RWT Webmaster Tools Blog

Spurl Review

Spurl like del.icio.us and Furl is an online social bookmarking service. A Spurl is a bookmark and stands for SPecial URL.

Spurl like the others has a most popular (Hot Spurls) and a most recent (Just In) category. Users can view their own spurls in Most Visited, Recently Visited, and Latest Spurls categories. Searching takes place via a keyword input box or simply by using one of the above predefined categories. The search function actually searches an engine called Zniffs (more on this later.)

Like the others, Spurl uses a bookmarklet for users to add bookmarks. The bookmarklet allows the user to input Title (added by default), Category (user-defined), Tags, Description, Snip, Private, etc.

What sets Spurl apart?

Organization

Spurls can be organized by category (folders) or by tags. This allows for multi-levels of organization. I can add the Spurl to one folder and then tag it multiple ways. For example, I spurl a favorite news site and put it in a folder named News. I can then tag it with terms like “politics”, or “Europe”, or “whatever fits this particular news site”. I can then find the Spurl not only under my News folder, but I can also find it under any number of tags. Spurl allows bookmarks to be added to multiple folders but that isn’t as effective as simply tagging the item with multiple tags. I recommend placing a Spurl in only one folder but tagging it multiple ways.

Del.icio.us integration

If a user also has a del.icio.us account, Spurl allows integration with del.icio.us. Anything spurled will also be added to the del.icio.us site as well. Once integration is set up, a user does have the choice to turn off the del.icio.us integration for any item to be spurled. The integration allows users the ability to use two sites for the interface of one.

Spurl Bar

The spurl bar is a left side navigation bar that is integrated into an IE or Firefox browser. It is like having a mini Spurl site right inside ones browser. Users can access the regular Spurl categories as well as their owns spurls. Their spurls can be view by both category and tag.

Feeds for Spurls

Each spurl category has an associated feed. By each category I mean, every category on the Spurl site (New, Hot, etc.), every general category (Latest, Recently Visited, etc.) within a users library, every category (folder) a user creates, and every tag that a user creates. The feeds come in three forms: javascript, atom or xml. There is a lot one could do with this amount of flexibility. Add the Latest spurls feed to a website to show users your latest spurls. Add a particular category to your site for your readers. Etc, etc.

Zniff

Zniff is the search engine associated with Spurl. It searches all the bookmarks that have been spurled. It is branded as “the human search engine.” It is the equivalent of searching the collective favorites of all Spurl users. Definitely can prove to be useful especially as it continues to grow.

Spurl has become my favorite social bookmarking service because of the five reasons above.

How could Spurl be improved? Actually, how can any social bookmarking service be improved? Combine it with an RSS Reader. All my feeds and all my bookmarks in one place. One service has already done that. That review is for another day.