We run a bookmarking site and are interested in variations on the bookmarking theme and are interested in your opinion as to whether private bookmarking networks would be useful? Imagine Ning but for bookmarking.<p>If you think there is a market for it, would you pay for it?<p>Thanks in advance for any comments.
To clarify: Social bookmarks? You create a group and invite people to it and everyone can see the bookmarks that are placed into the group?<p>This sounds like a great add-on to a social network, but not something that I'd sign up for as a standalone product.<p>Also, a Wiki can do that already, as long as browser integration isn't required.<p>If we're talking browser integration, there'd need to be some way to sync it with the server. That might be useful, if you can join multiple groups.
Sounds rather like Delicious, just with privacy restrictions. Although, I can see myself using something like this.<p>Here's what Delicious's FAQ (<a href="http://www.delicious.com/help/faq#network" rel="nofollow">http://www.delicious.com/help/faq#network</a>) has to say about it:<p><i>Can I share a bookmark with just the people in my Network?<p>No, bookmarks can only be public or private right now. We may add something like that in the future, though.</i>
I think any sort of "instant group" website would be a hit right now. I imagine you're outlining the ability to create a SubReddit, and have only specific people able to participate in it.<p>I think it's a great idea. However, the most crucial ingredient would be an absolute minimal barrier to entry. Don't make me provide and verify an e-mail address, or any of that junk. Just make an obscure URL for each group, and those that get the URL can participate, and/or have a password to enter the group.<p>As wccrawford pointed out, it's more of an add-on to a social network. What's important is the group, not the links per se. So, while bookmarks (and maybe up/down voting) would be important, so would sharing other things, like contact info, files, conversation (forums), etc. Bookmarks and conversation would be the bare minimum.
There are more established players in the game, for whom it would be trivial to add this feature.<p>Xmarks ended(?) their business with millions of users once Chrome and Firefox decided to add distributed bookmarking.<p>It's a cool idea, but I'd be cautious about building a business based on it.
There is a start up called Mento (I think somehow connected to Hasso Plattner Ventures) that executes this idea: <a href="http://www.mento.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.mento.com/</a>