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While at first glance a web-based bookmarking tool seems neither social nor useful for business, Delicious is a handy platform for both.

What is Delicious?

Delicious (originally del.icio.us) is a social bookmarking site. It allows users to:

Keep an online bookmark directory

• “Tag” bookmarks with keywords
• View other users’ public bookmarks
• Keep private bookmarks
• Search for tagged bookmarks
• See up-to-the-minute listings of most-bookmarked sites
• Share bookmarks with other users

Users can also connect with other users, which generates a link feed on each user’s People tab.

For a visual guide to Delicious, check out Social Bookmarking in Plain English on YouTube.

Why should I care?

Although Delicious had only 5.3 million users as of April 2009, it’s not a waste of your time; au contraire, it could save you time! Delicious can be used in a huge variety of ways:

• Search the Delicious link base to find useful websites tagged by real people, not cached by Googlebots
• Use it as a project resource databases for company team members
• Save your bookmarks from hard drive crashes and viruses
• Access your bookmarks from any computer (which is especially handy if you occasionally work from home)
• Find out how users tag your site, and add those terms to your site’s text for search engine optimization
• Keep up with industry trends by checking out other users’ bookmarks

As you can see, Delicious is slanted toward being a productivity tool instead of a customer contact tool. However, that doesn’t mean it can’t be a useful contact point with your customers!

For example, installing a bookmark-posting widget on your website both updates your website (which makes search engines happy) and shares useful information with your customers. If they see that you do active research on your area of expertise, then freely share it, they may think more highly of you and come to you (and your company) when they need advice.

Need more help? Check out the Mashable Delicious Toolbox.

Points to Remember:

• Delicious is a social bookmarking tool
• Using social bookmarking features can increase your productivity
• Sharing links with your customers can build trust

Did this article help you out? Do you still have more questions about Delicious? Let us know in the comments!