all have to find ways to get information and meet people. It is a challenge and a joy.

*) AD – Time After DARPA