4.2.3.1 Social bookmarking

Social bookmarking is a good example of a good Web 2.0 search application. Social bookmarking allow users to store links to Web pages, otherwise known as bookmarks, that they find useful, those bookmarks are then stored on a web page representing user’s personal library. When combined with other personal libraries, they allow many social networking possibilities. (Sweeney, S. (2008). 101 Ways to Promote Your Tourism Business Web Site. P.288)

This system allow to set up directories including websites unindexed by major search engines. In this case search engines are not set up by companies but by individuals.

Delicious is the most popular of them:

Delicious bookmarks search

With the information collected from there other applications can be created such as Similicious which is looking for similar websites to the one you indicated him. Such applications are creating through labels that every Internet users is associating to a website:

Home page of the Similicious website

Social bookmarking is then a solution to explore the Visible web part that some search engines do not explore and some parts of the Invisible Web as well.