Social bookmarking is the process of tagging an interesting website and sharing it with friends, family, relatives, associates, colleagues, and the likes. In simple words, if you really like something on the internet and share the same with others, then you are a part of this process. Sharing can be done by sending a link to others, or simply marking the content on the website. By doing so, you do not have to save the link on your web browser; you can simply save it on the web. Typically, internet users can share, manage, organize, and search bookmarks on the websites. This method allows you to write comments and express your opinion. The process of writing comments is referred to as social tagging, and it encourages the participation in discussions.

History And Evolution

The history of social bookmarking can be dated back to 1996 when itList was launched, and it included public, as well as, private bookmarks. Slowly, this method gained recognition and was accepted by many internet users. In fact, social bookmarking sites became popular in the year 2003-2004. With the wide acceptance and growth of this concept, there have been several changes. For instance, some websites focus on free social bookmarking of news related items. They share the latest news and breaking headlines. They also have discussion forums, where participants share their views and opinions.

Benefits

Visibility: Most of the sites display the name of the user. When you participate in discussion forums and write comments about a topic, it will show up with your name and other details. This helps in creating an identity for you on the internet. Besides, most of the social bookmarking sites are free and you do not have to pay anything for participating in the discussions.

Topics: There are various topics available online like social news, politics, upcoming news, stories, shopping, entertainment, and much more. You can choose to participate, share links, and add tags on the topics of your choice.

Connect To Other Sites: Your Social result depends on the number of sites that you can connect with. Sharing links on various social networking websites improves your presence on the internet.

Promoting A Website: As a website owner, you can also promote your sites through social bookmarking. This is a very powerful tool and helps to increase traffic on a website. You can also expect many back links and your links are indexed on the search engines. Moreover, this concept does not involve any cost. It is absolutely free.

Although, this method is ideal for personal and professional purposes, yet you must exercise some precautions. For instance, it can be susceptible to spam and corruption. The misuse of this concept is not uncommon. Moreover, it has given rise to a new informal vocabulary and does not have a controlled vocabulary. Nevertheless, with all these drawbacks too, the idea remains popular and widely accepted.