Here is the situation that we have all encountered. We search for a website that we like and save it to our favorites or bookmarks list in our web browser (Firefox, Internet Explorer, Netscape, etc.). Later, we visit a friend or family member and want to show them what we have found. Unfortunately, we cannot exactly remember the URL of the site. We also cannot access our favorites or bookmarks from your computer. It’s frustrating, right? No longer. This is where social bookmarking can eliminate this and many other moments of frustration.

Social bookmarking is a method for Internet users to share, organize, search, and manage web resource bookmarks. Unlike file sharing, the resources themselves are not shared, just the bookmarks that reference them, as defined by Wikipedia.com.

What this means is that we can now save bookmarks or favorites to our home computer as we always have, but now we can save them to social database sites where we and others can access them from any computer. Usually we also have the option to make our bookmarks private or public and even limit who can see our bookmarks. We can see what other people are bookmarking. We may also share and link to our own personal site or e-commerce site by sharing with others on social bookmarking sites.

How to start

I’ve outlined the simple steps to setting up an account with one of the most popular social bookmarking sites – delicious.com.

Register:

1. Go to http://www.delicious.com

2. Click the Join Now button at the top right of the screen.

3. Complete the registration form and then click Register.

4. Delicious will automatically detect your browser and ask you to install some buttons. Follow the instructions given and select the buttons of your choice.

5. When the installation is complete, close your browser and then reopen it. Next, you should see Delicious buttons added to your browser.

Now you can start adding bookmarks.

Have fun and happy marking your favorites.