Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Del.icio.us vs. Zotero

During this school year, I have used Zotero as a research tool more than the citation tool it is usually marketed to be. Why I enjoy using Zotero more than say Del.icio.us is Zotero's ability to capture citation information from web pages such as library catalogs, electronic databases, and Amazon. With a click of my Del.icio.us tag button I can capture a URL and tag a web page but I don't have a capture of the citation information. Plus the subscription/firewall nature of the databases limits my ability to quickly link to a database article from a remote location making my bookmarks in Del.icio.us kind of useless. In Zotero I may even get an abstract of an article even if I can not access it at the time. Some people may have much more experience with social bookmarking than I do so they may find Del.icio.us easier. To me, in certain specialized situations, Zotero can't be beat.

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