There are so few secrets on the web. Your competitor’s positioning, key benefits, product descriptions, and sometimes even their secret recipe may be readily available . . . right on their website. However, so few companies spend any time looking at what their competitors display in public.
Try using Diigo to bring together your team and track what’s important and what changes on your competitors’ sites. As they put it, Diigo is about social annotation - it lets you and your team highlight, annotate, share & interact on any webpage. Simply set up a profile, invite your colleagues to join, and then you can simply visit your competitors’ sites (or any site) and make highlights or add sticky notes wherever you like. It’s remarkably easy to set up, as you can see from this little example from one of our favorite sites.
When was the last time you visited your main competitor’s web site?
Diigo. Takes social bookmarking / social annotation to a whole new level. It’s been written up in Techcrunch and CNet. No point in repeating the good news.
How helpful is it to bookmark a Web site if you need only one sentence from that 3,000-word article? Diigo is a free bookmarking service that lets you do what we wish Yahoo’s Del.icio.us would: highlight text and comment on Web pages. Diigo caches each site so that you can search within text, not just the topic tags. And you won’t have to leave the Del.icio.us community, since Diigo lets you save bookmarks simultaneously in both places. CNet
One thing about Diigo. One gesture to Diigo can simultaneously update all your other bookmarking sites. That may create a lot of duplication, or it may create the opportunity to connect with others across a world of tagging that remains fragmented. I shall continue experimenting with it.
Like Del.icio.us, Diigo lets you bookmark and tag pages and store those bookmarks on the Web. And as with Ma.gnolia, you can set up groups of like-minded Web wanderers who share bookmarks. But Diigo, which is free, adds some nifty new features, including the ability to add sticky notes to a page, highlight passages of text, or blog your clippings and notes with just a couple of clicks.
Karen has asked me to provide you all with more info on working with Diigo so that those of you who are a bit unsure about what you can do with it can get started. Below I’ve included some of its key features, but I strongly encourage you to visit their help menu, where you can access neat little flash tutorials on how to get started that are far better than anything I can whip up here.
Some Diigo Features:
Tagging: An easy, user-generated way to categorize and organize your bookmarks
Annotation: write sticky notes that can be made public so you can interact and collaborate with others who are reading the same pages.
Highlighting: Easy to highlight parts of pages, extract them, and collect them (great for research!)
Groups: you can create public and private groups—a great way to organize group projects and add a level of privacy to Diigo that you may feel more comfortable with than making everything public.
Privacy: Options for privacy are available on just about all Diigo features
Search: You can search not just by tag name, but also titles, notes, highlights, and full text.
Blogging Integration: “Blog This” feature allows you to move easily between browsing and blogging. Populate your blog post instantaneously with the highlighted texts you selected while reading a web page - a big time saver.
Archiving: Allows you to save EXACT copies of bookmarked pages, which protects you from losing cool stuff that may disappear over time.
Photos: You can collect your favorite photos into albums
Subscribe/Post Lists: Bookmark lists can be subscribed on the website and through RSS
Community: find new content from specific users or based on tags, hot lists
WebSlides - Transforms Bookmarks Once Again Annotated
New feature from Diigo (currently in private beta testing): create a slideshow of links with highlighting and sticky notes. You can record audio or add music to accompany it. I could see this having potential for basic tutorials or demos; you could do this instead of using screencast or recording software.
We received a nice exclusive from Diigo the social bookmarking beta about their latest release WebSlides. This innovation is a browser based player that displays live Web pages with integrated annotation, sticky notes and highlights in an interactive slideshow. With this cool tool users can record and narrate tracks as well as add background music to make compelling shows - and somewhat more. WebSlides is being presented at the Office 2.0 Conference as I write this, so we wanted you to have a look at this simple, innovative and useful tool as well......
Once I got it working, it wasn’t so bad. I enjoyed being able to read the feedback from my classmates. I also liked being able to post my own thoughts and/or questions. I still haven’t figured out the difference between a sticky note versus a bookmark and highlighting. For educational purposes it’s a great tool. If I were teaching high school level I would definitely have considered using this tool. As a future elementary school teacher I could use it with fellow co workers and articles I come across.
Diigo has yet to be widely publicized, but I think it will become more popular over time. Annotating in college is important and can be helpful to students in being able to read others thoughts or understanding of the material.
But Diigo had a few other features that I also enjoyed. First of all it allows me to expert and import sites with my del.icio.us account which was convenient. It also allows me to make a blog post of my finds right away. I can add tags just like with deli.cio.us and that helps me to keep organized. I can also search the finds of others using Diigo. Diigo was originally designed to be helpful to researchers so I find it to be very user friendly. But the part I REALLY enjoy, is the opportunity to HIGHLIGHT the parts of article I am reading that I find to be interesting or important. If you ever saw a book after I am done with it, you'd see highlighting all over it! I am so happy to be able to extend this habit to my web surfing! I can also add "sticky notes" with my comments on them which is akin to writing in the margins. I love doing that too!
This is the most versatile social bookmarking tool! Why is Diigo our social bookmarking service of choice? It provides so many other useful features in addition to saving and sharing bookmarks! Diigo enables you to forward your saved sites to others, enhancing collaboration. It's also a great tool for researching because it allows you to highlight text and add sticky notes to any web page. Diigo provides another tool for collaboration by allowing the creation of user groups and discussion forums. Diigo also interacts with Delicious and other bookmarking tools through the use of the Add Elsewhere button. Web pages can be linked together, in a webquest style, through the use of the webslides feature.
Web bookmarking and research tool Diigo is announcing the launch of Diigo 3.0 today. We initially reviewed Diigo when they launched at DEMO 2007. Diigo is a bookmark tool but what I like about Diigo is their WebSlides feature. It basically makes a live PowerPoint-like annotated presentation using media from across the Web. Back in September I thought the tool was perfect for Web agencies, and I stand by this claim today.
One of the new features of Diigo 3.0 is collaborative research. Team members can bring together links they find across the Web for comments and annotation. There is tagging and sticky notes that the team can participate in to make the presentation stronger.
The other major update is the addition of more social components. If you install the Diigo toolbar, as you browse the Web, you can see what others think of the page including comments, who bookmarked the page and what other similar sites and pages they have bookmarked. It's all about discovery and Diigo has done a great job in this area.
Diigo has released v 3.0 of its browser plugin and has set a new standard in social bookmarking in the process. It not only allows you to bookmark and save notes in an easy to retrieve place, it adds a new dimension to the Web itself by revealing, at the page level, the community of people who have also interacted with the content. It also feeds into a bigger community of content that builds a social network around relevant information.
It combines research and community.
Starting simple:
You can bookmark and annotate relevant things that you need to reference later. Using the Webslides function, you also can share these links as a slideshow, which actually appear as “live” web pages. The slideshow is embeddable on Web pages and in blogs.
Revealing a new layer of the web:
The new sidebar gives you quick access to your bookmarks as well your annotations on each Web page. It also shows you other diigo users who have annotated that page to give you additional perspective. The sidebar is searchable to find your notes quicker and easier.
Connect and Engage:
According to the company, you are what you annotate. Bookmarks, tags, and annotations are one of the best representations of your interests and expertise. At Diigo, you maintain a bookmarks page which is your hub to relevant content. You can also connect to like-minded people and also browse their activities as they relate to you.
In Diigo Groups, users can connect and collaborate on findings through group highlights, sticky notes, and bookmarks.
But it’s more than that. It also helps people connect around common interests and builds communities around topics and sites.
Other new community features allow you to send messages and bookmarks to each other.
There are also communities around sites that you can join that bring together people who have bookmarked pages from that site. In the video, they demonstrate a community around the New York Times. You can see and interact with the people who have contributed content and interact with them based on their notes and interests related to that particular site.
Diigo also connects people and related content. The service learns about you and your interests based on how you tag, save, share, etc. You can have recommended bookmarks provided to you, or even have Diigo present others who share the same interests as you.
The solitary act of reading now becomes social, fun, and productive.
Diigo has no awkward periods to parse. Diigo can suck up my bookmarks from some of the browsers I use. I can highlight sections of a web page and add comments about them on sticky notes. I can forward individual bookmarks with my highlighted sections to others.
I have added a Diigolet button on my bookmark bar on all but one of my browsers. (There's also a Diigo toolbar, but I'm reluctant to give up real estate in my browser.) Diigo will allow me to export its bookmarks into my Del.icio.us, Furl, etc. accounts without any fuss. I can keep selected bookmarks private or add private comments to my public bookmarks -- this is perfect for stashing account information! I'm going to give Diigo a try.
Have no fear . . . Diigo is here! What is this Diigo thing you ask? Diigo may be one of the
coolest social bookmarking sites on the web. This new web 2.0 tool (well ok, it is not that
new but it is very very cool. Anyway, if you have not heard about it, it is still new) is
del.icio.us on steroids! Imagine being able to highlight information directly over a web page and attach your comments to what you highlighted. Now you can leave detailed instructions on a website or create a reading coach for students that need additional support. With Diigo you can caption (add a “sticky note” to) an image or concept to enhance understanding.
DIIIIIIIIGO!!!
With the power of Diigo I can surf the web pages and not only bookmark pages I find interesting and relevant but I can also highlight and add sticky notes of comments that I and other members of the Diigo Community can easily access and discuss. This adds more steroids to the standard web bookmarking technique. Instead of having a huge list of bookmarks which i cannot remember what they are anymore I can ad tags, make sub-categories and share with other members with my same interest. Plus, it has a beautiful name… DIIIIIIIIIIIGOOOO! If only a computer can echo so all my imaginary friends online can hear it.
3. Diigo - A really fantastic social bookmarking and annotation tool. Like del.icio.us, Diigo arms you with web browser toolbar that lets you publicly share and organize your website bookmarks. However, Diigo expands upon this premise by allowing users to highlight, clip, and make sticky-notes on the websites you bookmark- and this makes it a powerful research tool (especially if you're me- prone to bookmarking websites that mention anything having to do with my thesis, and forgetting why they were important later).
In the fall, I ran across a new social bookmarking site–Diigo. I started using Diigo with a paper that I was writing and loved it for several reasons. First, it’s a social bookmarking site which meant that I could peruse the links of other people on the site. Second, Diigo gave me the Furl functionality of highlighting and annotating, but the format seemed easier and the interface was more aesthetically speaking (in my opinion). While I was in this stage of tinkering, I met with one of my dissertation committee members and I was talking about the focus of my dissertation–blogging. He very bluntly reminded me that my entire dissertation could not focus only on blogging, but needed to be focused on more features. I was in a bind–I wanted to focus on the advantages to writing that came from blogs, not all medias. But the more I played around with Diigo, the more a little grain of an idea began to grow. My dissertation should note about the advantages to writing–but about collaboration through Web 2.0
So, this semester, I went out on a limb and offered my students the option of collaborating on their research this semester. They were already not looking forward to the research, but the idea of using each other to further their research sounded like a good idea. Still, they weren’t jumping at the idea. Then, I gave them a quick walkthrough of Diigo. Their eyes lit up like they had just been given a present–and it wasn’t even their birthday. One student looked dumbfounded and asked:
“Is it really that easy?”
“It sure is.” I replied.
Students Use Social Bookmarking
Just like I learned with blogging in the classroom, I know that students get more out of methods of learning that they use in their free time. So, social bookmarking was a way for me to engage my students not only in the research, but in conversations with the research. Social bookmarking, regardless of the site used, creates a conversation among members interested in the same tag. Each time a member marks a bookmark, they are speaking to their networks and saying “Read this.”
Annotation is Suddenly Fun
Each semester, I try (in vain, usually) to get my students to annotate their text book. I do this to prepare them not only for future studies, but also for the annotation that research demands they do. Diigo, suddenly, makes the students want to annotate their bookmarks. It is their chance to make sure the world (or their group) knows how important specific words on a webpage are to them.
Diigo allows a More Advanced Conversation
As I mentioned above, social bookmarking allows students to engage in a conversation with other scholars on the same topic. Diigo allows this conversation to move beyond just the “Read this” comment and actually allows the students to create a dialogue. Through Diigo, students have a variety of ways to engage in this dialogue.
Creating Groups–creating groups of individuals within their network who are researching on the same topic allows students to share bookmarks they have found.
Using Forums–Within a group, the administrator has the opportunity to create a forum that allows each member of the group to ask and respond to specific issues on a topic. For example, if one student cannot find statistics, they can mention this in the forum and receive an answer (or better yet, a bookmark) from one of the group members.
Highlighting–This allows one student to specifically show others in the group what they find important about the bookmark. But the highlights are not owned or seen by just the individual. If John shares a bookmark with highlighting, Frank can not only see John’s highlighting, but can also add his own highlighting (which is also available to John).
Sticky Notes–In addition to highlighting, students can add to the conversation on the page. Their comments can be seen by others who read the page (if the notes are public) and their friends can add to this conversation.
Although i’ve called Diigo,a note taking tool,it can also be used for sharing bookmarks
To get the best out of Diigo,you will have to download either,a toolbar (IE,Firefox or Flock) or a Diigolet (also available for Opera and Safari).The toolbar offers all of Diigo’s options and the Diigolet lets you get the most of Diigo,on any computer that cannot have the toolbar installed on it.
it was very easy to highlight text,make a sticky note of the highlighted text you want to keep and move it around the page,or go to the Diigo website and view all of your notes to date.You can also put tags to your notes and you’ve also got the option of whether to keep your notes private or make them public.
The bookmarks are just as easy to save,just click on the bookmark button,enter the url and a few details,click on Save,and it’s done.All i can say it is extremely easy to use and for anybody who makes lots of notes from websites,it’s a great site to use.
Diigo (pronounced Dee’go) is a great social bookmarking site if you like to bookmark, highlight, put sticky notes (comments) on certain information you’re interested in when searching the web.
Diigo is great for research. If you collect a lot of information like me, this is a great place to store everything. I know when I start to research a topic offline it usually means a tonne of books on the desk, bits and pieces of loose paper everywhere, writing pads, folders, paper, pens, highlighters. I think you get the image.
Diigo does all of the above and so much more online.
And if that isn’t enough you can even blog from there too. The tutorials are very clear and easy to understand. I know I seriously sound like an infomercial right now but I think I’ve found a site I didn’t know I was looking for it.
Over the Easter break I’m locking myself away with a mission to learn how to drive it!
Suggestion: in the Get Annotated Link dialogue, simply use the expression 'annotations'. No need to specify 'highlights' and 'sticky notes' - comments, too, are visible to anonymous users of the Diigolet.
