4 ms·

Delicious.com loses its holy grail

29 points by briancray 17y ago

Delicious.com has lost value to publishers. Why promote it on your blog at all?

patio11 17y ago
I have never, to my knowledge, been on the Delicious front page. However, they're the only social bookmarking I have ever had success with. Slap that beautiful, beautiful Delicious button which says "X people have saved this" (social proof!) on a meaty reference article aimed at geeks and you'll get a long-tail stream of tech-oriented linkerati visiting that page for years, rather than the typical big-one-minute-gone-the-next tidal wave of ADHD chipmunks hopped up on crystal meth. This has resulted in a few of my reference articles getting more than enough links to justify the pixels.
- dangrossman 17y ago
  Did you custom code that with the API? I did a bit of searching but haven't come across a way to add a "save with delicious" type link that shows how many people already have. Not from delicious nor from anyone else, except as part of one of those big "add a grid of 100 social networks in a big popup when someone clicks share" buttons.
  - briancray 17y ago
    Yea those big popups are annoying! The only good one is AddToAny.com, which looks at the user's history to only show the ones that the user has visited. :) For the details of an individual bookmark, see the API http://delicious.com/help/api http://delicious.com/help/api and look for this headline: https://api.del.icio.us/v1/posts/get https://api.del.icio.us/v1/posts/get?
    - abi 17y ago
      Hacker News Guidelines : Please don't use uppercase for emphasis. If you want to emphasize a word or phrase, put asterisks around it and it will get italicized.
    - micropat 17y ago
      Hey Brian, Pat from AddToAny. Even without the drop-down menu (which displays the Delicious saves count) I love your implementation. If Delicious can stay relevant we should totally add the # of saves to the share/bookmark landing page as well.
  - patio11 17y ago
    See: http://delicious.com/help/tagometer http://delicious.com/help/tagometer In particular, I use the one which includes http://static.delicious.com/js/blogbadge.js http://static.delicious.com/js/blogbadge.js
dangrossman 17y ago
What is up with those crazy guys that took over Delicious at Yahoo!? Not only do I not want Delicious to be a Tweetmeme clone, but the front page has a two column layout with an empty second column unless you switch away from the fresh tab... what?
- briancray 17y ago
  Tweetmeme clone is exactly what it has become!
apotheon 17y ago
I just realized that: A) I don't even use delicious for anything but storage, basically; it's where I keep most of my browser bookmarks, via a plugin in my browser. B) If delicious isn't making money hand over fist, it may not survive more than a couple more years. I need to back up my delicious bookmarks, post-haste.
- sireat 17y ago
  There was that other bookmarking service whose DB got corrupted a few months back. Backing up is always a good idea. I've grown to depend on Delicious bookmarks too much, since I work from multiple locations. That said, I use the front page of Delicious maybe a couple of times a year, tops.
petercooper 17y ago
Delicious is one of the Web's most under-rated services. I've been a heavy Delicious user since 2004 and it's invaluable to me. Not just to store bookmarks but to find stuff I didn't bookmark that I just remembered about. For example, let's say I remember seeing a site about an awesome new WordPress theme a few weeks ago. I can go to http://del.icio.us/popular/themes http://del.icio.us/popular/themes and chances are I'll find it. If not, I can go through the tag pages (say, http://delicious.com/tag/wordpress+themes http://delicious.com/tag/wordpress+themes) until I find it. Google does not even compare when it comes to finding content in this way. Even if I backed up my Delicious account and hosted it myself somehow, it still wouldn't have as much value as it does when combined with 100,000+ other people's links.
- briancray 17y ago
  Agreed. From a bookmarker's perspective, I love /popular/tag filtering
  - joshu 17y ago
    The /popular/tag algorithm is busted now, and regularly coughs up very obvious stuff (python.org for tag python, iirc.) I wish they hadn't messed with my algorithms so much.
    - briancray 17y ago
      Agreed. I enjoyed that delicious.com was a place I could find articles related to a subject, not the site itself (if that makes sense). delicious.com is not a stitch of what it was.
    - petercooper 17y ago
      Yeah, it doesn't seem to support tag unions anymore. I know it didn't for a long time when you were running it too, but then when it did, it was an awesome way to find things based on topic.
schammy 17y ago
This article is garbage. Delicious is not Digg and it's not Reddit and if you're only using it to boost traffic to your site - you have no fucking clue what this service is actually about.
- briancray 17y ago
  lol. Did you read the article? It's from a publisher's perspective, not a bookmarker's. Just FYI: Neither Digg nor Reddit are only used to boost traffic either. Apparently social media marketing is off your radar.
  - zefhous 17y ago
    You ask: "So why promote delicious bookmarking at all!?" Well, it seems to me that you should spend more time asking yourself how to serve your visitors rather than how to serve yourself. The reason so much of the internet sucks is because publishers spend too much time trying to get people on their site by doing SEO and all that crap, then they crowd up the best parts of their website with obtrusive ads (a bit like the ad bar right above your articles). Instead of all that, just focus on creating good content. I'm not trying to be mean, that just makes a better internet for all of us.
    - briancray 17y ago
      On my blog I explore everything that has to do with designing, developing, and marketing websites. Internet marketing is an important part of an effective website. Regarding your implication that I don't address the user's needs, one of my blog's primary topics is user experience design. Under that you'll find such posts as "Online community best practices: Reward your top users," "Web form usability: Better form submission feedback with jQuery," and "3 eye tracking studies that influenced my latest redesign." So to imply that I'm not concerned about what my users want or creating good content, you've been mislead. Good content is important. And so is finding audiences for that good content. You need both. Good content and good traffic.
      - 17y ago

29 points by briancray 17y ago

Delicious.com has lost value to publishers. Why promote it on your blog at all?

I have never, to my knowledge, been on the Delicious front page. However, they're the only social bookmarking I have ever had success with. Slap that beautiful, beautiful Delicious button which says "X people have saved this" (social proof!) on a meaty reference article aimed at geeks and you'll get a long-tail stream of tech-oriented linkerati visiting that page for years, rather than the typical big-one-minute-gone-the-next tidal wave of ADHD chipmunks hopped up on crystal meth. This has resulted in a few of my reference articles getting more than enough links to justify the pixels.

dangrossman 17y ago
Did you custom code that with the API? I did a bit of searching but haven't come across a way to add a "save with delicious" type link that shows how many people already have. Not from delicious nor from anyone else, except as part of one of those big "add a grid of 100 social networks in a big popup when someone clicks share" buttons.
- briancray 17y ago
  Yea those big popups are annoying! The only good one is AddToAny.com, which looks at the user's history to only show the ones that the user has visited. :) For the details of an individual bookmark, see the API http://delicious.com/help/api http://delicious.com/help/api and look for this headline: https://api.del.icio.us/v1/posts/get https://api.del.icio.us/v1/posts/get?
  - abi 17y ago
    Hacker News Guidelines : Please don't use uppercase for emphasis. If you want to emphasize a word or phrase, put asterisks around it and it will get italicized.
  - micropat 17y ago
    Hey Brian, Pat from AddToAny. Even without the drop-down menu (which displays the Delicious saves count) I love your implementation. If Delicious can stay relevant we should totally add the # of saves to the share/bookmark landing page as well.
- patio11 17y ago
  See: http://delicious.com/help/tagometer http://delicious.com/help/tagometer In particular, I use the one which includes http://static.delicious.com/js/blogbadge.js http://static.delicious.com/js/blogbadge.js

dangrossman 17y ago

What is up with those crazy guys that took over Delicious at Yahoo!? Not only do I not want Delicious to be a Tweetmeme clone, but the front page has a two column layout with an empty second column unless you switch away from the fresh tab... what?

briancray 17y ago
Tweetmeme clone is exactly what it has become!

apotheon 17y ago

I just realized that: A) I don't even use delicious for anything but storage, basically; it's where I keep most of my browser bookmarks, via a plugin in my browser. B) If delicious isn't making money hand over fist, it may not survive more than a couple more years. I need to back up my delicious bookmarks, post-haste.

sireat 17y ago
There was that other bookmarking service whose DB got corrupted a few months back. Backing up is always a good idea. I've grown to depend on Delicious bookmarks too much, since I work from multiple locations. That said, I use the front page of Delicious maybe a couple of times a year, tops.

petercooper 17y ago

Delicious is one of the Web's most under-rated services. I've been a heavy Delicious user since 2004 and it's invaluable to me. Not just to store bookmarks but to find stuff I didn't bookmark that I just remembered about. For example, let's say I remember seeing a site about an awesome new WordPress theme a few weeks ago. I can go to http://del.icio.us/popular/themes http://del.icio.us/popular/themes and chances are I'll find it. If not, I can go through the tag pages (say, http://delicious.com/tag/wordpress+themes http://delicious.com/tag/wordpress+themes) until I find it. Google does not even compare when it comes to finding content in this way. Even if I backed up my Delicious account and hosted it myself somehow, it still wouldn't have as much value as it does when combined with 100,000+ other people's links.

briancray 17y ago
Agreed. From a bookmarker's perspective, I love /popular/tag filtering
- joshu 17y ago
  The /popular/tag algorithm is busted now, and regularly coughs up very obvious stuff (python.org for tag python, iirc.) I wish they hadn't messed with my algorithms so much.
  - briancray 17y ago
    Agreed. I enjoyed that delicious.com was a place I could find articles related to a subject, not the site itself (if that makes sense). delicious.com is not a stitch of what it was.
  - petercooper 17y ago
    Yeah, it doesn't seem to support tag unions anymore. I know it didn't for a long time when you were running it too, but then when it did, it was an awesome way to find things based on topic.

schammy 17y ago

This article is garbage. Delicious is not Digg and it's not Reddit and if you're only using it to boost traffic to your site - you have no fucking clue what this service is actually about.

briancray 17y ago
lol. Did you read the article? It's from a publisher's perspective, not a bookmarker's. Just FYI: Neither Digg nor Reddit are only used to boost traffic either. Apparently social media marketing is off your radar.
- zefhous 17y ago
  You ask: "So why promote delicious bookmarking at all!?" Well, it seems to me that you should spend more time asking yourself how to serve your visitors rather than how to serve yourself. The reason so much of the internet sucks is because publishers spend too much time trying to get people on their site by doing SEO and all that crap, then they crowd up the best parts of their website with obtrusive ads (a bit like the ad bar right above your articles). Instead of all that, just focus on creating good content. I'm not trying to be mean, that just makes a better internet for all of us.
  - briancray 17y ago
    On my blog I explore everything that has to do with designing, developing, and marketing websites. Internet marketing is an important part of an effective website. Regarding your implication that I don't address the user's needs, one of my blog's primary topics is user experience design. Under that you'll find such posts as "Online community best practices: Reward your top users," "Web form usability: Better form submission feedback with jQuery," and "3 eye tracking studies that influenced my latest redesign." So to imply that I'm not concerned about what my users want or creating good content, you've been mislead. Good content is important. And so is finding audiences for that good content. You need both. Good content and good traffic.
    - 17y ago