Edubeacon

As the news that Yahoo is to ‘sunset’ their Delicious social bookmarking service ripples around the digital community, a wave of protest is rising.  After the initial fear that it was to disappear completely, a report from the official Delicious blog indicates that they’re looking for a buyer and a future for the service outside of Yahoo.  It’s early days yet and, as they say, no need to panic.

I’ve had a Delicious account since the service first commenced.  In recent years I’ve used it in conjunction with Diigo by having my Diigo bookmarks automatically added to my Delicious.  While I like Diigo for its groups, lists, bookmarking and autoposting, I prefer to introduce new users to social book marking via Delicious purely for its simplicity.  A list of Delicious links is also easily managed by students and teachers. The requirement to set up a Yahoo account, however, has been a obstacle.  Delicious is such clean interface for the novice user, I won’t be migrating to a new service until definite news comes out as to its future.  Don’t expect it to continue as a totally free service however, as we are seeing with successful Web 2.0 services such as Diigo and Evernote, basic is free but you have to pay for the more complete product.

Alternatives to Delicious

Pinboard is a simple tagged service that’s reasonably new and still growing.  It’s not free.  Here’s their analysis of why you should choose their service.

Diigo – as I mentioned above is my preference but it’s a more complex program, not simply bookmarks.  Here’s Diigo roundup of their service to you.  Basic service is free – pay more for features.

Evernote – many of us are already using Evernote and enjoying its integration between the various devices – iPad, PC, anywhere/anytime.  It’s also a multi function tool, however, and you cannot import your Delicious tags – a real disadvantage if we’re talking bookmarking.

Springpad - I haven’t used but it’s a similar notemaking tool to Evernote.  Here’s a review of it’s functionality.

Google Bookmarks – This is clear cut and integrated into the Google Toolkit.  If you use Google for everything else, this may be your preference.  Here’s how it works.

That’s what’s on my radar at present.  I’d be interested in feedback on other options you may know about.  In the meantime I’ll just sit tight.