"A new generation of hidden influencers is taking root online, fueled by a growing love affair among Web sites with letting users vote on their favorite submissions. These sites are the next wave in the social-networking craze -- popularized by MySpace and Facebook. Digg is one of the most prominent of these sites, which are variously labeled social bookmarking or social news."
Some of the main social bookmarking sites on the Web according to the Wall Street Journal:
Digg: One of the largest social-media sites in terms of submissions, San Francisco-based Digg.com launched in late 2004 and now has about 900,000 registered users and 20 million visitors monthly, the site says. Digg's content leans heavily on technology and science, but to help broaden its appeal, the site recently added new sections for entertainment and podcasts.
Reddit: Reddit works similarly to Digg, with people submitting stories and the wider community voting on them. The submitter receives one "karma" point for each positive vote and loses one for each negative vote. Cond� Nast's Wired Digital acquired the Cambridge, Mass., company in October.
StumbleUpon: Unlike most other social-media sites, StumbleUpon requires users to download a toolbar onto their Web browsers. Click the "Thumbs Up" or "Thumbs Down" buttons when you visit a site you like or don't like and it will automatically post it to your page on StumbleUpon.com. You can also click "Stumble" on the toolbar and be redirected to a site another user has voted on that matches your interests.
Del.icio.us: Del.icio.us is essentially a database of users' bookmarked sites. The more other users bookmark a site, the more popular it becomes, and the more likely it is to land on the "hotlist" page. Started in 2003, Del.icio.us was acquired by Yahoo in 2005.
Newsvine: Seattle-based Newsvine launched last March with a focus on what has become known as "citizen journalism," amateurs reporting on the news. Users post links they think are interesting, and also post their own articles and opinion pieces, on which others in the community can then submit comments.
Netscape: One of the first major Web browsers, Netscape relaunched last June as a social news site similar to Digg. A unit of AOL, it caused a stir last year when it began wooing top users from other social-media sites and paid these "navigators" $1,000 a month to submit links.
(The Wall Street Journal, February 10, 2007; Page P1)
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