Collect, Organize and Share Your Favorite Content with Zootool

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Sometimes I often wonder, just how many methods do we really need for saving and organizing bookmarks, images and videos from the web? You would think that just one would be enough, but every time I come across something new I wonder if it could be better than what I’m currently using. That’s exactly how I felt when I came across Zootool; it’s a visual bookmarking tool that also integrates social media for instant sharing.

Pick Your Tool

Zootool has a bookmarklet, which is called the “Lasso.” It allows you to quickly save images, videos and web pages while browsing. This is the easiest way to get started using Zootool, but if you prefer they also have an unofficial Chrome extension, Firefox Addon and even a Safari extension. If those aren’t enough, there are many other tools and integrations listed on their Tools page.

Connect Your Social Profiles

You can add links to your other profiles right on your Zootool profile. Supported sites include: Delicious, Facebook, FriendFeed, Tumblr, Twitter and many more! Some profiles are used for sharing your Zootool content while others are just used as a simple link to your actual profile on that site.

Adding A Bookmark

I am using the Chrome Lasso extension and when I click the browser button, I am given the option to pick the image that I would like to use. Unfortunately, you can only pick one image to represent your bookmark. Once you pick the one you want, you’ll be give the option to add a title, description and tags. You can set you the item to public or private.

Don’t miss out on the other tabs along the top that give you sharing options. Clicking on Twitter lets you customize and post a tweet, as does clicking on Facebook, Email and More. The More options lets you add the item to Delicious, Tumblr and/or FriendFeed (if you’ve added those to your profile).

Each tool does something a little bit different, so depending on which one you’re using your options may differ.

Stylish Profiles

Honestly, I really like the clean look of the profiles on Zootool and the way that they’re set up (see for yourself). Your content is in the large column on the left, while a search bar (to search through your items), bio, social profiles and following fill up the right. Clicking on an item takes you to full view and lets other users add comments, share it and “like” it.

Discovering other content is also very easy with the public timeline on the home page and the search options. As soon as you add a new item (and have it set to public), it will appear right on the homepage. Find other people is pretty easy too and you can even find your Twitter friends (who are already using the site) by connecting your account.

While Zootool has been around for awhile, I think it is a very handy tool. In addition to my other tools that I use for keeping up with what I find on the Web, I think it’s a keeper. How about you?

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Discover and Share Your Favorite Internet Tools with Curated.by

Curated.by has quickly become a new addiction for me (as if I needed another). In just the short amount of time that I've been a member of the site, I have discovered many useful Internet and social media tools and apps. The idea behind Curated.by is to make it easier to find "the good stuff" on Twitter. The goal of the site is "to help where a Twitter list or hashtag search is just not good enough."

As a member and curator of the site, your job is to put website links together in what they call bundles; these topic specific bundles are then shared on the site and followed by other users who choose to subscribe. "Curated.by works a bit like labels for Gmail. [They] let you organize your tweets around a topic, an event or a company." Bundles can also be embedded as a customizable widget on websites that allow JavaScript or shared via URL, Twitter and Facebook. If you prefer, your bundle can also be private.

You can create bundles using their bookmarklet or Chrome extension. The extension places a "curate" button on below every tweet on the Twitter website. This allows you to easy add tweets to a specific bundle, while the bookmarklet allows you to add any website link (discovered while browsing) to a bundle.

The home page is where your news feed appears. Here you can see updates from the people you follow on the site. When you join Curated.by (via Twitter OAuth) it automatically follows all of your Twitter friends that are already on the site. Curated.by is great for finding new friends as well, since you can connect with others that share your topic and bundle interests via the search bar.

The Explore page is where you can see the latest bundles and curators. The topics page is pretty interesting because you can see what other people have curated. Topics are in a list according to popularity.

When you view a bundle, you can see the curator, stats, links featured in it and followers. The news feed of the bundle is much like Facebook in that you can comment and like each item. Some items show links, others show text and some even have thumbnails. There are many possibilities and great uses for a tool like Curated.by. Best of all, what you include in your bundle and how you organize it is all up to you.

You can also receive email alerts and control what you receive alerts about. You can choose receive a notification when someone starts following you and when someone subscribes to your bundle. There is also an option to receive an email each time someone updates a bundle that you're following; you can choose to receive emails right away or as a once per day daily update.

What are your thoughts on Curated.by. Is it something that you see yourself using in a regular basis?

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