A Question About del.icio.us

[DuncanM]

I think I am pretty well-informed about the Internet; however, I have to admit I know next to nothing about del.icio.us. Yet it seems to be very popular.

As far as I know, it is simply a site on which you can post your collection of favorite links. Okay . . . So what?

So now I have a site from which I can access all my favorite links from any computer with an Internet connection. Is that all there is to it, some small convenience?! (As far as I know, nobody else can access my list.)

Lately, I have noticed a few webmasters include in their e-mails to me a reminder to bookmark their site on del.icio.us. So now I am curious: are they just being polite, and reminding me to bookmark their site so I don't lose the URL, or is there some benefit to webmasters for having a site bookmarked on del.icio.us? Why would a webmaster care whether or not I bookmark his site on del.icio.us? Is that extra one, occassional, click so important to him?

I guess my question comes down to this: are there any SEO/traffic benefits to having your site bookmarked on del.icio.us?

[SeanW]

del.icio.us is more than just a link collection. It's social bookmarking. I can bookmark my links and tag them to add more information both for me and others. I can see links that are tagged similar to mine. I can sort through my links. I can send and receive links to/from people, or watch other people's bookmarks. I can access my bookmarks anywhere.

With the Firefox "Foxylicious" plugin, my bookmarks are synched with my browser no matter where I am.

Perhaps the greatest example of this is how bookmarks can be shared.

I was having lunch last week with a friend and the topic of taxes while living in a foreign country came up. By coincidence, I had done some research a month earlier and had bookmarked the links. I gave him one url:

http**://del.icio.us/SeanW/taxes

which had all the links.

As far as SEO, all the links are tagged nofollow, so no pagerank is passed. The reason people want people to bookmark on del.icio.us is that it's estimated that most of the traffic to the site is people looking for links, and not posting. Furthermore, links that are popular show up on the front page. It's almost like digg.

I've got my del.icio.us links up at http**://del.icio.us/SeanW/del.icio.us

Next to RSS, del.icio.us has made the biggest impact on my browsing habits. I am far more efficient (in terms of finding information per unit time) than I've ever been.

Sean

[Bernard]

Your links/bookmarks on del.icio.us are public by default. In addition, your bookmarks/links appear in searches performed on del.icio.us. The more popular your bookmarks/links, the better the placement they get in del.icio.us searches (and there is a significant number of people searching that site). Getting a site well positioned there can lead to bloggers and other webmasters linking to your site if it is interesting. It's just another channel to get your site noticed.