Ramanujan Redux

I like del.icio.us for my own purposes–I have easy access to bookmarks, and searching for particular tags helps me find the articles I want. I haven’t yet used it to its maximal ability though (research and reporting).

However, I feel that one of the big issues that keeps del.icio.us from being a huge part of my life is that it’s not easy to find friends and discuss what you find. You can’t set up a profile, you can’t get much further beyond sending links to each other and obtaining each other’s screennames.

In other words, the human connection is missing. And what’s necessary on the Internet is human connection. It’s why in terms of social networking, Facebook and MySpace still remain near the top despite those stupid pirate invites and lousy interfaces–there is more of a human connection there than with del.icio.us. You’re still following a collection of experts unless you decide to trailblaze on your own. Hence your parameters are still limited.

The framework for del.icio.us is still skeletal. Unfortunately, because Yahoo now owns it, I think any hope for future innovation is slim. StumbleUpon is better at helping us meet new people locally, and probably more friendly for the common Internet surfer, plus easier features to connect your friends. At best, del.icio.us is a decent business and research tool, although I can’t shake off the fact that social bookmarking still has a long way to  go.