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I have grown to enjoy and become dependent on del.icio.us. It fits into my daily regimen quite seamlessly. I already use my MyYahoo! front page as a sort of real-time, cultural zeitgeist with top stories, most popular pictures, Buzz Indexes and more. Now, the Popular feed from del.icio.us is a perfect addition to this. Though, currently, it tends to be pretty focused—probably because it most heavily used by a relatively homogeneous early-adopter crowd.

Anyway, I really see del.icio.us’s strengths in two main areas: community and personal information management. I think that these facets could be expanded or enhanced with the following additions:

1. Send a del.icio.us link: Just about every site with content has some form of “Email this Article” functionality. Similarly, it’s very common to send someone a link in IM or via email—it’s how we share our interests, pass on useful information, etc. Since I started using del.icio.us, I have always wanted to be able to send someone a link to a del.icio.us entry for link, rather than just the link itself. On one hand, it would certainly increase the visibility and popularity of del.icio.us (for better or worse). But, more importantly, it has the potential to decorate a link with meta data. For example, the meta data can indicate how popular a link is or group related content (i.e. by “tag”). Also, it will show who else is interested in the link and, more importantly, what additional meta data other users add to the link. It is somewhat like Amazon.com’s recommendation system. As far as implementation, I think some kind of “send this link” functionality could be added to both a user’s personal page and to the “Post to del.icio.us” page. The latter, so that one could add the link while simultaneously emailing it to a friend.
2. “Personal del.icio.us”: del.icio.us’s second big strength is its role as a personal information management system. Countless times, I will add something to del.icio.us at work for the sole purpose of reading it at home later. Likewise, I use del.icio.us to save important links that need to be available to me no matter where I am. Basically, it’s like a distributed, synchronized bookmarks folder. Nothing revolutionary there, these have been around for a long time. But, sometimes, this capability interferes with (or at least dilutes) the community experience of del.icio.us: do any other users really care about some esoteric or mindless link I’ve posted? Perhaps, but not always. Or, probably more importantly, what if I’m a well known Microsoft employee, do I really want the world to see all of my links to various competitor sites? What I’m proposing is a “Personal” del.icio.us that you could add to your own site (like Google Free WebSearch). You could protect it with a password or simply run it on your local webserver—it would be for your eyes (and use) only. Of course, this would require the release of the del.icio.us code. Though this sounds like an overblown bookmark manager, I think it has some applicability. One reason is that, for many, there is a synergy in using the same tool for different purposes: just look at the the popularity of products leveraging Wiki technology for personal use.

Lastly, another thought I had was whether or not one could use del.icio.us to self-promote one’s own content (albeit shamelessly). By tagging your own blog post, for example, in del.icio.us,it will show up on the del.icio.us front page. It may only be there for a short while, but it while have been on the radar nonetheless. I’m almost tempted to experiment, but it seems pretty close to clicking your own link. I wonder, though, if the del.icio.us creators have considered this.

Updated: If you’re not familiar with del.icio.us, here’s a good Beginner’s Guide and the official About page.