Before we get into detail, Delicious was the best site we reviewed in terms of basic social bookmarking, which includes importing / exporting bookmarks, sharing bookmarks, commenting, search your own bookmarked sites, tagging, etcetera. However, Digg was the best site we compared in terms of overall design, functionality and "web 2.0 ness" and is the choice if your goal is to find new sites, meet people, get traffic, and express your opinion for the world to see.

Some say Delicious is the most popular social bookmarking website, but from what I have seen of Digg that is a farce. Digg has a much better design, a much more sophisticated system, more active users, more features and seems to send more traffic to sites that get on its popular pages. In fact, the traffic is so intense that it often results in shutting down the server on websites that hit the front page. It is called the "Digg effect". Diggers shorten everything, so that's the "DE" for those in the know. As far as organizing your bookmarks though, Delicious is a much better platform.

Reddit is slightly different than the above to social bookmarking websites in that it uses a "karma" system in which your votes affect your karma points. The design is very "blahh" but if simplicity is what you're after, Reddit may be for you. It also has the benefit of private messaging between users.

FURL is similar to del.icio.us. It stores copies of the pages you save, and automates finding other users who have similar interests. You can export your archives in MPLA or APA citation format. The "FURL it Fast" option is a quick way of bookmarking a site, but you don't have much control. Furl is owned by LookSmart. Be sure not to go to www.furl.com. I don't know why, but the folks over at looksmart are too cheap or lazy to buy or litigate that domain away from the owner. Instead, go to www.furl.net.

FARK is a good place to find funny stories if you need a laugh and have some time to waste. It isn't very useful as a straight social bookmarking website, as the bookmarks are not organized well, not exportable, etcetera.

Stumbleupon has been around for awhile, but only recently started to gain rock-star status among social bookmarkers. Stumbleupon comes in the form of a toolbar installed on your browser. You can choose, among other things, to stumble (move on to another random site), thumb up or thumb down. If you thumb up a page it is more likely that other people with similar interests will stumble upon it. If you thumb it down, stumbles become less likely for that page. It is a fantastic way to learn about new sites, but in terms of organizing your own bookmarks it is lacking in many areas.

Wists is a great social bookmarking platform if you are heavily into shopping, as many of the Compare The Brands visitors are. It is unique among all of the other social bookmarking websites in one very important way - you are bookmarking images. Wists is short for "wish lists" and can be a place where you send friends and family to if you want them to see exactly what they can buy you for Christmas and where it can be found. It also makes a rather simple and fun wedding registry.

Honorable social bookmarking website Mentions: RawSugar, Linkroll, Yahoo Myweb, Blinklist, MemeStreams, and Simpy.