Why did del.icio.us fail and what are the alternatives?

[mike2477]

I am currently working on what del.icio.us could have become if it wasn't acquired by Yahoo (www.shelfbeta.com), I want to hear from others why they think it failed.

All thoughts welcome!

[southpawgirl]

Has Delicious failed? It might not be flavour of the month anymore (since a long long time), and I don't know anyone who uses its social features. But as a way to quickly access my bookmarks from any device, it still has a job and it does perform it well. I like to be able to access my public links without having to log in.

What is a partial failure, is the flat redesign. Very nice to look at, but slightly infuriating to use, especially when adding a new bookmark.

[benologist]

Delicious didn't fail, it was a successful startup that stayed relevant for years after a decent acquisition, before fading away.

I can think of a bunch of reasons why it's no longer relevant:

- Yahoo and many of their properties stagnated

- mobile browsers didn't support bookmarklets and extensions that made Delicious so easy

- Facebook and Twitter became more convenient places for sharing links

- browsers became "good enough" for archiving links because of syncing and cross-device access

[RexRollman]

>I am currently working on what del.icio.us could have become

That's already been done. It's called Pinboard.

[a_voyager → RexRollman]

I agree. Pinboard is extremely simple and fills my need for a Delicious alternative.

[meerita]

Del.icio.us was a Good alternative to old Bookmarking system. I don't know the current reasons they've killed but I suspect many of them related to non-profitable platform, heavy use and management for sure.

Later, it clearly became unrelevant because right now all links are seamlessly synced between devices without having to enter a website, right in the browser. I guess the only one who doesn't is Firefox, but the rest they have their own.

[johneth]

Just an FYI - if you leave the www. off your URL, a GoDaddy page appears.