Web 2.0 was and is about Web innovation. So many startups have focused on everything from video to business applications, and much more. However, the list of startups that actually have practical and/or productive capabilities is still – rather limited. Diigo is one innovation that comes to mind when we think of actual utility and practical function. Diigo has continually adapted and developed into what is effectively the Web’s best research tool. Now, with their launch of Version 3, Diigo has refined a social annotation and collaboration service into an even more effective “personal and group oriented tool”.

What Community Should Be

Community is a big buzz word these days, but the actual effectiveness and potential productivity of these communities is what should really be stressed. The Diigo community, in using all the function of Diigo’s innovation and refinements, has the ability to help build relationships based around perhaps our greatest asset – knowledge. Facebook, MyBlogLog, Digg and a host of other communities are based to a large degree on communication (however embellished) and entertainment – they are in effect elaborate instant messengers. Diigo’s latest release of Version 3 illustrates the proper metamorphosis of a truly valuable community. The innovators developed a way to collect and store knowledge efficiently, and then refined the platform to foster collaboration in learning. This is how truly valuable function and excellence is achieved in an online startup as we have seen.

Diigo Versions 2 to 3

The Diigo platform was developed around a utility (the Diigo browser add on) that enables people to actually highlight and perform functions on sections of or whole Web pages. The idea was and is to allow people to grab relevant content and effectively aggregate, save and/or store this data. In a very real sense Diigo transformed the bookmark into a more usable and effective data collection tool. The idea was logical and brilliant if not technologically simple. Diigo basically enables people to study and research as one would in a library – by taking pertinent pieces of the knowledge puzzle and putting them where they are accessible, functional and more easily utilized. Version 3 is the refinement of this tool with astounding new features in conjunction with a great collaborative community aspect.

A World Tool Condensed

The term tool in conjunction with some applications seems rather mutually exclusive unless you broadly associate tools for entertainment into your definition. Innovations like Diigo are universal and help people actually be productive in the true sense. Condensing such a diverse platform can be challenging, but here are the main elements of Diigo’s platform and some of their function:

• Diigo as a Personal or Collaborative Research Platform – This is the premise on which Diigo was built, a platform for gather, using and sharing information. Not just any information, but highly filtered and relevant information beyond the weightiness of full Web pages and extraneous data. Diigo allows users to add, gather or extract from pages of information and then share or work with others to further refine knowledge.

• Diigo as a Social Content Site - The aggregate gathered annotated data on Diigo provides a collective repository quite unlike any other. Data becomes knowledge refined at Diigo because of the human filtering aspect inherent in the way people can “slice” or refine their annotations and bookmarks. Essentially everything gathered on to the Diigo platform becomes either a personal or communicative volume in the Diigo library. In this was Diigo content is perhaps more social than on any other site. Searchability and the host of Diigo user tools make endless the possibilities in utilizing this storehouse of information.
  

• Diigo as a Knowledge Sharing Community – Diigo says that “we are what we annotate”, while this is not strictly true in every sense – it is an indicator of our intent and interest. Diigo has invested a great deal of time obviously, in making connecting and sharing part of this platform. Connectedness at Diigo is rather more interesting than at most sites in that the atmosphere is a “thinking” one rather than a reactive one. Diigo takes all the standard Web 2.0 user tools and focuses them on connecting people with knowledge and then community.

Screen of my Diigo sidebar and featured people of Diigo

Version 3 Refinements

A great new UI, a new Diigo toolbar and especially an added fully functional sidebar have added great form and function to Diigo. Version 3 has over 100 new features, here are some of the more apparent features and usability.

• Hyper-usability as a research tool: Diigo’s entire browser extension has been re-designed for improved, and it now provides a sidebar where a user can easily search and access his bookmarks. This sidebar adds great flexibility and simplicity to viewing annotations and in using other Diigo functions. Users can view, search, tag and perform other functions in the sidebar while still using the classic view and/or surfing for resources - this is a great addition.

• Team research platform - Another powerful Version 3’s addition is the enhanced ability for users to vote or approve excellent bookmarks in a rather “suggestive” matrix. Group tagging, allows entire groups to suggest the best of the best and in this fashion good content (voted on by a collective) tends to rise to the top. The results of group activity are utilized in this way and add to group as well as community content value.

• Social Browser Discovery - The Diigo toolbar has been a great innovation of Web 2.0. Now with Version 3 users have added utility in that the new bar has the capability to show who has bookmarked any page and other similar pages and sites people have marked. Essentially Diigo has added a new level of transparency and discovery to an already powerful tool.

• Social Personalization - Diigo as a source of collective social content makes finding, selecting, evaluating and effectively using interesting content much simpler. Users can see much more clearly the tags of individuals and groups, while browsing content of friends, group members or the Diigo community as a whole. From recommended news to top rated bookmarks, Diigo has added a compelling new way to gather and use daga.

• Networking - Diigo Version 3 is an integrated platform for social bookmarking and annotation which fosters a much more connected and productive type of network. Community members can not only gather around meaningful topics and projects, but they now have advanced search and discovery tools to help them collectively draw from Diigo’s growing storehouse of excellent data. The “people like me” aspect is also fun and useful, especially if you are looking for people in similar tasks or interests. The invite and communication aspects are fairly commonplace for communities, but the essence of Diigo’s value is really in the user generated content that has been made so accessible.

My Diigo recommendations today!

Conclusion

I read a few reviews dealing with the new release of Version 3, and I must say I was not overely impressed in the coverage. TechCrunch author Mark Hendrickson blessed the new launch without having even tested the new feaures by his own admission. I don’t see how such a fine writer could slight any valid startup in such a blatant fashion. Marshall Kirpatrick of ReadWriteWeb did a fair review of these new features, but felt “uncompelled” with many of the new enhancements. The best major review was by Rafe Needleman of Webware, wherein he heartily recommended the platform.

The main reason I mention these reviews is not to slight these fine tech authors, but to point out just how difficult (especially if you don’t test it) some of these innovations can be. Diigo is certainly one of the more feature packed and difficult to express startups from a textual perspective. The point here is, Diigo is not really a bookmarking site. The essence of this tool is research and secondarily productive community. This launch is significant in that the two elements have been brought much closer together. Diigo has a long way to go in terms or aesthetics, more continuity and if we must “coolness”, but as a research and productivity community - it has no competitor. That is all I have to say about that.

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