"del.icio.us is a social bookmarks manager. It allows you to easily add sites you like to your personal collection of links, to categorize those sites with keywords, and to share your collection not only between your own browsers and machines, but also with others.".
del.icio.us is also currently one of the most popular sites on the web. If you've never tried it, you should - there are tons of uses for del.icio.us, and also many good guides to get you started.
Unfortunately del.icio.us's integration with browsers could be better (this is one of the selling points of Flock, the new "social browser"). Fortunately there is the del.icio.us extension. This extension integrates with Firefox and Thunderbird for a faster, more convenient way to use del.icio.us. It's outstanding features are integration with the context menu, toolbar, and sidebar integration, and keyboard shortcuts, and easily finding other people who bookmarked the page you are viewing.
Install del.icio.us extension now!
(Remember to close and reopen Firefox after installing)
The first thing to do after installing the del.icio.us extension is add you're del.icio.us account to it. You will need an account, and can register by visiting del.icio.us/register. Once you have an account, right click in the browser area and go to:
- del.icio.us > Options….
- In this window, click the Add button.
The Account name is just the name that will appear in that list, so you can choose anything for this…your first name, del.icio.us username, etc. The del.icio.us username and Password are those you chose when registering at del.icio.us. Note: This password is saved in Firefox's built-in password manager (Tools > Options… > Privacy > Passwords) so that if you have a master password set no one can automatically login to your del.icio.us account using the saved password, unless they first enter your master password. Remember that you can add as many del.icio.us accounts as you want, if you have multiple accounts or someone else in your family wants to use the extension. When you bookmark something with the extension, you can select which account to save it to (see below). There are several other useful features you can access through the context menu, several of them are discussed below.
OK, so now that its setup, you're probably wondering how to bookmark something:
- Right click > del.icio.us > Post current page Alternatively you can use Alt+Shift+S
This will open a window (screen-shot below) where you can fill out some details about the page, if you'd like. The Title and URL field are already filled out for you. You can add a description and tags to your bookmark (multiple tags are separated by spaces). You can also choose tags by selecting from recommended and popular tags for this page. A list of all your tags is also given for reference. You can add a tag by clicking on it in either of the three tag lists.
- Click OK
Another great feature of the del.icio.us extension is the ability to see a page's "del.icio.us history".
- Right click > del.icio.us > Find current page, or Alt+Shift+Z
This will take you to a list of all of the instances when the page was bookmarked (opens in the active tab). This is especially handy for webmasters to see how much their page is being bookmarked.
One of the most convenient things this extension can do is display all of your del.icio.us bookmarks in the Firefox sidebar.
- From the menu, go to View > Sidebar > del.icio.us, or Alt+Shift+S .
This will open the sidebar with a list of your tags; clicking on a tag will open a list of bookmarks that are associated with that tag. The sidebar also gives you the ability to rename tags. My favorite feature is the ability to open some or all of the bookmarks at the same time - without even going to the del.icio.us website.
In my opinion, this extension is absolutely necessary for all del.icio.us users who have Firefox. It is updated regularly, and is almost always compatible with the latest version of Firefox. Give it a try - you might end up a frequent user, just like myself!
Update:
Several days after I wrote this article, del.icio.us came out with their own version of a Firefox extension. Its features include del.icio.us toolbar buttons, pop-up and right-click post menus, and a toolbar menu and search plugin. At this point, I still think that the unofficial extension is the way to go. It features more functionality, is open-source, and looks, in my opinion, less intrusive. However, it is up to you to be the judge!
jsiii