I use [1] Del.icio.us extensively to bookmark all my sites so that I can access it anywhere. Realized lately that I have not been using it efficiently at all. I found this out the hard way when I recently wanted to search for a bookmark (I knew I saved) but couldn’t find it — a classic sign that I was not using it properly. When you are spending more than 2-3 minutes trying to search for a bookmark and you can’t find it, there is definitely a problem.

Looking at the way I use delicious, I found that

1) I was under tagging i.e. not placing tags on some of the links I saved

2) I was over tagging i.e. placing too many tags on links without any regard to whether there was a previous tag that it could be categorized under

Contrary to many beliefs, I think placing too many tags on a link can hinder you as it creates more clutter and makes it harder to categorize. My reasoning is, I’d rather have 50 detailed specific tags rather than 1000 that I have to sift through.

3) I was not classifying the tags properly i.e. tags should have been more detailed and precise than general

4) I was not categorizing my tags and not taking advantage of the “bundle tags” option (found in the “settings” area when logged in)

5) there were a lot of repetitious and misspelled tags that could be deleted or combined with another tag e.g. “web services”, “service”, “services”, “managment”, “engineerng”

Hindsight is always 20/20 and I could have saved myself a lot of clutter and disorganization if I meticulously adhered to some tagging rules instead of *tagging blindly*.

So the result of my past actions? 630 links and bookmarks that are improperly categorized and tagged. When I wanted to search for something, the whole bookmarking system worked against me than for me.

In addition to retagging links, I have decided to utilize the “bundle tag” option too and created main categories i.e. as a high level tag that governs all mini tags. Also came up with a rule of thumb that when tagging something — it should not have more than 2-3 tags.

As an example, I’ve created a main category (or tag bundle) called “business” and changed all tagged links to reflect a more detailed subcategory header like “web designers”, “advertising”, “marketing”, “printers”, “voip”. I am trying to stray away from tagging a link with multiple *minor* related tags as one can certainly go overboard with tagging a link.

Therefore, for a link like [2] Jooce, I’ll tag it as “ajax”, “utilities” and “tools”, bundle it under “Web2″ and resist adding tags like “os”, “desktop”, “socialnetworking”, “social_networking”, “collaboration” etc. although it is related.

So instead of looking like this (with unbundled tags) …

… I intend to make it look like this, with main headers (bundled tags) which govern the sub/ mini tags.

My main objective is to make [1] Del.icio.us work for me and to be able to find links/ bookmarks faster (instead of digging through a barrage of links). That should be what tags/ tagging is all about — somehow I have lost that along the way.

This reorganization will probably be a constant work in progress but when it is all done, I’ll be able to use [1] Del.icio.us to its full potential.

I’m sure the way I did it is one of the many different ways you can organize tags.

How do you organize your [1] Del.icio.us tags?