Del.icio.us

Looking around was weird because we aren’t actually logged in to the account, so I’m inferring that we’re linked to the bookmark page. To quote a phrase from library school that I usually reserve for my sarcastic voice- the “back-chaining” capability was intriguing. It reminded me of the Gale databases that allow you to link to similar articles via search terms or dare I say it- tags? I randomly "back-chained" related users and chose angrymartian just for grins. Not a huge surprise, his/her comments were pretty geeky.

I tried out a reference search to see what kind of results came up. As the presidential race starts simmering, we usually get asked for the previous election results or “that map that has the blue and red states”. Normally I would Google that request with dependable results. I put “presidential maps” into del.icio.us- gave it a bit of a challenge – and lo and behold it gave me a list of pretty handy bookmarks. Check out http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/, you might need it soon ;)

So, yes- I have to say it this could be very useful for both research and personal use.