Google Gets In On Social Bookmarking

Posted by Michael Garrett on September 20th, 2007

Google Considering how popular that social bookmarking has become and the fact that Google is the most used search engine, a social bookmarking site for the search giant seems far overdue. Google has already been offering a bookmark service, but saved bookmarks were stored privately in user's accounts, which left the social aspect lacking.

Perhaps Google is going along with the saying 'better late than never' as it has now launched Shared Stuff (creative name, huh?), which seems like a rushed product that was not quite ready for the public's use.

With several popular options for social bookmarking (Digg, del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, etc.), Google had better start adding on the features to this new service if it wants to gain some traction.

Before sharing links, users must drag a bookmarklet to their browser's link bar, which can then be clicked at any page desired. Alternatively, Google is offering the option to click on the “Share” button from a web page, but Google Video is the only site to feature those buttons right now.

The most interesting features that I came across on Google's new bookmarking service are the ability to select a thumbnail photo to accompany your link, and the “Views” feature on each post that shows you how many people have clicked on each of your bookmarks.

Other than this, there was really nothing else that Google Shared Stuff can do. If you have been a user of Google services, Gmail in particular, then you can view shared stuff from your contacts. Each user is provided with a page that displays all public bookmarks, but the URL is hardly easy to remember (http://www.google.com/s2/sharing/stuff?user=115619979654419222605). Google should really think about letting users select a user name, instead of sticking a 21-digit number as a User ID. Shorter URLs make sharing much easier.

Each user's bookmarks are accessible via RSS and Google also provides a link to add any bookmark feed to Google Reader. The service also includes the ability to share your stuff on other social bookmarking services such as del.icio.us and Digg.

As the Silicon Valley Blog noticed, “the �Share� logo in use by Google Bookmarket is the same as in the �ShareThis� Wordpress plugin by Alex King from the Share Icon project. Functionality provided is also the silmilar to Alex King�s �Share This� plugin.”

Google has not provided very much with Share Stuff in terms of new features or innovation. Even so, Share Stuff needs to offer users much more if Google wants it to be used. It will be interesting to see how Google decides to build buzz about this new service that has kept fairly quiet so far.

Google Share Stuff