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social bookmarking supercharged

augmenting the del.icio.us social bookmarking platform
  (+4)
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Del.icio.us started up a while back with the idea that building a social network around common bookmarks would be a good way to find interesting folks on the internet. Each of your bookmarks on Delicious is automatically turned into a hyperlink that takes you to a list of every other user that has also bookmarked that page, from which you can then explore their stock of public bookmarks. The hope is that this correspondence will indicate the potential alignment of personalities, but as it stands, this one to one bookmarking similarity isn't likely to lead to much.

Delicious has the potential to greatly empower this aspect of their site, however. All that is needed is a feature that compares your entire set of bookmarks to each other users entire set, and returns to you a list of users ranked based on the greatest alignment over the whole of your bookmarks. A weighting system could be introduced that would give more value to obscure sites, and less to those like youtube that would indicate very little about the particular users that bookmark it.

A few attempts at something like this have been made already, since Delicious released an API a while back, but none of them are very effective. This need not be implemented in Delicious in particular, however. The thrust of the idea is that web browsing correspondence would be an interesting criteria for personality matching, and exploration. Privacy issues, of course, are central.

Any thoughts? Has this been done already? Fatal flaws to this? I see this a gaping hole in the internet, so please let me know if it's been filled.

PandaFoot, Nov 14 2008

http://www.aiplayground.org/artikel/delicious-mates/ http://www.aiplaygr...el/delicious-mates/
[PandaFoot, Nov 16 2008]

[link]






       I like the idea of more obscure sites being ranked higher.
Noexit, Nov 14 2008
  

       Hm! I'm not sure this works, but I'd expect it to at least have been tried! Why doesn't this exist yet?
jutta, Nov 14 2008
  

       //All that is needed is a feature that compares your entire set of bookmarks to each other users entire set, and returns to you a list of users ranked based on the greatest alignment over the whole of your bookmarks. //   

       I suspect this is one of the reasons it hasn't been tried yet. You are going to need a google server farm for this puppy. And with everyone wanting it for free, cash flow might be slightly negative.
4whom, Nov 16 2008
  

       Further, you would like to add a weighting system to some relationships.   

       I point you to Ramsey theory, and the Ackermann function ( and also PR functions), in order to guage the computational complexity.
4whom, Nov 16 2008
  

       //The hope is that this correspondence will indicate the potential alignment of personalities, but as it stands, this one to one bookmarking similarity isn't likely to lead to much.//   

       I think you underestimate the scope of your idea, as well as its usefulness in its current implementation. Communication, and freedom thereof, is a basic human right. Any ideas that make this easier, or more pertinant, would be well received. Information, and the interrelationships between information sets, is about the most prized commodity today.   

       It is a very good idea, if you crack it (and can afford it) it will be hugely popular.
4whom, Nov 16 2008
  

       [+] Overall I like the idea.   

       // Privacy issues, of course, are central. //   

       If these "super social bookmarking" powers were used for good they could connect the scientists and artists together to create a better world. But if used for evil the could create mailing lists focused to your interests to inundate you with spam from all over the world.   

       // a good way to find interesting folks on the internet //   

       In a way the idea is like an intellectual dating service (I don't mean that in a bad way) where an individual can converse online with people sharing common interests. If that's the goal the data doesn't have to be cut that finely. You don't have to align all their interests just one could be enough.   

       Point being this idea may be overkill unless your looking for a best friend or a mate.
theGem, Nov 16 2008
  

       //If these "super social bookmarking" powers were used for good they could connect the scientists and artists together to create a better world.//   

       Presuming they could be connected at all. This is an exceedingly difficult problem.   

       In fact the more I look at it, it becomes a WIBNI...
4whom, Nov 16 2008
  

       @4whom   

       I added a URL to the original text for a fellow who has attempted this. He seems to have been successful on a small scale.
PandaFoot, Nov 16 2008
  

       [Pand...] I wasn't suggesting it is not possible, just that even with the small numbers used in the linked app, it gets very big, very fast.
4whom, Nov 17 2008
  
      
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