A list of links can look pretty dull, but that sort of summed up how del.icio.us has always looked to me. Information-wise, however, some good content bubbles to the top of the list specifically with the popular list (the most valuable part of the service to me).

Since Yahoo bought Del.icio.us there hasn’t been many changes to the look and feel of the site which I’m sure pleased its fans. As the screenshot above shows, the addition of thumbnails and encasing the number of people in a blue box with white text has some more flair than the older style shown below.

When to redesign/update a site?
This brings to mind the question of when to make design changes to your site? Some feel like it should be done every year, others say to leave it be and others make changes all the time. My feelings are to change when it makes sense, not just because everybody else is doing it or a few people say you should. A significant number of changes (new features) to a site might be a good time to redesign but I think it’s important not to alter things so much that people don’t remember the site or that you chase of regular visitors. People like to return to places that they remember and tend to resist changes. In the case of updating a design, especially if your original design sucked, this can be a positive move overall but in other cases it might be a negative.

In the case of a blog where most of the content can be read and manipulated in RSS readers, I don’t think site design updates are as critical, although I do think it’s important to have a distinct design for readers who choose to read the site in the browser. If the original design is nondescript, then hiring a professional to redesign, buying a template or reworking yourself should probably be in the plans.

What bookmarking tool(s) are you using?
As for how much I’ve used del.icio.us service for bookmarking? Only 108 times according to my del.icio.us page. Ironically, I’ve used Yahoo’s competing service MyWeb almost four times as much: 428. These days, I’m using Google Bookmarks and also trying out Diigo.

Seems like I’m still searching for the ultimate bookmarking tool. One that gives me full control over everything I bookmark, including full export capability, including the ability to make notes on cached pages. In the past, I’ve used at least a half dozen different bookmarking tools including Furl. I haven’t tried the Firefox extension from Google that shares Firefox bookmarks across computers yet but that might be the ultimate way for me to go rather than keep using these online services.

Which bookmarking tool are you primarily using? Why do you prefer it over others?

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