Are you tired of the same old social bookmarking sites? Pearltrees is a new way to save and share cool web sites that you find as you browse the web.
Pearltrees has been reviewed approvingly on various tech blogs, including ReadWriteWeb and TechCrunch. I feel like there must be something wrong with me that I don’t share their enthusiasm, but when I tried it out I just wasn’t that excited.
Here’s how the service works: As you browse the web, you can use Pearltrees to bookmark sites (the company calls this “pearling.”) However, instead of saving them in a list format like you would on Delicious, etc, you organize them into a type of mind-map called a pearltree. Websites that deal with the same topic are on the same pearltree, and you can connect and organize the different “pearls” (bookmarks) however you want, like you’re creating a guided tour of what you think are the best websites pertaining to the topic.
The concept is definitely innovative, but it seems to me like it would be more time-consuming to organize your bookmarks like this than to simply categorize and tag them. One look at my desk or my bedroom will tell you that I don’t like to spend a lot of time organizing anything, and maybe that’s why I’m not connecting with this service as well as other people seem to be. I prefer to create virtual “piles” of stuff, with items tagged so that they can be easily sorted when I need to find something.
However, there are other aspects of Pearltree that I like better than your typical social bookmarking sites. First, whenever you and someone else link to the same site or pearl, you are automatically connected and can browse each other’s Pearltrees. You can also copy other members’ pearltrees and pull them to your own account. This allows you to discover new content from people who share your interests easily. There’s no popularity contest involved, which should help deter spammers or at least render them less visible to everyone else.
Pearltrees also integrate with your Twitter account. You can tweet links to Pearltrees you’ve created or add hashtags to links you tweet to have them added to a specific pearltree automatically.
Also, Pearltrees is using the data provided by users to create a collaborative “map of the web,” which is a really neat idea.
Still, I just can’t see myself using Pearltrees very much in the future. For research, I prefer to use either Evernote or Springpad-for me, it’s faster to add and categorize sites and easier to find them in the future. If I want to look at a collection of links by someone else, I’d rather scroll through a list of titles and descriptions and save only the links that interest me than have to look at each individual pearl in someone else’s pearltree. I have a feeling that whether or not you’ll find Pearltree useful depends on how your brain is wired in terms of organizing and processing information.
A side note: Pearltrees’ intro video features a cartoon guy named Paul, who becomes “a happy man” when he is able to use Pearltree to “fully live his passions.” If you aren’t fully living your passions now, I suggest getting out more, not spending even more time online, mmkay? Unless, of course, your true passion is organizing web sites…
Given that my opinion is at odds with that of so many bloggers who are all way higher up on the food chain that lil’ old me, I’d be interested to hear what you think of Pearltrees. What do you like/dislike about it?
Our Rating of Pearltrees
Categories:social
RT @usefultools: Tool of the Day: Pearltrees: A new way to organize the web http://su.pr/5ACrP9
Reading: A New Way to Organize the Web http://bit.ly/7lzMrX
A New Way to Organize the Web – Are you tired of the same old social bookmarking sites? Pearltrees is a new way to … http://ow.ly/168dwJ
A New Way to Organize the Web http://bit.ly/8d3nt5 Web-design.alltop
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A New Way to Organize the Web: Are you tired of the same old social bookmarking sites? Pearltrees is a new way .. http://bit.ly/6SEOjw
Tool of the Day: Pearltrees: A new way to organize the web (and am I crazy for not being in love with it?) http://su.pr/5ACrP9
RT @purplehayz: Pearltrees – a new way to organize the web http://is.gd/5iKY1
Pearltrees – a new way to organize the web http://is.gd/5iKY1
RT @usefultools: Tool of the Day: Pearltrees: A new way to organize the web http://su.pr/5ACrP9
RT @usefultools: Tool of the Day:Pearltrees:A new way to organize the web(and am I crazy for not being in love with it?) http://su.pr/5ACrP9
RT @usefultools: Tool of the Day:Pearltrees:A new way to organize the web(and am I crazy for not being in love with it?) http://su.pr/5ACrP9
Reading: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/usefultoolsfeed/~3/rDlCXL3bPS4/
RT @geoffreygordon: A New Way to Organize the Web – Are you tired of the same old social bookmarking sites? Pearltrees.. http://ow.ly/168dwJ
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