By: Kary | In: del.icio.us, firewalls, Social Bookmarking, Blogging |
So…with Technorati (and Bloglines for that matter) blocked by the firewall, searching for good blog content within the district’s firewall can be daunting and frustrating. In the previous post I talked about some blog search engine alternatives. They ARE available (at least as of this writing) and ARE a search engine. But anyone who has used Technorati or Bloglines knows these are sloppy seconds to the top two blog search engines. Hopefully one day soon, Google Blog Search will get better…it just hasn’t been around as long as the other two.
So what do we do now if we’d like to search for good blog content? One really good alternative is to use del.icio.us as a search engine. I actually do it all the time…even from home when everything is available to me. I’ll tell you why and how here.
First, for those of you who don’t know what del.icio.us is, a brief explanation…
From Wikipedia:
The website del.icio.us (pronounced as “delicious”) is a social bookmarking web service for storing, sharing, and discovering web bookmarks.
So…instead of “bookmarking” your favorite websites using your Internet browser, you bookmark your favorites using del.icio.us. Using the service, you have access to your favorite websites no matter what computer you are sitting at. And the good news….and the way we are going to use del.icio.us in the example…is we are going to MINE the favorites of others by using the site much like a search engine.
Now let me preface this with the fact that when I do a search in del.icio.us, I am going to get any kind of website…I’m not going to get just blogs. But then again…I am going to find some pretty nifty websites and blogs that OTHER PEOPLE have bookmarked as their favorite website. So let’s get started!
(1.) Go to del.icio.us. Even if you don’t have an account, you can still search the bookmarked favorites of others who use the online tool.
(2.) Look in the upper right corner and you’ll see the site’s “search” feature. Make certain you are searching all of del.icio.us. In this example, I am searching for “edtech”.
(3.) My search has provided over 12,000 bookmarked favorites from del.icio.us users!
(4.) Obviously, the simplest thing to do is just start clicking on the links to the different URL’s that other people have saved as their favorites. You’ll generally know right away if its a blog. If you find a site you like, just follow the procedure outlined in the previous post. But what are those pink highlighted numbers that say something like “saved by 105 people” and why should you care?
(5.) Taking a closer look, click on one of those links.
(6.) First of all, “saved by 105 people” means that 105 people using del.icio.us have “favorited” that site. For your purposes, the higher the number, the more popular the site. So you get instant feedback whether or not a site is more or less popular in relation to others.
(7.) When you click on the link, it takes you to a page that lists ALL the people in del.icio.us who have bookmarked that site. So let’s say, for example, you too think this is a great blog. By clicking on the link “saved by 105 people,” you are taken to a list of the 105 people who liked the site as well. This can be a GREAT resource. MINE THEIR BOOKMARKS!! Maybe some of these very smart people have found OTHER blogs out there they have bookmarked. Go look at their bookmarks and find out! This may seems tedious, but trust me… I have found some of the best sites on the web (blogs or otherwise) by doing this.
One last thing about del.icio.us and using this method of searching for and finding blogs (and other websites)…
As stated in number (7.) above, when you click on the link…it takes you to a list of all the people who have bookmarked that site. When you arrive on that page, one of the first things you’ll see is a list of “tags” that other people have used to categorize that site. In that list, you can see the term I searched for, “edtech.” But you can also see other terms or “tags” other people have used. This information can be very valuable. Clicking on one of those tags will take you to another search of all the people on del.icio.us have bookmarked that site using that tag. So its just additional information that could lead you to more sites and more resources.
For more information about using del.icio.us, please see this post.
