Tag That Image, Visual Bookmarking Sites Worth Blogging

We have all heard, by now, of the social bookmarking sites such as Digg and Delicious. These sites allow people to tag articles and other text deemed interesting so that others may enjoy reading them. Now, however, other sites have been developed that allow people to, instead of bookmarking articles found on the Web, bookmark visual images found on the Web.

Three sites geared toward visual bookmarking have been created so far; FFFFound, We Heart It, and Vi.sualize.us. The article I read, by Jenna Wortham, states that, although the sites are far getting the hype that other social bookmarking sites are getting - Digg boasts 35 million users a month, they are gaining a steady following. The article describes the sites as "similar to a white walled gallery, they present their goods with little to no flourish..." making the Web pages simple, clean, and user friendly. This type of clean and easy to use interface is key in allowing the web pages to gain popularity and compete with other social bookmarking sites.

FFFFound was created in 2007 by a Tokyo based design firm. This particular visual bookmarking site is unique in the way that it has placed a cap on the number of members allowed to join the site. This was done out of fear that if there were too many people involved in bookmarking images to the site it might become unmanageable and cluttered. Anyone, however, can brows the image catalog.

Of all three sites, Vi.sualize.us is said to offer the most variety. Things such as t-shirt designs and artsy studio shots can be found on this site. Now Vi.sualize.us has almost 10,000 members and 300,000 images. We Heart It was created by a designer who could not get onto FFFFound. The article compared We Heart It to Flickr but with a more avant-garde feel. The site also allows its 16,000 member to tag video from sites such as YouTube, and it is estimated that a new selection is added each minute.

As other bookmarking sites allow meeting and event planners to stay up to date on news and things that might be happening in their industry, perhaps this tool will allow meeting and event planners a different use. It seems that these visual bookmarking tools might be useful to planners looking for themes or creative ideas for their next social event.