The internet has changed and developed over time. One of the ways it has changed is that is has become much more interactive. Instead of just using the internet to get the information we want, we can make a contribution ourselves. When everybody gives their input and feedback, it creates a much more beneficial system for all.
Our contributions can be quick and easy, yet the benefit derived from them can be very great. Take this website as an example. I review restaurants in Cape Town, but there are lots of restaurants and I have limited time and funds. So I can only review each restaurant once or twice. Now you can come to my website and read my review of a restaurant and decide whether to eat there based on my review. However, I could have been there on a bad night or ordered the wrong dish so you could be missing out by not going. Obviously the reverse applies too. Now, if everyone else that ate at that restaurant and comes to the site were to leave a comment about their experience, you would soon see a pattern. Either the restaurant is ‘generally good or it is generally bad.
Another way that the internet is made better by user input, is by sharing things which they find interesting. Everyone knows that there is a massive amount of information on the internet, and we surf it randomly. We find good stuff and bad stuff, but we don’t have time to go through everything. This is where social bookmarking comes in. If we find something that is particularly useful or interesting or amusing or whatever, we can bookmark it for others to check out when they are online.
There are many, many ways to bookmark or share something on the internet. Some of the well known international sites are:
www.stumbleupon.com
digg.com
del.icio.us
technorati.com
There are many others, locally we have www.muti.co.za and there is also the option to share things on Facebook. You can go to one of these social bookmarking sites and you can see what articles/sites/pages people have tagged as being worth reading. You can search the bookmarks on topic or just browse. For this to work, people have to take the time to bookmark sites for others to see.
I have added as a new feature, a social bookmarking plugin. This means that at the bottom of each of my posts, there is a list of social bookmarking sites at which you might like to share the article. You will need an account at the bookmarking site (it’s free), but once you have that you can simply click the link at the bottom of my article and the article will be shared for others to see/find.
I share things on Facebook and I’ve registered with the local bookmarking site, Muti. Please take the time to share articles that you find interesting on Relax with Dax.