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Open Source Social Bookmarking Service
Posted by
timothy
on Wed Mar 30, 2005 12:50 AM
from the and-share-alike dept.
from the and-share-alike dept.
comforteagle writes "This past week I launched an open source social bookmarking competitor to del.icio.us - de.lirio.us. After running it for a while open to the public it appears to be running relatively bug free so this is the invitation to the Slashdot crowd. The code is entirely open and the content is cc licensed, so I'm sure it won't take too long for folks to cook up some additional tools aside from the blogging feature. For those not familiar the meme is social bookmarking, which is basically a service to share bookmarks publicly instead (or in addition to) only within your browser. There are lots of other additional benefits, but that's the gist of it. More details here and here."
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...okay... (Score:5, Insightful)
I mean, having source code to a del.icio.us like service available is nice, don't get me wrong. But I don't see how it makes del.irio.us itself any better. I'm not going to be upgrading the software on del.irio.us anytime soon.
whatever happened to homepages? (Score:5, Interesting)
Here's a better question. Remember way back in the day, when search engines were kinda finiky? When we found a cool site, we didn't just bookmark it, we added it to our personal homepage. Along with something to tell people what that site was, and hopefully we made sensible links [w3.org]. How is this better than that?
Google capitalized on that linking, figuring the more people linked to a page/site, the better it must be. Too bad everyone stopped keeping homepages or publishing their bookmarks. Too bad SEO's, spammers, and bloggers figured out there wasn't much linking going on, so the system would be easily tipped. Too bad Google is repeatedly and regularly fooled. For a bunch of guys that are so goddamn smart, they seem to regularly get taken to task...and what are they doing during this? Goofing off with mapping and social communities and webmail and and and and..basically falling into the same trap Apple did many years ago, the same trap HP fell into a few years ago... Overdiversification.
Maybe I'm old, but Netscape stored its bookmarks in an HTML file you could regularly FTP up to your homepage, or something similar. Oh, and back in the day, if you had the time, you could update your homepage a lot. That was kinda like what you kids keep telling me is so "revolutionary"- this whole 'web log' thing.
So pardon while I yawn at this service which..um..does what? Let me post my bookmarks? Which I can do already?
Seriously- the web is supposed to be decentralized. Why do I keep seeing all these people expecting me to put my eggs in their basket? The search engine article earlier today was great- part of the reason Google sucks these days is precisely because we put all our eggs in the Google basket, when there were at least a few other good engines, like Teoma, for example. Google lost the motivation to innovate, because they didn't have to. Frankly, searching these days with Google is like walking down a supermarket baking supplies isle and having people scream at you...and what are those boxes of cereal doing here in the baking supplies?
Parent
Times are changing, webapps are no longer tarpits (Score:5, Insightful)
I can easily make a portal page from del.icio.us, by using the rss feature combined with tags search. I can dynamically query and feed my del.icio.us bookmarks into my blog or webpage info. I can integrate them right into my browser UI with Firefox's "live bookmarks". Compare that to them sitting in a directory, statically, on my home computer.
The days where web apps are tarpits of information are slowly disappearing. Soon, apps will interoperate with each other because it provides a competitive advantage (want to move from livejournal to blogger? Blogger is going to make this as easy as possible for you, and Livejournal provides the interface because people use it for site syndication). Already, data sharing is very easy, and getting easier. It's only a matter of time before the real tipping point happens, and then the real question will be "Who has the best interface for handling my data," instead of "Who will avoid squirreling my data away in a dark hole."
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Re:whatever happened to homepages? (Score:4, Interesting)
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Re:whatever happened to homepages? (Score:4, Interesting)
It's called a weblog and a blogroll respectively.
and what are they doing during this? Goofing off with mapping and social communities and webmail and and and and..
I don't know where you get the idea that Google maps and Gmail are part of Google's 'goofing off'. I and many others find them incredibly useful applications that help me find the information I want. (Which is, btw, Google's objective in the first place).
Maybe I'm old, but Netscape stored its bookmarks in an HTML file you could regularly FTP up to your homepage, or something similar. Oh, and back in the day, if you had the time, you could update your homepage a lot. That was kinda like what you kids keep telling me is so "revolutionary"- this whole 'web log' thing. Web logs are not revolutionary because they let you ftp some bookmarks. They are revolutionary since they give people an easy way to express their opinion.
So pardon while I yawn at this service which..um..does what? Let me post my bookmarks? Which I can do already?
del.icio.us (and de.lirio.us) are not about ftping your bookmark file. They let you easily bookmark an interesting site you find, straight from the browser, irrespective of which computer you are on. You could be on the road, in an internet cafe in timbucktoo, without access to any program other than your browser, and still be able to bookmark a site that you can visit later.
Google lost the motivation to innovate, because they didn't have to
Google is highly innovative. And so are the people who try to outsmart Google. Your earlier comment about Google Maps and Gmail seem to indicate that you do not really appreciate the finer points of their innovation. Rest assured that a lack of appreciation does not mean lack of innovation.
Parent
Nice Ad (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Nice Ad (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, this is shameful, shameful behaviour.
--
Free iPods! Get your FREE iPods! 1000% FREE! $500+ value, yours free! No late fees! [freeipods.com]
Parent
I don't understand... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I don't understand... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Firefox plug-in (Score:4, Informative)
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Experiment in link whoring (Score:5, Informative)
Requires: Firefox: 1.0PR - 1.0 Bookmarks Synchronizer is a Mozilla Firefox extension that let you connect to an FTP/WebDAV server and synchronize your bookmarks that are stored in an XML file. Setup is easy; just write in your FTP/WebDAV server address, username, password and a name for the XML file
{disclaimer: karma whoring doesn't work anymore, just seeing if mods will think a clickable link is 'worthy' of a mod point, and scry a general consensus on the issue}
{oh, and ph33r my l33t htmlz sk1llz}
Parent
Re:I don't understand... (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:I don't understand... (Score:5, Funny)
He had them, but they got burned up by the sun.
Parent
Re:I don't understand... (Score:4, Interesting)
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Re:I don't understand... (Score:5, Insightful)
And all the other stuff just sits there not harming anyone. And its good that people write stuff, rather than spending that half hour watching tv, or doing something useful... Its good to work out your brain even if no one in the world is interested! (heres my brain workout [webeisteddfod.com]
Parent
Re:I don't understand... (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:I don't understand... (Score:5, Informative)
If you haven't used foxylicous then you are not taking full advantage of delicious.
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Re:I don't understand... (Score:5, Funny)
Admit it: You just wanted to use the word "foxylicious" in a slashdot thread.
If I ever write a web browser, it's going to be called "boot".
Parent
then allow me to explain... (Score:5, Informative)
1. as one person already mentioned, you can have access to all your bookmarks when you're away from your machine -- without having to carry any removable media with you.
2. since they're categorized, you can find new links to pages on your topic of interest -- links that have been handpicked by humans. it's like an intelligent filter for search engines.
Parent
Re:I don't understand... (Score:5, Insightful)
your comments form a blog of sorts. i'm nearing 5000 mostly useless posts yet some people have found a quite good amount of them insightful, informative and so on.. even some that are funny! some aspects of the blogging community is just re-inventing slashdot(in a distributed uncontrolled way that mostly is a mess of people rambling about meme of the week).
personal blogs tend to be boring. most people have boring lifes, but don't want to admit it.
Parent
Blogging...posting on /. ... it's a slippery slope (Score:5, Insightful)
By posting here & now you're letting us know your opinion. We read it because we're interested in comparing your views to ours, learning something you know that we don't.
Bloggers are just doing that too, letting anyone interested know what they think or have learnt. Maybe on a more regular basis, in a more defined structure, but it's essentially the same thing.
Parent
Re:I don't understand... (Score:5, Insightful)
There is a positive side to all this though. Though we're all so isolated from our immediate neighbors, technology allows us to form virtual communities with those who have common interests. Look at open source software or Wikipedia-- most contributors are drawn in at first by the product, but eventually become members of a community. Firefox is a fine browser, but without colorful personalities behind it like Blake and Hyatt, it would never have taken off so quickly. People identify with the leaders, feel like they have a common bond, and interact that way. Even really small and silly niches, like Mac product rumors, can spawn a community.
You have to be aware of some of this yourself though. Why post on slashdot at all, if not for the vague feeling that you're connecting with other human beings? We all long for connections, and being denied by our physical community, build virtual ones instead.
It's as simple as that.
Parent
Re:I don't understand... (Score:5, Insightful)
I find it quite useful to see what other people have bookmarked using the same tag. In fact, it's kind of like a human-filtered Google search. Why wade through pages of questionable search results when I can check del.icio.us and see what sites people looking for the same thing thought were worth visiting?
Also, I think your comparison to blogs is unfair. Blogs are the modern equivalent of a crappy Geocities website. Del.icio.us has more in common with Wikipedia than blogs.
Parent
Re:I don't understand... (Score:3, Informative)
You can have blogs aiming for your chess/vintage car
Wh.ats u.p wi.th th.e na.me.s? (Score:4, Insightful)
Now I could modify delirious to have this feature but I don't have enough time and incentive. But something I do find odd are the names. I've always thought the del.ici.ous name was odd, but this is ridiculous. Is there something in social bookmarking that requires things to have periods in the middle of everything? Or is delirious just copying delicious?
Re:Wh.ats u.p wi.th th.e na.me.s? (Score:5, Funny)
No, they just happened to come up with the same idea for the same site, with very similar names.
Parent
Get used to it: (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Wh.ats u.p wi.th th.e na.me.s? (Score:5, Funny)
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Internet Explorer (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Internet Explorer (Score:4, Funny)
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quite an effect (Score:3, Informative)
Confusing (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Confusing (Score:5, Funny)
What's really amazing is that in the course of copying it, the few things they changed all managed to make it look worse. I guess that's how you tell it's open source.
Parent
Rubric (Score:3, Informative)
http://search.cpan.org/~rjbs/Rubric-0.06/ [cpan.org]
Re:Rubric (Score:3, Informative)
The software is in no way affiliated directly with the project, only in that they use the software.
I'm friends with Rubric's author, but not associated with either project otherwise.
There's an installation of rubric [wikalong.org] also setup to work with wikalong [wikalong.org], a Firefox extension.
Great news today for del.icio.us ! (Score:5, Interesting)
Anti competitive or what? (Score:5, Funny)
Social Bookmarking or... (Score:5, Interesting)
Granted, not everyone would be upset with a flood of porn links... *cough*
But, like any thing that may at some time be 'good', it will go bad.
Is open-source a significant advantage here? (Score:4, Interesting)
Having an open-source implementation of social bookmarking similar to del.icio.us [del.icio.us] is nifty, and kudos to the author for writing it. But what does the user actually gain by switching? Del.icio.us already has a web-service API (complete with Python wrapper [hackdiary.com]) and RSS feeds of its data. The above link shows that the development process is already pretty open -- follow it and the links from there to see what people have done with del.icio.us.
Users of the new service will not be able to take advantage of the network effect that del.icio.us already has going for it; given that we're talking about social sites, this is significant. So, to summarize, yay source code, but what is the benefit here?
How do you use it? (Score:4, Informative)
I'd like to see a list of ALL availiable tags. Or search for tags associated with one of my bookmarks (to try to find similar sites) But I see no such capability. Do you need to login to use it? I looked at del.icio.us, and at least there it appears I may get additional functionality by registering, but I see no point in that. Why force me to register in order to search other people's bookmarks (assuming I need to)?
Or is this is meant by 'cook up additional tools'? Forgive me, but the site layout is atrocious, and it really seems like there is very limited capability to me.
Oh well. Maybe I'm bitching about nothing. Id so, please show me.
I'm a fan of Furl (Score:4, Interesting)
The main reason why those services are so useful is bookmark searching. They allow you (at least furl does) to search for keywords within the pages you bookmarked effectively turning it into your "personal Google". It changes the way you work with bookmarks.
As for sharing bookmarks, furl gives you a preference option where you can have all your bookmarks private by default if it bothers you when they are shared.
A project is only as good as its accessibility (Score:5, Insightful)
I hit the site. I couldn't tell what to do. I generally like the idea of ranking and sharing bookmarks but I couldn't tell how your technology or system had anything to do with it.
Someone else will come along. Maybe with a less capable system, but with a better way of translating and explaining the value of such an application and they will trump you. Sometimes if you're too engrossed into the technical details you can screw yourself over. Either you will adapt quickly, or someone else will take your idea and make it more marketable, but what I see right now won't work.
Why social bookmarking is kinda cool (Score:4, Informative)
1: You can access your bookmarks from many computers
2: You can check out the "popular links" on the site to see what's probably going to show up on slashdot tomorrow.
3: You can tag bookmarks with multiple tags, so they can be accessed from multiple folders.
4: Great way to share cool links with a group of friends.
5: Firefox RSS feed of your own bookmarks = totally slick
And now, social bookmarking problems. (Score:5, Informative)
1: When the social bookmarking goes down, you've effectively got no bookmarks. (Foxylicious helps, but it can still be annoying when the site goes down.)
2: You can leak information about yourself, and if the URL contains any secret information, you're really screwed.
3: There's no way easy way save a hierarchy and have it integrate into the browser in a slick way.
4: It gets spammed every so often (people trying to get their links onto the popular page, for example)
Parent
Collaborative Aggregation (Score:3, Interesting)
While StumbleUpon (mentioned above somewhere) is nice, and Amazon has their booklist sharing function (which I'm sure they've patented, *hmpf*), the contender for social bookmarking seems to be Google Answers [google.com], from the Expert Sites category. However, rather than cross-referencing and indexing their DB, Google choose to let users mine it with (surprise) a search function, so you need to do some digging if the question is not well-defined and this causes the product to be pretty immature IMHO.
An extension of the concept into Wikipedia would be WikiStrings (suggested name), a group of terms spanning otherwise unrelated topics, plus a text field - the WikiString term - which explains the informational value of packaging the terms together, e.g. "Why Nationality is Stupid WikiString", "Lifestyle Impact of Full-Blown VR WikiString", "Info for Avoiding Media Manipulations WikiString", etc.
In all collab. aggregation is hot. Good luck!!!!!
-Yuval
Tel Aviv
Penny Arcade (Score:3, Funny)
Now, seeing the same URL multiple times, and a crappy search feature, more like, the lack of a search feature. I'm not understanding how this is of any use.
And to top it of, no porn URLS?! I dont need more personal blog urls.
No thanks.
CTRL-V (Score:3, Interesting)
Basically, what Steve Mallet did, creator of Del.irio.us, is take the design, the idea, and most of the features of delicious, and copy and paste them with a special "open-source" CTRL-V buttons (he's since changed the site layout and design it would seem - to none at all)
Not unsurprisingly, there has been a flurry of discussion about del.icio.us on the del.icio.us listserv [del.icio.us]. Most of it is fairly constructive and thoughtful. I think what bothers me the most isn't that yet another social bookmarking engine is springing up. Furl and Spurl have been around for a while and there are few minor ones. But each of these generally adds something new to the mix, such as private bookmarks, or longer comments, or better integration with the browser. Del.irio.us doesn't add anything new at all.
Except maybe open-source. Yay.
It reminds me of the goold ole days, when one friend who wanted to run a BBS copied all the files and ANSI from another friend who had been running a BBS for years. Morale of the story? The second, copied, BBS sucked and died because the "creator" didn't have any innovation or creativity in him anyway. That's my call on delirious.
some info... (Score:4, Interesting)
Parent
Re:What's the point? (Score:5, Funny)
Great idea - let's call it Bender.
<you> Nice page. *bookmarks*
<Bender> That page sucks. I'm not bookmarking it - I just finished cleaning out all those crappy human porn sites in your bookmarks - not a mechanical babe to be found in there at all. You can bite my XML 1.1 compliant ass.
<you> eep.
Soko
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Re:I stumbled upon this (Score:3, Informative)