Social bookmarking:

Activities like social bookmarking give users the opportunity to

express differing perspectives on information and resources

through informal organizational structures. This process allows

like-minded individuals to find one another and create new com-

munities of users that continue to influence the ongoing evolution

of folksonomies and common tags for resources. Using a folk-

sonomy-based tool for research lets you take advantage of the

insights of other users to find information related to the topic you

are researching, even in areas that aren’t obviously connected to

the primary topic. If you are looking for information about sailing,

for example, you might find that other users saw a connection

between sailing and boat repair, taking you in new, potentially

valuable directions. These kinds of tools also encourage users

to keep coming back because the folksonomy and the collec-

tions of resources are constantly changing. It’s easy to imagine

assigning a value for individual resources, resulting in a ranking

system that functions as a collaborative filter.