Ma.gnolia Roots

UPDATE SEPTEMBER 19: Roots has been released. You can get it here.

The good folks at Ma.gnolia have been kind enough to let me beta test a new bookmarklet they’ve created, tentatively known as Ma.gnolia Roots. If you haven’t discovered Ma.gnolia yet, they are doing great things with social bookmarking -- think del.icio.us but more human and sociable.

(If that sounds a little fuzzy, don’t worry. This post should make it clear what I mean by “more human and sociable”.)

So . . . on to Roots.

Roots is a simple, sexy, and ultimately very useful way to make looking at any web page a social experience without leaving the page.

And it’s also kind of addictive.

Rather than explain further, let me just show it to you. First imagine you are visiting an interesting site. Any site will do.

So let's say this site has piqued your interest and you start to wonder: what are people saying about this site?

When you click on the Roots bookmarklet, a transparent layer appears fades in over top of the page you’re looking at, along with a little flower to let you know that Ma.gnolia is working up to something.

And a second later, that semi-transparent overlay becomes a window into the Ma.gnolia community. Without leaving the original site, you can now see:

• Which and how many users have bookmarked it
• How they’ve rated it
• How they’ve tagged it
• Their comments about the site

And you can bookmark it yourself and add tags, comments and ratings of your own.

Close Roots and the overlay disappears, leaving you right back where you started. It’s completely seamless. Your browsing flow is unbroken.

Now, I’ve got to admit my first reaction was to bask in the sheer sexiness of it all. But Roots is more than just sexy. It’s also a perfect illustration of how Ma.gnolia are adding a real human, social dimension to bookmarking.

Compare it to the nearest thing del.icio.ous have on offer--post to del.icio.us. Here’s what I see when I use that bookmarklet from the same starting point.

I can bookmark the page. I can add notes and tags. It’s all good . . . but it’s all about me.

Now while “all about me” may not sound like a bad thing -- it’s all about user centricity, right? -- what I didn’t realize was missing until I used Roots was an interface that immediately goes beyond me to the include the community at large. That's the real beauty of Roots. It’s sexy AND social. It’s . . . group sexy!

And it’s coming out of beta soon, so stay tuned. I'll update this post with a link once it's fully available.

Tags: magnolia delicious ma.gnolia del.icio.us magnoliaroots ma.gnoliaroots bookmarking socialbookmarking bookmarklet bookmarklets beta betatest