Why del.icio.us Matters [Updated]

In 2005 I imported my browser bookmarks to an online bookmarking website with a strange URL: del.icio.us. Over five years and 3200 bookmarks later, Yahoo! (who acquired Delicious in late 2005) has evidently decided to sunset the service.

As someone who spends A LOT of time online, working across multiple machines, reading and cataloging content, I immediately understood the value of a service that allowed users to save bookmarks virtually (rather than within a browser). I abandoned browser bookmarks in favor of saving and tagging content online. Once the del.icio.us Firefox extension made saving content even easier by integrating tagging into the browser experience, it became part of my daily routine. As I continued using del.icio.us, I realized that it was far more than just a personal bookmarking tool.

del.icio.us as Discovery Tool

Once I wrapped my head around the fact that there were thousands of other people using del.icio.us to save and tag websites, it opened a world of content discovery. Following keyword tags that were of interest (e.g. UX, HTML, mobile, iPhone, social) offered a window into a variety of blogs and bloggers that otherwise may have gone
unnoticed.

When del.icio.us began publishing the “Popular” list, it became my go to source of what was new and interesting online. Granted, the content skewed toward web design and development due to the user base. But, as a web designer and developer, the content was almost always relevant and helped me further my knowledge and my career.

del.icio.us as Content Generation

I used del.icio.us as a personal library of carefully curated content as I perused the web each day. All of that content could be published via RSS (by tag or by user). I began to create tag-based del.icio.us feeds that populated my iGoogle homepage, and our corporate wiki; and used my personal bookmark feed to popular content on my blog. Initially these appeared as daily posts of my saved links. This content has more recently moved into the footer where it lives today.

I’m cautiously optimistic that the del.icio.us story isn’t coming to an end. If Yahoo! has any sense they will release the source code to the developer community or sell off the service. I’ve exported my bookmarks and saved them locally to be safe, but I will hold off on beginning a relationship with a new service until this story comes to a close.

Update

Here’s the latest news from the Delicious blog (it sounds good):

No, we are not shutting down Delicious. While we have determined that there is not a strategic fit at Yahoo!, we believe there is a ideal home for Delicious outside of the company where it can be resourced to the level where it can be competitive.

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