Library clips

Shadows

I really like how Shadows is organising it’s flow of data into tabs.

One for links, and one for discussions, and the other tab is a mix of both…where is popular.

But then this isn’t replicated on the user page (My Shadow Page), there is a tab for mixed links and discussion, a tab for links, but where is the tab for discussion (see below, it’s called “Shadow Blog”).

There seems to be a tab to leave a message called “Talk to me”, I’m assuming this is different to leaving a comment on a bookmark, not sure where this message ends up.
There is also a tab called “Shadow Blog”, it seems you can have your own blog incorporated (make your own text posts, with a comments function), after a good look this is basically where all your comments are aggregated, they should just call this tab “Discussion”, like on the front page…see more.

I thought there was great value in every bookmark having a general comments permalink page (this is a Shadow page, which includes a community summary of the bookmark), to aggregate these and list them on the front page is really augmenting their purpose.

Also for each tag page, there is a tab that lists all the users who have used that tag, all bookmarks in that tag, just your bookmarks with the tag, and groups using that tag…you can also narrow the tag results, but where is a list of related tags, and popular bookmarks with that tag.
del.icio.us has all of these accept groups, and users (you have to browse all the bookmarks to see users, it is not aggregated in a tab)…also when you click on these in del.icio.us, they aren’t tabs, it launches to another page.

I also notice groups are now available, something the del.icio.us tag “nptech” needs, that’s for sure (although this community has gone on to other self-made portals)…the idea of groups has seemed to replace the uber tag concept Shadows had going.

The difference with the group concept from other folksonomies is that you can’t make up your own, and you don’t have to be a formal member…anyone can add bookmarks to the group.

Why are groups good, well some people make a unique tag to collect like-minded stuff, a group just formalises this process, and again just like the Shadows main page, you can aggregate and see the freshest comments made by group members.

So it can almost be a discussion forum, but based around links…I guess it is formalising a tag to stardom, it gets to be a group because it’s a popular tag.

These groups kind of benefit Shadow, as they become a type of social topic news, what about benefiting the user some more by being able to form your own private groups.

Recap:
Front page
- aggregate comments, and bookmarks on the front page, both mixed together

User
- aggregate comments, like a blog stream (Shadow blog), and aggregate bookmarks, like a link blog (this is the fundemental feature of all folksonomies), both mixed together

Groups
- aggregate members, bookmarks, discussion, both mixed together

Tag
- aggregate users, bookmarks, your bookmarks, groups

I also noticed Shadows has ratings…but also noticed it lacks a watchlist or inbox (it does have a friends link, which is just a page with links to other users).

Shadows does a lot of stuff, it does take a while to get used to how it works, some say del.icio.us is too simple but at a glance you can really understand what is going on, some may give up with Shadows…although, the del.icio.us page that shows all the people who bookmarked a page, could add a little spice a la Shadow Page, aggregating comments is also a thought, but del.icio.us seems to be more about sharing bookmarks, than about discussion.

Blinklist

Blinklist has revamped their service, adding friends (similar to an inbox, besides showing recent bookmarks, also shows recently used tags), most clicked bookmarks which they call “quickstart” (I just covered delancey for del.icio.us for this kind of thing), linkrolls, finally implemeted others who have bookmarked the same URL, limit recent public bookmarks to your watchlist by clicking on the smiley face icon on the public page (I suppose this is a stream of posts just like your del.icio.us inbox), the watchlist also lists shortcuts to users who are watching you.

I wonder if the watchlist can be done at a general tag level, or a user tag level, or even a search level…I think I like the del.icio.us inbox better, although not as visual.

So it seems a watchlist is just a list of shortcuts links to other user accounts, whereas a friends list is a synopsis of many accounts, I suppose you could use the friends list to put all the users you are watching on one page.

Clipmarks

Clipmarks has added a latest tab to their “Public Bookmarks”, and “My Clipmarks” drop-down sections, this is great as you have an instant title index you can page through…there is also a quick search box (tag search) for these 2 sections…doesn’t seem you can search in “Stuff I Follow” section.

The great thing about Clipmarks is that if you are on another user account, you can still access your “My Clipmarks”, “Public Clipmarks”, “Stuff I Follow” sections…since the first 2 of these sections have a mini-search box, it means you can still search your stuff when you are on another users page…great access functionality.

del.icio.us

Now that del.icio.us has been aquired by Yahoo!, I’m hoping for a cache for every bookmark to enable full-text search…not sure how del.icio.us is going to sit along side MyWeb2.0, aren’t they basically the same thing…also see the Playtagger feature, and Active Channel feature.

RawSugar

Contacts list
Sort search results by popular, or recent
Statistics
As mentioned before search box/directory for your blog
See the write up on the Raw Sugar blog.

More

Vaguely related are social ratings bookmark sites.

Digg has added categories, no user tags…there are also some others around, Reddit, and Shoutwire…see Pete Cashmore’s coverage, and Steven Cohen’s writeup.

These types of social ratings bookmark/news sites could really benefit from aggregating comments, by category, or something like Clipmarks Chatter would be perfect.