by Roisi Proven

Created on: November 19, 2007

When the Internet was first born, it wasn't that hard to find what you were looking for. a quick browse would get you the information you needed. But as of February 2007, an independent survey recorded over 108 million individual websites on the net. And that's not even taking into account the number of pages each website has. And when you think about the number of pages there are on Myspace, or YouTube, that's a whole lot of information.

So what if you're finding that search engines just aren't enough? It's incredibly difficult to find new, exciting websites, as Google will simply order the sites by keyword recognition, or the amount the pay for adverts. This is where social bookmarking comes in. This is a relatively new method of Internet searching which relies on user ratings, rather than relying simply on keywords and ad revenue. But even with social bookmarking, there are different sites that cater to different needs.

1) DIGG.COM
This site is the daddy of all social bookmarking sites. Started in early 2004, many web pages with user-created content now have a little link at the bottom which says "Digg this!". By "Digging" something, you therefore submit it to Digg.com for viewing by other users on the site. These users will then go on sites and possibly Digg them as well, meaning the site increases in traffic and moves up the rankings. Digg deals with a wealth of content, but can be daunting at times, and is a little difficult to get the hang of

2) STUMBLEUPON.COM
One of my personal favorites, when joining this site you also download a discreet toolbar for the top of your web browser. You choose which topics you would like to find websites for, and then click "Stumble!". This magic little button will then take you to a random website which applies to a subject which you have selected, and has been added to stumbleupon by other users. You can either click "I like it!", which will add the site to your stumbleupon favorites for viewing again, or thumbs down, which will mean the site won't appear again. Also, if you know a site you think would be good on stumbleupon, you can click "I like it!" and a popup will appear allowing you to add the site for others to stumble upon! The only thing about this program is that it is very hit and miss, and you can sometimes go through several "stumbles" before finding something you like.

3)DEL.ICIO.US/
For the tecchies among you, this site should be your first port of call. It contains thousands of sites that have been user uploaded.

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