Social bookmarking is a process that involves having to put bookmarks in a public web site for future reference. Well known to internet users as the vital tool that makes their navigation through the internet resources organized, quick and manageable. A bookmark on the other hand, refers to an address for a site that the user saves in his computer. Once the user identifies the web site address, he tags it, i.e. giving the book mark a description. The use of keywords in the bookmarks helps in quick access of the web site by the search engines. Social bookmarking sites usually show the creator of every bookmark and a peak into that person’s other bookmarks. Users can also see the number of people using the same resources with the same tags thus, creating what is known as a folksonomy.

Very many web site owners have made social bookmarking part of their systems. This is because they use it for promoting the web site. They, use it to spread their links with expectations of back links. Top of the benefits of social bookmarking for web site owners is the fact that there is enhanced traffic control in the internet as well as getting quick recognition by search engines at no costs. Social bookmarking also lays ground for the linking between different web sites, blogs and forums.  When a web sites links are bookmarked in the social bookmarking sites, the rankings go up and the chance of the owners reaching out to their targeted markets also rise.

The social bookmarking tools carry out a number of important functions. They sort out the bookmarks based on; the frequency of visiting the web site, the time of addition of the web site and put the bookmarks into related groups fro example shopping and politics among others. There are very many social bookmarking sites. The most popular ones include; Digg, de.lirio.us  and Propeller. The features on social bookmarking sites include; libraries that store the many bookmarks, links exchanges, reports on bookmarks, opinions, votes and ratings of bookmarks as well as web sites annotations.

There are a couple of merits of using social bookmarking sites. Because they show ratings and votes on any postings, they are very helpful in knowing and understanding the majority’s opinions and views on the topic of interest. Other than helping store web site bookmarks, social bookmarking is a portable service. This means that wherever the user is at, he can access his bookmarks because they are found on the social bookmarking site and not on some hardware. These sites also help the users recognize and report any email spams, which helps in eradicating non-authentic information sharing. Social bookmarking sites have a bit of an edge over general search engines like Google. This is because; the social bookmark sites have a human face. Unlike the traditional search engines, social bookmarks are actually added by a person not a machine. Other technological applications are now borrowing from social bookmarking e.g. multimedia files and e-mail.

The main demerits include; lack of skill and poor use of tags because the creators of bookmarks are amateurs. The bookmarks libraries also need constant management.