Diigo, a research and knowledge sharing tool (social bookmarking and annotations), has acquired Furl from LookSmart. Furl is a web page clipping and archiving service, so it seems like a good fit and, because the deal is being pitched as a partnership in exchange for equity, no one is laying out too much cash right now.
According to Ted West, chief executive officer and president of LookSmart, they are “pleased to know that Furl’s loyal user base will benefit from a reliable platform run by a team highly focused on bringing users the most advanced features and functionality in the marketplace. The combination drastically changes the social bookmarking landscape and we look forward to being a part of it.” BrianSolis has worked with Diigo to help increase awareness for the company and its array of curation tools and contextual network.
Diigo offers a popular Twitter This feature, which allows you to easily share things to Twitter while browsing and bookmarking.
Diigo's TwitterThis option
It also allows you to easily add highlights and sticky notes to any webpage, and then share the annotated page to your twitter followers. They will just see an ordinary link in the Twitter message; but when clicking on the link, they can also see your highlights and sticky notes on the webpage.
Diigo is about to launch Diigo 4.0, which, when combined with Furl, will aim to “take social bookmarking/annotation to a new height.”
Join me in Pasadena on Wednesday and Thursday at Executing Social Media, an interactive conference for marketing professionals and entrepreneurs.
I’m joining an incredible array of new media marketing visionaries including Chris Heuer, Jeremy Pepper, Phil Gomes, Jake McKee, Sally Falkow, and Chris Brogan.
I’m hosting a three hour workshop on Wednesday morning entitled, “From Friendfeed to Digg: An Executive Survey of Social Media Tools & Resources for PR, Customer Service, and Marketing.”
If you’re interested in attending, click here to register. Use code la08bs to save $300.
Workshop Description:
We live in interesting times. We’re currently enthralled in an immersive, confusing, and definitive transition in our “day job.” If you don’t engage, your competition will. This session will help you become a Social Media sociologist, not a cultural voyeur, in order to get to work and build relationships along the way.
The 3rd Communitelligence Executing Social Media Conference & Workshops is a must-attend event for anyone in need of good advice on using the new social media tools for business advantage. The conference delivers practical, how-to take-aways from two-dozen experts and practitioners who are boldly executing successful new media programs today.
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.
Chris Shipley kicked off DEMOfall 07 in a major way, claiming that everything is in a state of 2.0. And, by 2.0 she simply inferred to the fact that technology is innovating and revolutionizing across every sector.
And after sitting through a day of DEMO presenters, so far it’s very clear that she’s absolutely right.
Photo by Solis at 2006 DEMOfall
Chris Shipley and company announced the Fall lineup for Demo, its highly anticipated innovation showcase.
Starting next week, 69 hand-picked companies will launch a flurry of next gen Web 2.0, enterprise, security, mobile, search, gaming, communications and consumer electronics solutions and we’ll be there to cover every minute of the action.
Bookmark bub.blicio.us for coverage and this link for all of the pictures as they happen.
