using del.icio.us

The idea of del.icio.us is rather simple. But its utility is sometimes very subtle. For example the URL below shows the people who have bookmarked MindRetrieve:

http://del.icio.us/url/532b38dcd4526f40faef56f8c94896e9

21 people has bookmarked this project. As a popularity contest this is a respectable number. More interestingly is the common tags box on the right. This show what people think this project is about.

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common tags
13 search
12 python
7 web
4 lucene
3 software
3 tool
2 firefox
2 desktop
2 useful
2 pylucene
2 apps
2 browser
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13 people tagged this as search. Another 12 tagged Python, the programming language used in this project. 4 people mention lucene, the open source search engine that powers MindRetrieve.

Python is not exactly what I think should characterize MindRetrieve but merely an implementation detail. Since I have made an demo in PyCon, the Python community has help to spread the word about this project. del.icio.us' user build classification system just reflected this zeitgeist.

Congratulations to Joshua Schachter of del.icio.us. Recently he announced that he has received funding to start working on the project full time. Money aside, he has show how an individual innovator can make significant achievement.

http://lists.del.icio.us/pipermail/discuss/2005-April/002801.html