Social Networking: Del.icio.us versus Ma.gnolia

What is social networking and bookmarking? It’s an online display of your favorite websites that you can share with people who have similar interests. The power comes in tagging your sites. Tagging is essentially giving your site a category so that they can be grouped together. The power comes when you can search other people’s tags and see what sites they’ve found.

I mentioned the social bookmarking site del.icio.us in a previous post, and have really enjoyed being able to access my favorite links from any computer that has an Internet connection. But I have recently read a review of Ma.gnolia that offers some serious competition to del.icio.us.

How are they different? Ma.gnolia boasts better visual appeal than del.icio.us and offers a preview of each bookmarked site you saved. Now you’ll have a visual preview of what you really wanted to remember for a later date. But the thumbnail preview of the website does not show up on your homepage. You’ll have to click on “view details” under the bookmark to see the page preview. Ma.gnolia also allows users to rate each bookmarked site with a star rating. I have found that many people don’t rate their sites, probably due to lack of time, but it is a handy feature. If you check out the “roots” section on ma.gnolia, you can use this feature to see what ma.gnolia users have to say about a website before you click around on it or bookmark it. Very handy!

However, del.icio.us currently allows users to directly add their bookmarked links onto their blog every time they add one, and Ma.gnolia just came out with a similar feature to compete with del.icio.us.

I just imported (with great ease) all of my del.icio.us bookmarked sites into ma.gnolia. I find it’s easier to search other users’ tags and sites on mag.nolia than it is on del.icio.us. Also, while mag.nolia does not have a “tag cloud” on the side of the screen like del.icio.us does, mag.nolia has a separate page to view your tages, and a tab to view tags of other people. Part of me misses my tags on my home page, but I don’t think it’s enough to stop using the site. I have to say, I really do enjoy the visual design of mag.nolia, but after extended use of both sites, I am still a loyal delicious fan.