I’m also not the kind of guy who gives glowing reviews, everything is usually tempered with a mix of good and bad, an attempt to find balance and deeper understanding.

But there is at least one service that I am truly grateful for, Diigo.

You see, when most people think of social bookmarking, they think of Delicious due to its popularity. However, for me and my specific needs, Diigo has been a savior, providing a much-needed service that’s simple, reliable and attractive.

If I’m going to rave about any service I use, Diigo would be it and as the U.S. celebrates Thanksgiving, I want to celebrate one of my favorite tech services and how much it has helped me.

Why Diigo?

Diigo, which is pronounced “dee’go”, is a social bookmarking service similar to Delicious in that it allows you to store your bookmarks on the Web. Using either a browser extension or bookmarklet, you can add links to your Diigo account, tag them and share them with your friends on the service.

But if you’re someone who just needs basic functionality in a bookmarking service, Diigo probably is not for you. Delicious is probably going to be less intimidating to use and has a larger userbase. But it is the features beyond the basic set that really make Diigo stand out.

Specifically, there are two features that really make Diigo special.

1. Annotations: Diigo makes it possible to highlight and add notes to any page that you bookmark and choose who to share those notes with. This is very handy for returning to a specific passage in a page or adding notes to your bookmarks for later. Since annotations can be shared, it’s also great for group research projects.
2. Lists: As someone who does regular podcasts, Diigo has been a godsend when it comes to creating show notes. It’s lists function allows you to easily create an ordered list of sites, add notes to each article and, as mentioned above, highlight key passages. The lists can be shared easily and even have a “Webslides” feature that allows you to view the pages in order, full screen, saving you from having to open all the links in new tabs.

In short, Diigo is built for capturing, marking up and organizing information, especially in a social environment. For that purpose, it works well and has a feature set I haven’t found elsewhere. It’s been a great find for my podcasting and linkroll work and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Tiny Quibbles

If I had to nitpick the service, I would first note that it can be intimidating to use at first, especially after first installing the Diigo toolbar to find annotations all across most of the more popular sites. Also, with more options come more choices and that can breed confusion. Though Diigo’s bookmark interface isn’t any more complex than Delicious’, the bookmark library can be intimidating with multiple views and tons of options.

Also, Diigo’s tagging system is both weak and inconsistent. Lists, for example, are comma separated tags when you create them but bookmarks themselves are space separated. That, in turn, adds a bit to the confusion and also means that, when trying to tag bookmarks, you’re much more limited, especially when confronted with multi-word tags.

However, the awkward space separated tags is an issue Diigo shares with Delicious and a fairly minor issue in the big scheme of things, especially given the service’s power and features.

Bottom Line

Diigo isn’t a bookmarking service that is for everyone. It’s not for those who just want a simple, basic bookmarking system or feel the need to use the most popular site. Though Diigo’s community is nothing to sneeze at, Delicious is still clearly number one in that area.

However, number one doesn’t necessarily mean best, especially for power users who need the advanced features Diigo provides. If you bookmark a lot of links, need to make notes or otherwise want more features in your bookmarking, Diigo is a good place to look.

However, if you’re a big Delicious fan, there isn’t much to lose. Not only can you import your Delicious links into Diigo, but you can tell Diigo to submit your bookmarks to Delicious, keeping the two in sync that way. If you try it and don’t like it, you can switch back without missing a beat.

All in all, Diigo may not change the world, but it certainly can make your bookmarks much more useful. If you do sign up, be sure to add me, especially if you’re interested in copyright-related links.

Service I’m Thankful For: Diigo


A selection of e-books to help you improve as a blogger. Find out more at www.bloggingtips.com/books/

• 10 Twitter Hacks For Your WordPress Blog – A fantastic roundup of Twitter related hacks for WordPress.
• 15 Ways to Rework Your Next Blog Post Title – A great post about improving your blog post title.
• WordPress 2.8 Beta 2 – You can now download the 2nd beta version of the upcoming 2.8 WordPress release.
• How to Change the Category for Multiple Blog Posts With WordPress – A good explanation of the new bulk post editing feature in WordPress.
• 5 Things to Do With a Blogging Day Off – A good post from Jonathan about what you could do on your day off!

Links Roundup – May 26th 2009


A selection of e-books to help you improve as a blogger. Find out more at www.bloggingtips.com/books/

• Publish Your Blog To Amazon Kindle & Make Money – You can now publish your blog on Amazons popular Kindle device. Amazon set a subscription rate (usually a few dollars a month) and give you 30% of the profits (which is very low in my opinion). Still worth uploading your blog though.
• Contributing to WordPress, Part IV: Ideas, Opinions, Feedback – Sarah tells you how you can tell WordPress developers your ideas for the blog platform.
• Twitter Hummingbird – I take a look at the latest Twitter software which everyone is raving about.
• How to Effectively Plan a New Blog Post – Some good tips on how you can plan out your next blog post.
• Decrease the Twitter Drop Out Rate & Increase Retention – Some basic tips on how you can market yourself better on Twitter.
• First Page Google Ranks are easy as spamming the page title – Analysis – An interesting look at the first page of the Google SERPS.
• The Power of a Pillar Article – A great summary of what writing a pillar article is all about.
• Are You Passionate and Excited Enough to Handle Rejection? – Some great advice on why you shouldn’t let rejection get you down.

Links Roundup – May 14th 2009


A selection of e-books to help you improve as a blogger. Find out more at www.bloggingtips.com/books/

• How To Earn Money Online as a Freelance Writer – A good article which is full of lots of useful links about working online as a blogger.
• Do some people think Twitter is a Fad? – With Twitter growing at an incredible rate everyday, is it in danger of becoming a fad?
• Types of Paragraphs: Introductory, Development, Transition & Concluding – Think you know how to use paragraphs correctly? Think again!
• I Support the Future of Sponsored Posts – Chris Brogan explains why he supports sponsored blog posts.
• Not Good or No Good? – Interesting post from Maeve about whether you should use ‘Not’ or ‘No’.
• How To Increase Your Chances of a Twitter Follow Back – Some good tips on how you can get more followers on Twitter.
• What You Got – ShoeMoney tells it like it is. Stop making excuses and put in some hard work!
• What If the Blog Outranks the Company Website? – Daniel answers an interesting question.
• The Three Essentials of Breakthrough Content Marketing – A good article from Sonia Simone regarding copy marketing.
• My 8.7M pixel display – An interesting look at how Matt Cutts works at home.
• Why It Pays to Befriend the ‘Little Guy’ – A nice little post from Brett Borders.
• 25 Resources to Simplify Your Life as a Blogger – A fantastic list of applications, products and services which will make your blogging life more enjoyable.

What have you been reading in the last week? Feel free to share some good blogging posts with fellow readers in the comment area

Links Roundup – April 21st 2009


A selection of e-books to help you improve as a blogger. Find out more at www.bloggingtips.com/books/

• 135+ Ultimate Round-Up of Wordpress Tutorials – A fantastic roundup of WordPress tutorials.
• Email is the New Offline – Do you only communicate by email when your contact is offline?
• 82 Essential Blogging Tips, Tricks and Resources – A massive list of blogging resources and articles.
• Short Spark: How to Say ‘No’ While Helping a Friend – Do you find it hard to say no to your readers?
• The First 6 Months Of Blogging – Promotion – A very good post by Dragos.

Links Roundup – April 5th 2009


A selection of e-books to help you improve as a blogger. Find out more at www.bloggingtips.com/books/

It’s hard to believe, but it’s been 20 years since Tim Berners-Lee published the proposal that would eventually become the World Wide Web. A lot has changed since then, but one thing remains the same: Linking is king. Quality links are the life blood of the web, not only for drawing traffic to you but for leading your readers to other resources that will serve them well.

To help with this, several services have popped up that suggest content related to your blog posts. One of those companies, Zemanta, just released a bookmarklet so that you can use their service from Safari, Google Chrome, or just about any browser. Previously available as a plugin for Firefox and Internet Explorer, the new bookmarklet allows you to add Zemanta links, photos, and more from any browser to your blog posts and email messages. The interface looks nice, and gives you control over what content you use.

Whether or not Zemanta is useful for you, be sure to check out their mashup with the Guardian API. They’re using the Zemanta API to enhance content pulled from The Guardian’s Open Platform.

Have you used Zemanta or another content enhancement service? What was your experience? Let us know in the comments.

Zemanta Expands to Include Support for Safari, Google Chrome, and More


A selection of e-books to help you improve as a blogger. Find out more at www.bloggingtips.com/books/

• 30 Most Wanted WordPress Comments Page Hacks – A great collection of commnt hacks for Wordpress by Daniel Adams.
• Promoting Your Blog Offline – T-shirts and Business Cards – Suzanne Franco talks about how you can promote your blog offline.
• How to Use WordPress for Bookmarking – A very good tutorial about bookmarking by Dustin Boston.
• Does The Way You Twitter Cause You Stress? – A good post about users Twitter habits from Marianna Paulson.
• Social Media Marketing FAQ – A fantastic collection of social media questions and answers from Traffikd.
• Blog SEO Tips: Top SEO Mistakes to Avoid – A good post about SEO mistakes bloggers should avoid.
• How To Create An eBook For Your Subscribers – A good introduction for those who are looking to create an ebook for their readers.

If you are an active affiliate marketer, then you might also be interested to know that Tyler Cruz has now launched his new affiliate competition site PublisherChallenge. Worth checking out.

Links Roundup – February 5th 2009


A selection of e-books to help you improve as a blogger. Find out more at www.bloggingtips.com/books/

35 Basic Tutorials to Get You Started with Photoshop – If you want to create a new logo for your blog, you will find this article very helpful

Links Roundup – January 13th 2009


A selection of e-books to help you improve as a blogger. Find out more at www.bloggingtips.com/books/

• “What Every Webmaster Should Know About…” – 5 webmasters answer the question ‘What do you know now that you wish someone had told you when you were starting out as a webmaster/entrepeneur?
• 4 Ways to Handle Posting to Your Blog Over the Holidays – A good guide to posting over the festive period.
• 24 Killer Link Building Strategies for your Blog – A good list of ways to increase links to your blog.
• The Importance Of A Compelling Article Title – A good reminder to put some thought into your post titles.
• 10 Tips for Effective Guest Posting – A great guide to guest posting.
• Simple Balance 2.2 – Xmas Edition – A nice Christmas theme for WordPress from Blogsessive.

Links Roundup – December 23rd 2008


A selection of e-books to help you improve as a blogger. Find out more at www.bloggingtips.com/books/

• Which Permalink Structure To Choose ? What the Pros say – Myself and a few other bloggers give their opinion on which permalink structure you should use on WordPress and why.
• Matt Mullenweg, WordPress, GPL and why I think he really gets it – Alister Cameron gives his view on a topic which still divides a lot of people, theme sponsorship.
• Should you Close all IM’s While Blogging? – Tech Zoom asks a very good question.
• 10 RSS Manipulation plugins to increase subscriber base and productivity – A good list of RSS WordPress plugins.
• Why You Should Get Back to Basics With Your Blog – A good post from James Chartrand.
• How Not to Sell-Out – Another great article from Skellie.
• Bloggers worry about the wrong kind of duplicate content – Don’t worry about duplicated content, worry about not having a unique voice.

Links Roundup – December 16th 2008


A selection of e-books to help you improve as a blogger. Find out more at www.bloggingtips.com/books/

• Online Advertising And Its Impact On Web Design – A fantastic post about how you should design your website with advertising in mind by Steven Snell.
• 4,439 Words on Driving Traffic to Your Blog – A good article about driving traffic to your blog.
• Upgraded to WordPress RC1 – Sarah gives her thoughts on the 1st release candidate of the upcoming WordPress 2.7.
• I Made $182.64 Profit Last Month – An honest look at a bad month of affiliate marketing.
• The Importance of Play AND Work – A great video from Chris Brogan reminding us all that all work and no play makes jack a dull boy!
• What Do You Spend Your Money On? – Tyler tells his readers what he spends all his hard earning money on.
• Do link blogs suck? – Do you think that there is still a need for blogs which post about other great sites?
• 10 Useful RSS-Tricks and Hacks For WordPress – Some fantastic tips for modifying your WordPress blogs RSS feed.
• Blogging is dead? Pulease! So is email then – Paul Chaney looks at why blogging is here to stay.
• How To Keep Readers Loyal – 4 good tips from J Angelo Racoma on how to keep your readers loyal.
• Banned From Entrecard For Using Twitter! – A story about EntreCard, Twitter and an Asshat!

Links Roundup – December 9th 2008


A selection of e-books to help you improve as a blogger. Find out more at www.bloggingtips.com/books/

• How to Increase Your Blog Post Quality – Jamie Harrop shows you how you can improve your blog posts.
• How Social Media Can Help You Build a Better Business – Liz Strauss talks about how social media can really improve your blog.
• Construct your own ‘Top 10 Must Follow’ List as it relates to your own Niche – Following on from my advice last week on 3 Types Of Blogs You Should Be Subscribing To, Darren Rowse proposes we all create a list of people we should follow on Twitter for each niche.
• 9 Reasons To Link Out – Another good post from Jeff Chandler.
• An Open Letter to the Amazon Associates Program – Darren Rowse highlights the poor service non USA based Amazon affiliates receive. I have to agree with him on this.
• How to Use a Genius Tool for Writers: Mind Maps – An explanation of what mind maps are and how they can help you with your writing.
• Guest Blogging – Wei Liang talks about his experience with guest blogging.
• Blog SEO Tips: XML Sitemaps and the Google Webmaster Tools – A nice guide to using sitemaps with Google Webmaster Tools by Alex Cristache.
• Reciprocation Works Both Ways – What can you do for those who help you out in some way?
• When Social Media Marketing Goes Completely Wrong – Are Starbucks doing enough for Africa?
• What makes a blog super hit? – Roy asks a very good question!
• Save Time with Gmail Canned Responses – A good review of GMails new auto response option.

Links Roundup – December 2nd 2008


A selection of e-books to help you improve as a blogger. Find out more at www.bloggingtips.com/books/

• When Twitter Met Facebook: The Acquisition Deal That Fail-Whaled – Kara Swisher talks about Facebooks efforts to purchase Twitter. Apparently Facebook offered $500 million worth of Facebook stock rather than cash.
• If I Started Today – Chris Brogan talks about what he would do differently if he has to start all over.
• Google Writes Guide For Bloggers – Google writes their own guide for bloggers.
• Are You Being Misled By How Much Traffic Your Website Is Getting? – Dawud Miracle asks ‘Are you focusing too much on your traffic stats?’
• Common Mistakes In Starting A Blog – A good list from Matt J McDonald.
• Building Links by Creating Wordpress Themes – A summary of the benefits of releasing themes to build incoming links.
• 145 MUST READ free business related eBooks – A gigantic list of free ebooks which you can download.
• Blog Contest/Drawing Launches Today ~ Over $2,000 in Prizes! – BloggingTips regular Suzanne Franco launches an awesome contest to improve her chances of winning Blogging Idol.
• Old School Promotion Technique That Worked – Jeff Chandler explains how he got a PageRank of 4 after just a few months.
• How to Choose a Money Making Niche for Your New Blog – Some basic tips for choosing your next blog niche.
• 60 Helpful Blog Posts for Freelance Writers and Bloggers – A huge list of writing articles from Deborah Ng.

Links Roundup – November 25th 2008


A selection of e-books to help you improve as a blogger. Find out more at www.bloggingtips.com/books/

• Social Media “Rockstars” vs. “Narcissists” – Brett Borders gets his new social media blog off to a great start with this comparison of social media rockstars and self absorbed douchebags!
• 181 Free Twitter Buttons, Badges, Widget and Counters to Help You Find Followers – A fantastic collection of Twitter images and widgets.
• 10 Mistakes That Could Be Killing Your Blog – Leo Babauta looks at 10 things that could be hurting your blog.
• 3 Ways To Be a Better Blogger – 3 very good tips to help you improve your blog.
• Social Media Lines are Blurring – Bernie Borges looks at how social media sites are evolving.
• Building Your Blog’s Tribe – Some good tips on building a community around your blog.
• Guru Roundup Update … Wow! This Is Fun! – Blogging Tips regular Suzanne Franco talks about the help she has received from some well known friends. Stay tuned this week on Blogging Tips for an exclusive interview with Suzanne.
• 35+ Social Media Tools That Make Life Easier – A great collection of social media tools.
• Fixing Custom Favicons for Blogger Blogs – Amanda shows you fix your broken blogger favicon (Posted a week or so ago).

Links Roundup – November 17th 2008


A selection of e-books to help you improve as a blogger. Find out more at www.bloggingtips.com/books/

• 45n5 is now the DigitalProductReporter – After a small absence Mark Wielgus has returned to blogging and has moved his popular 45n5 blog to the domain Digital Product Reporter. The old 45n5 Top 100 list has been moved to here.
• Internet Marketing Top Blogs – The Ultimate Rankings – On the same day the popular Top 100 list was moved, Gyutae Park has launched his own Ultimate Marketing Top List (via DBT).
• Cartoon: Partial Text RSS Feeds – A humerous look at what happens when a blog doesn’t offer a full feed.
• Save your time with a FAQ page – A simple thing to remember, cut down the number of queries you get with a FAQ page.
• Tag Management: Increase The Number Of Tags Per Page – I don’t use tags myself but those who do may be interested in increasing the number which is displayed per page.
• Optimisation Essentials Part 1 – According to Google, we should be adding 300×250 medium rectangles, 728×90 leaderboards and 160×600 skyscrapers to our blogs to maximise revenue.

Links Roundup – November 10th 2008


A selection of e-books to help you improve as a blogger. Find out more at www.bloggingtips.com/books/