Home Tips and Instructions Web Browsing Tips Using Delicious.com to Store, Share, and Find Bookmarks
Using Delicious.com to Store, Share, and Find Bookmarks PDF Print E-mail

Introduction

If you received this tutorial/guide in printed form I recommend that you take a look at the online version as that is the only way you can access the links! The quickest way to access the online version is to go to:

http://delicious.com/tgontz/Delicious and look for Using Delicious.com to Store, Share, and Find Bookmarks.

Also, this tutorial was current as of February 1st, 2010. I mention this because Delicious has in the past changed everything that I show you how to do, including how you setup an account, the layout of the page when you login to your account, and various steps necessary to accomplish the items mentioned below. If you are attempting to do something and these steps don't make sense then it is possible that Delicious has changed things. If you find this to be the case then I recommend using Delicious's help page for assistance.

Lastly, share this tutorial with others. As you begin using Delicious you will soon find out that getting others with similar or common interests as you to use Delicious (You would put them in your network - more on this below!) will help you to find new and valuable web resources than ever before!

About Delicious

Delicious is a social bookmarking service maintained by Yahoo!. Delicious has many powerful features including networks, subscriptions, tags, tag bundles, and much much more. Using Delicious you can save links to all of your favorite websites and access them from any computer whether it be at home, in the library, or half-way around the world!

Why would I need or want to use Delicious?

There are a number of reasons why you should be using Delicious. Here are just a few examples:

Perhaps you have bookmarked a website on your home computer and then needed to access the web site from work (or vice versa) but couldn't remember the web site's url (address)?

Have you ever lost a slew of bookmarks because your computer died or lost access to your bookmarks because your computer was out for repair?

Have you ever come across a website that you thought would be really beneficial to a colleague or a family member and then emailed the address to them?

Or, have you ever spent hours researching a topic and found very little when you were sure that the information was out there?

Well, Delicious can solve all of these problems! Here is how.

Step 1: Create a Delicious Account

Setting up a Delicious account is free, and does not require any special technical knowledge, and only takes a few minutes! However, it does require a  Yahoo! ID. Follow these steps to get register for a Delicious account via a Yahoo! ID.

  1. Go to the Delicious homepage by typing http://delicious.com in your web browser's address bar.

  2. Click on the Join Now link in the upper right corner of the page.

  3. Click on Sign up for Yahoo!.

  4. Fill out all of the necessary fields to create your Yahoo? ID.

  5. Click on Create My Acount.

  6. After your Yahoo! account has been created you'll be given the opportunity to print out your account details. I strongly recommend that you do this! Then click on Continue.

  7. The next step will be to select a link that you and others can use to find your bookmarks. Choose a link and click on Save.

  8. Click the Register button.

  9. Click Install Delicious add-on to add Delicious buttons for Firefox or Internet Explorer to your web browser. After they're installed, you can bookmark pages easily by clicking on the delicious buttons in your toolbar. (These buttons are not available for the AOL, MSN or SBC Yahoo! proprietary browsers.)

  10. Go to your email.

  11. Open the verification email from Delicious.

  12. Click on the verification link.

  13. Now you're ready to start bookmarking.

Step 2: Import Bookmarks

Now that your account is setup you can begin importing the bookmarks (called "Favorites" in Internet Explorer) that are already stored in your web browser.

  1. Visit the Delicious homepage.

  2. Log in to your account.

  3. Click on the Settings link on the top right-hand side of the page.

  4. Click on the Import/Upload Bookmarks link under the Bookmarks section.

  5. Choose Easy Import or Custom Import and then click on Import Now.  *Note: If you use the Easy Import method all of your links are imported being marked as private (secure) by default.

  6. Your web browser's bookmarks are now included in your Delicious account.

Step 3: Bookmark Sites Using Tags

When you bookmark a webpage on Delicious, you "tag" it with keywords that describe it. A tag lets you organize your bookmarks. You can sort your bookmarks by tags to find the sites you've saved as well as search other users' tags to discover new sites.

Notes on Using Tags

  1. First and foremost use tags that make sense to you! Then also consider what tags someone else may use or search for to locate the page you are bookmarking.

  2. Use as many or as few tags as you want. You can always change, add or delete them later.

  3. Be consistent when using tags. You want to be able to find things later.

Bookmarking Sites with Browser Buttons

  1. Click on the Delicious Tag button in your browser's toolbar.

  2. Enter the site's description, notes and tags in the Delicious pop-up window.

  3. Check the Do Not Share checkbox if you'd like to keep the bookmark private.

  4. Click the Save button.

Bookmarking Sites without Browser Buttons

If you use a web browser that is incompatible with the Delicious toolbar buttons or you are not using your own computer that has the toolbar buttons installed you can still bookmark sites using Delicious.

  1. Go to the Delicious home page and Sign In.

  2. Then you click on Save a new bookmark in the upper right corner of the page

  3. Enter the URL (web address) of the site you'd like to bookmark. (Copy and paste it from the url/address bar in your web browser.)

  4. Click the Next button.

  5. Enter the site's description, notes and tags. Check the Do Not Share checkbox if you'd like to keep the bookmark private.

  6. Click the Save button.

Step 4: Share Bookmarks

Delicious has several built-in tools that make it easy to share your new bookmark collection with friends, co-workers, students, and other Delicious users.

Ways to Share Bookmarks

  1. Link to all of your bookmarks by using the following URL configuration: http://delicious.com/username

  2. Link to your bookmarks arranged by tag by using the following URL configuration: http://delicious.com/username/...

  3. Share a single bookmark with a fellow Delicious user by adding the following tag to your bookmark: for:username

  4. Encourage others to subscribe to your bookmarks through a RSS feed. A clickable RSS button is located at the bottom of every user's bookmark page.

  5. Create a network, an aggregated page of several users' bookmarks.

How to Create a Network

Creating a Network and becoming part of a Network on Delicous is a great way find and share web resources with colleagues, family, and friends! To create a network:

  1. Visit the Delicious homepage. (*Note: If you are using the Delicious browser buttons then you can click on the Delicious button on your toolbar.)

  2. Log-in to your account.

  3. Click on the Your Network link on the top left-hand side of the page.

  4. Add another users' name to the Your Network field on the right-hand side of the page.

  5. That user is now a part of your network.

  6. Visit your network at any time by logging in to Delicious and clicking on the Your Network link.

Step 5: Discover Bookmarks

Delicious is great way to not only save links, but to discover them as well. Explore other users' bookmarks by popularity or tag and you can even subcribe to bookmarks by tag! Here are a number of ways to find useful sites/bookmarks:

  1. Discover sites through the Delicious Popular Bookmarks list which is accessible from the Delicious homepage.

  2. Discover sites through the Delicious Fresh Bookmarks list located on the Delicious homepage. This list aggregates the sites being currently bookmarked by Delicious users. (*Note: You can also access Popular and Fresh/Recent bookmarks from the Bookmarks drop-down menu at the top when you are on your Delicious page.)

  3. Search specific tags on the Explore Tags page, which is also accessible from the Delicious homepage, by entering a term into the Tags search bar.

  4. Search a combination of tags by using the "+" symbols between words. Example: iPhone+hacks.

  5. Subscribe to other users' bookmarks through a RSS feed. A clickable RSS button is located at the bottom of every user's bookmark page.

  6. Subscribe to a tag. See below.

Discover Bookmarks by Subscribing to a Tag

A tag subscription updates you every time someone bookmarks a site using that tag. By subscribing to a tag, you'll discover websites devoted to your interests that other people liked enough to bookmark.

  1. Visit the Delicious homepage.

  2. Log-in to your account.

  3. Click on the Tags drop-down menu and then My Subscriptions.

  4. Click on Add a subscription.

  5. A box will then appear for you to type in the tag you are looking for. Enter the tag you wish to subscribe to and click on Add.

  6. If you only want to receive tagged bookmarks from a particular Delicious user, then put a check in the box (click on the box) next to From a specific user and then enter that users' name.

  7. Click on the Add button.

  8. You are now subscribed to that tag and/or user.

Bundle Your Tags

A tag bundle is a group of related tags. Bundling similar or related tags under a broader category/topic makes your bookmarks easier to find for yourself and other users. For example, I occasionally tag online resources that I believe may be valuable to school teachers. When I come across links relating to Math I usually tag them as math, MathEducation, and the specific area of Math such as Algebra or Geometry. The same goes for science, I may tag a science related website as science, ScienceEducation, and then the specific area of science such as Biology, Chemistry, Physics, etc. While this works great for anyone searching these specific tags it would also be useful to bundle them under a larger group such as education, SchoolSubjects, or

To bundle your tags:

  1. Visit the Delicious homepage. (*Note: If you are using the Delicious browser buttons then you can click on the Delicious button on your toolbar.)

  2. Log in to your account.

  3. Click on the Settings link on the top right-hand side of the page.

  4. Click on the Edit Tag Bundles link under the Tags section.

  5. Click on the Create button.

  6. Type a name for the new bundle.

  7. Enter the tags you'd like to include in the bundle in the large field.

  8. Click on the Save button.

  9. Your bundle has been created. It will now appear in the tags column at the right-hand side of your screen whenever you are logged into Delicious and on your bookmarks page.

Use Unofficial Delicious Tools

Developers have created dozens of free tools that can be used in conjunction with your Delicious account. You can do all kinds of cool things with your del.icio.us account, from creating slide shows of your bookmarked sites to displaying your most recently saved links on social networking services like MySpace and Facebook. For a complete list of Delicious tools, check out Quick Online Tips' Absolutely Delicious Tools Collection.

  1. Integration Tools: MySpace, Facebook, Google Reader

  2. Visualization Tools: Graphs, Slideshows

Display a Button on Your Blog

If you have a blog or website, you can encourage readers to bookmark your posts to Delicious by displaying a del.icio.us Save This Page button on your blog. This is a great way to drive traffic to your site. The more people bookmark your page on Delicious, the better your chance of attracting new readers to your site.

  1. Visit the Save Buttons page via the Delicious help section.

  2. Copy and paste the appropriate code to into your blog's source code.

Delicious Resources

Delicious Add-ons and Cool Tools

Important Delicious Links