del.icio.us Plans To Become A Social Network
I recently interviewed del.icio.us founder Joshua Schachter, who is now
with Yahoo after the popular social bookmarking service was acquired last December.
Joshua was recently named as top innovator of the year by MIT Technology Review Magazine.
Tagging is one example of an innovation that del.icio.us pioneered (at least in its
current form). Joshua told me that "del.icio.us was the first app to showcase tagging"
and that now "practically everyone uses tags in the [del.icio.us] system in some
form."
But Joshua has bigger plans for del.icio.us - it will essentially turn into a social network, with more focus on people instead of data. I learned this when I asked Joshua what kind of new functionality we can expect to see from delicious over the coming 6-12 months? Joshua replied:
"One of the amazing things about our users is how smart and far-reaching their interests are. While delicious previously has been very much about just the data, in the future I hope to allow our users themselves to come forward within the system. Additionally, I want to help people connect with others within the system, either to people they already know or discovering new people and communities based on interest."
(emphasis mine)
This points to a social networking future for del.icio.us, perhaps more so than a content bookmarking one (which it currently is). delicious already has a 'Your network' feature, but that basically just connects users' bookmarks. I think what Joshua is talking about is expanding this into a more full-featured social networking system - with commenting, groups, etc. Perhaps similar to Imeem, which combines content browsing with social networking.
It's interesting to compare Joshua's thoughts here to our previous post on Read/WriteWeb - Social Networking: Time For A Silver Bullet. In that post Ebrahim Ezzy talked about how "numerous social networks will proliferate - each with unique form and function." So it's easy to see how a social network based on bookmarking, a la delicious, can thrive.
Comparing del.icio.us to StumbleUpon
Recently on Read/WriteWeb we
did a post comparing the
top social bookmarking services, which showed that del.icio.us was behind StumbleUpon
in terms of users. del.icio.us announced a couple of weeks
ago that they have 1,000,000 users, while StumbleUpon claims 1,271,345. I asked Joshua
what he thought the differences were between del.icio.us and StumbleUpon. He replied:
"Delicious is about extending memory and saving things for yourselves and others. Stumbleupon is much more about surfing, like TV, or maybe Tivo."
I also asked about del.icio.us' growth and how they've managed the scaling process. Joshua told me that "because of the explosive growth, we're are always working on scaling", however they are "extremely happy with delicious' growth to this point".
The real interest though is in how delicious makes the transition from a content-focused site, to one where people are more to the fore. I look forward to seeing how Joshua and his team implement social networking features into del.icio.us.
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del.icio.us is one of the sites that are enabled to display on start up on all of my machines/browsers. I don't need any more social networking features (I think). I would hope the main tagging/bookmark focus is not diluted.
del.icio.us's beauty is its simplicity & effectiveness. have been using it for quite a while now and the only reason why other pretenders such as Blinklist etc etc did not get my attention was primarily due to the simplicity that del.icio.us offerered
by adding social networking jazz to it, there is a very real threat of alienating the core del.icio.us user base
If del.icio.us can maintain the core functionality and simplicity while adding social networking features to the site then it wouldn't do any harm -- but benefit them instead. I think they should have an option as to whether you want to see all of the additional features they plan on rolling in or just leaving it as the del.icio.us we all know and love.
Personally, groups and commenting would be a great addition to the Del.icio.us system. Maybe clusters of URLs similar to Flickr?
I agree with Murali's opinion about del.icio.us's beauty relying on it's simplicity. However, as long as the social upgrades remain a peripheral function I think it will remain my fav site. I personally would like to be able to have a member bio page and be able to comment on my friends' link decisions.
I really like the concept of del.icio.us .
What about categorisizing ur bookmarks.
Like flickr offers a Set feature.
U can group tags into one set .
IS that feature there in delicious?
@ Varun - Yes, the feature is called 'tag bundles'.
The delicious redesign messed up the help section. I would prefer a single 3-column parent help page with lists of all
sub-pages.
I personally think that the del.icio.us UI is badly in need of an overhaul. I mean it doesn't even have a search box on the front page which is a cardinal sin of web design. I have a feeling that the added "people" aspect to the social bookmarks won't really be enough to create communities. Doing so will just make it magnolia. The one edge it has is the traction. But I've already seen much more innovation from other sites and now that it's under Yahoo!'s reign, it may be too big and slow to catch up to sites like Fanpop which Guy Kawasaki blogged about today.
Jason: It doesn't have a search box on the homepage?
If del.icio.us were truly serious about evolving into a useful web 2.0 social network gravitating around shared interests they should implement a last.fm-like algorithm to provide recommendations regarding what users are the closest to you in terms of interests based on the number of shared links or shared tag frequencies in your respective portfolios. Last.fm has had this feature for years and I'm surprised that del.icio.us never implemented it.
The last thing I need is a del.icio.us beginning to incorporate professional resumes, dating-style profiles or the possibility to incorporate shoutboxes or similar "social networking" glue. Leave that kind of functionality to the MySpace wannabes out there and focus on your core competency of providing serendipitious discovery through using the tag as the organising unit around which to build communities based on similar interests.
Saying that del.icio.us needs a user interface overhaul is missing the point entirely. First of all it does in fact have a search box on the front page, second of all its user interface is "command line based" in the sense that you generate the URL yourself according to what query you want to make. This is the fastest kind of user/website interaction imaginable and it is one, which caters exactly to the kind of information professionals savvy enough to use a tool such as del.icio.us - mind you, many of these are information science professionals, who have been used to invoke the arcane syntax of library catalogue search engines for years. Finally, use one of the many browser plugins available to facilitate access to your del.icio.us portfolio.
Don't turn del.icio.us into the next Friendster flop because of a misguided belief that you need to go mainstream. Capitalise on the acquisition by using the contributions of your information professional userbase to cultivate and seed the catalogue of your Overture search engine but don't make the mistake of thinking that del.icio.us can become some sort of glitzy, mainstream user attractor. It is not and will never be that.
I share a differing opinion - I am very excited to see delicious incorporate more social features into the site. You need to realize that in a service like delicious, the person is not the object center of the social network, the link is. This is very similar to Flickr where the photograph is the object center of the network.
In both cases, it is interesting to follow the interesting content to find out more about the creators. There have been many times that I've discovered some interesting bookmarks and wished I knew more about the bookmarker. I think we will se a very lightweight Flickr-like approach to sociality in the system, and it will be very successful. The delicious folks are too smart to try and overreach on this.
I recently started using Stumble Upon and I must say that i think it's awesome. Using it, I have quickly found more interesting, diverse sources of information than with any other site/service. I'm very impressed with the simplicity of it, and with how well they have solved a need.
Another social networking site..previously del.icio.us has been very much about just the data but now with the social networking it's popularity is bound to rise. I just read an article 'Del.icio.us Hits 1 Million Subscribers', well with this kind of a strong subsciber database I think this is the right time for them to add the social networking feature.
What a bad idea. It will never fly, it's a bookmarking service, that's it. Talk about jumping on the bandwagon (even if he always wanted to make it more social). Of course Stumbleupon has more users, it's a button to click when you're bored, doesn't require a lot of action on the users part and the results are gratifying in an eye-candy sort of way.
Please Joshua, fix Delicious and make it function better before I have to start creating yet another profile.
It's ok to try to improve the service, and perhaps they will come up with some new useful features, but del.icio.us will always remain a taggin bookmarking service, and will have difficulties converting to fully blown social network site.
They should have a look at Google. It tries hard to become something else (maps, gmail, orkut etc.), but essentially it is still a search engine...
I think del.icio.us to stay the way it is. I mean i know Yahoo! is on a roll after acquiring jumpcut recently and would one day want to combine all these services but I think it will be downfall of del.icio.us if they happen to get involved in other things.
You all remember what happened when facebook tried something different recently, stay in your niche, plz!
I'm somewhat torn.
I love del.ici.ous because it's dead simple, and allows me to save some 500 bookmarks in one place, and leverage that by seeing what other people have saved.
The more features they add, the more I think that that they get away from what makes del.ici.ous useful to me. There are lots of social networking apps out there, so one site to cover del.ici.ous, digg, and squidoo does not really interest me. Each has their place, but not as one application, which is what Joshua seems to want to do.
I tend to heavily comment on my saved sites not so much for others, but for my own spotty recollection. If others gain benefit from it, then that is a bonus. I guess it's social networking via self interest (or in my case self-help).
While there have been times that I have wanted to contact people that are interested in the same things I am, I can't say that the idea of getting 1100 comments on some World of Warcraft site I saved to revisit really helps me in the way I approach the application.
I can understand the reasons why they want to go this route though: low barrier to entry, easily copied killer app, they need to show some value to Yahoo, etc.
Just don't screw it up too much.
Hey Andy, if you're not logged into del.icio.us you don't see a search box on the frontpage. I think that's just shoddy. Searching a site is one of the fundamental ways people find content anywhere, especially on a massive link site!
Next - del.icio.us to offer personality profiling matchmaking based on bookmarks
Mark Brooks
http://www.OnlinePersonalsWatch.com
mark@onlinepersonalswatch.com
212-444-1636
What is next then? Yahoo owns already web 2.0, why del to mash up with yahoo?
delicious is and has always been an online social network.
loosely speaking, an online social network is defined as a website where one connects with those sharing common interests - be it personal or professional. after friendster, there have been a rapid increase in the number of social networks in the market. few, however, were able to achieve (and maintain) an acceptable member density. the social network's structure and setup, in addition to its shared interests, determine its usefulness to its individual members, hence their loyalty and participation.
and therein lies delicious' relative success with similar social bookmarking site like magnolia. network connections within delicious are weaker compared to that of magnolia. and by having weak connection, delicious is more successful in a social bookmarking's mantra: keep, share and discover and discover and discover....
check out delicious' and magnolia's traffic sites here, if its any help at all that delicious should just remain as it is.
The title of this article is very, very misleading.
We're not "becoming" anything other than what we are.
Amongst many other things we're working on, we're going to make it a bit easier to find people and a bit easier to share with people in a few different ways.
We're not going to make radical changes to the primary goal of the system. Instead, we have been listening to what people are trying to do and will make that a bit easier. That includes finding people you already know and so on.
Saving links has always been and will continue to be the focus and primary value of the system.
Kristoffer & others:
Take a look at "Similar users" feature on Simpy. Here is an example of users similar to user otis (look at the bottom-right box).
There it is, a recommendation for users to look at, and maybe add to your Watchlist, or perhaps invite to join a Group, based on link and tag similarities.
That feature has been a part of Simpy for... a year or two.
If you're curious about others similar to you, just upload or import your links, and check back in a few hours.
I should also add that the "similar users", as well as your whole "neighbourhood" is available via the API. I suppose I need to document this, if I want people to use this for mashups, etc. I'll try to do that tonight.
Otis thanks for the heads up! I have a vague recollection of visiting in the past the simpy site. I don't know why I never came around to trying it out.
I just surfed over there and have to admit to have been somewhat disappointed to see the front page full of somebody apparently dumping a bucket of spam links under the heading of "Cheap flights to Canada" into your database (user "gdog12")..
Most likely this sort of spamming is going on in del.icio.us too we just don't see it since they're promoting more the popular links on their front page.
The only thing del.icio.us needs to do is drastically improve their search.
Kristoffer:
Yeah, spam does happen. This user was actually caught and labelled as spammer, so he/she is now history, along with all his/her links and tags. Yes, a PILE of spammers that show up in Simpy come via del.icio.us :(
I wish they caught them more, as they are so often so obvious.
sounds like they are moving in this direction: www.searchles.com
Just to explain the title of this post, I think if you're going to add the features that Joshua talked about in the interview - then by definition that makes you a social network. Hence the title.
But I take Joshua's point that bookmarking will still be the core focus of del.icio.us.
I have acount in del.icio.us. Is very good social bookmarking.