What Is Social Bookmarking

The example I use of the clustering excesses of the Web application world is “Yet Another Social Bookmarking App”… and here it is:

[from Streakr | Streakr Bares All For Beta]

Core Facts

• Streakr.com, the new web discovery tool and social networking site today announces its launch into beta phase and calls for users to test its site.
  
  
• Streakr brings users the best of the web. They simply download a ‘discovery’ bar on to their browsers which, at the touch of a button, finds dozens of new websites that match their interests.
  
  
• Users can rate the sites they like and dislike by stamping them with a ‘thumbs up’ or ‘thumbs down’ icon. Once selected, the URLs are saved onto their personal profile page and indexed for future reference. The sites, which users can also review, can then be shared with fellow Streakrs via the social network.
  
  
• Other features that can be found on Streakr include: fully customisable profile pages; the ability to search for friends on other social networks; public comment boards on each profile; a private email system; a photo gallery and an MP3 player.
  
  
• To register as a beta tester, please log on to: www.streakr.com – the first 100 people to sign up will receive an exclusive Streakr t-shirt.

Maybe I would logon for the t-shirt, but otherwise…?

I continue to be amazed at people’s desire to non-differentiate. Aren’t there new fields to plow? Surely all the needed tools for all interesting communities can’t have been built already? Why, then, do we see the umpteenth web clipping app, or the gazillionth file sharing/intranet/collaboration-through-foldering solution?

It’s enough to make me really consider a few years at a Zen retreat in the highlands of Java (not really, but still…).

At the same time, I do see really interesting new things on a regular basis, like Dopplr and Mixin, or interesting reworking of old ideas, like Mozy’s approach to online backup. So I haven’t completely lost hope: but I have become more stringent in filtering, since I am getting a deluge of middle-of-the-road offerings every week.

tags: mixin, dopplr, streakr, mozy, yet+another+social+bookmarking+app, social+tools