Google is trying in so many ways to catch up on the sharing front. It wants you to share more links through Google properties such as Gmail, Google Reader, Google News, and Google Buzz. Today, it is adding a new sharing feature to Google Bookmarks. You can now organize bookmarks into lists and share those lists.
For instance, I created this list of stories about Google’s new approach to China (or is it a retreat?). It is a public list. People can follow the list, in case I add more links, or copy the list to their own bookmarks. The list is shareable via email or as a link. The list’s creator can move items up and down the list or create new sections. It is a pretty basic way to group links together, but seems like it could come in handy. → Read More
Social sharing is becoming a big contributor to traffic for many sites. While Facebook and Twitter drive more sharing than any other services, Google is trying to compete with Buzz, which is now part of Gmail but shares links to article and blog posts through Google Reader. Over the past month, according to AddThis, sharing through Google Reader is up 35 percent, with a big jump on February 9, the day Buzz launched. This number only measures sharing through the AddThis button, which is on more than 600,000 Websites and gives you the option to share content through more than 200 services. So it is only a proxy for total sharing on Google Reader, but a decent one.
Google Reader still barely registers when compared to Twitter and Facebook, which account for 31 percent and 8 percent of all sharing via AddThis, respectively. But Buzz is definitely giving it a boost. → Read More
Google added bookmarks to version 4 of its Internet Explorer Toolbar (note that this is not available for their Firefox Toolbar). Google Bookmarks have been available since October on the Google site, but were not integrated into the toolbar until now. Bookmarking is done via a popup from the toolbar that allows naming of the bookmark and any number of tags. A bookmark can be edited as well. Google Bookmarks have no “social” or sharing feature. And while it is disappointing that bookmarks are not available yet for Firefox, I will say that the interface in IE is excellent. In addition to setting tags, users can access bookmarks directly from the toolbar via a drop down menu containing chosen tags. I’ve been very hard on Google products recently (and their product strategy). And while I could criticize them for releasing this only in IE, I won’t. This is a great bookmarking product, interesting features can be added down the road, and many users will find it useful. More from Nik Cubrilovic and Niall Kennedy. → Read More
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