Digging into Diigo

Have you ever heard of Diigo? Neither have I, but it didn't take much digging before discovering that it is a tool worth learning about. So, let’s begin exploring Diigo—the social bookmarking tool—together! 

What is Diigo?

    Diigo is a free research tool and a platform for knowledge sharing. You have the capability to bookmark, research and share information. 

How do I access Diigo and what can Diigo do? 

    Diigo has a browser extension, called “Diigolet” that allows you to then highlight text on webpages and add sticky notes. When you return to the webpage, Diigo saves your previous highlighting (which can also be deleted at any time). You can drag the extension to your toolbar and click on it to have the Diigolet dialogue appear. 

    Through the browser extension, Diigolet allows you to bookmark and save to a ‘Read Later’ section. You can also access Diigo’s website through the dialogue box or visiting their website: Diigo. When you create an account, you can save bookmarks to your own library, as well as create and join groups, where multiple users can contribute and share resources. Diigo also has a search function to locate information throughout your bookmarks. 

Why should you use Diigo? 

The capability to tag your bookmarks 

One cool organizational feature of Diigo is that it allows you to tag your bookmarks. If you want to separate your webpages into groups, tagging allows you to keep things organized into categories of your choice: school, work, recipes, research paper 1—categorize away!

It’s a social bookmarking tool

    Sharing bookmarks is made easy through Diigo. You can also follow others and see the webpages they are not only bookmarking but also what they have highlighted and annotated on webpages. Many times in my education, I have been highlighting text and wondered if I am doing it right. Highlighting for information is something that I self-taught myself and while my techniques have seemed to work for me, I always wonder if I can be more efficient or creative in my highlighting techniques. Highlighting makes up the main way that I take notes and absorb information from my readings. I am looking forward to specifically fine-tuning my highlighting and searching for key information skills by following others and seeing how they highlight and note information. Not to mention, reading a webpage where the key information has already been pre-highlighted is pretty convenient! 

“I’ll just save this for later”

    One of the only reasons I use Facebook is because of the instructional design groups I belong to. I have access to valuable resources and webpage sharing through these groups and I often add information and links to my saved pages. I love being able to have a 'save for later' option right on my browser, so I can save resources I find from whatever online platform I am on.  I love having the ability to save webpages that can be later accessed in my personal Diigo library. Twitter favourites can be automatically saved to your Diigo bookmark library as well. 

There's a Diigo app

    Now your smartphone and computer can communicate to each other and save bookmarks across devices. The Diigo app also allows you to connect to your other social media accounts, so a link can be shared through Twitter and Pinterest with ease. 

    I am an avid user of my web browser’s bookmark feature. I have many categories and subcategories and rely daily on these links and webpages being easily accessible. Diigo offers a user-friendly version of this, with added features to make bookmarking easier and sharing possible. It is a one-stop-shop for saving all of your information across multiple platforms. 

Not quite convinced yet? Check out: 

8 Reasons You Should be Using Diigo 

If you are new and setting up Diigo, check out How to Use Diigo below: