Earlier this week I wrote about Firefox Web browser add-ons that journalists might find especially useful: search plugins and GTD Inbox. Here are two more:
Zotero. For research-intensive reporting, Zotero is a great way to build a library of your source material and notes in a way that makes it easy to find and cite what you need. It was intended for academic researchers, but is equally useful for journalists and authors. Zotero creates folders and sub-folders as needed and saves a copy of Web documents to your hard drive.
If you rely on Zotero, be sure to back up your library periodically: Close Firefox, then copy the “zotero” folder within your Firefox profile directory to an external drive. That folder contains your database and all the related files (images, PDFs, Web pages, etc.).
Del.icio.us Bookmarks. The free social bookmarking service Del.icio.us is one of the most popular ways for people to collect, share and discover all kinds of links. When you find a site that you find interesting or useful in some way, rather than save it in your browser’s bookmark list (which quickly becomes unmanageable) or scribble a note about it (which you’ll probably lose) or just forget about it, you can bookmark it in Del.icio.us, label it with whichever “tags” you choose and add up to 1,000 characters of notes. You can choose whether to share your bookmarks or selectively keep some private.
My Del.icio.us library is a valuable resource that has helped me re-find whatever I need quickly. The key is to make it a habit to quickly bookmark in Del.icio.us anything I think I might possibly need or want again — for myself, or to share.
That’s where this Del.icio.us Bookmarks plugin becomes handy. It adds a “Del.icio.us” menu and some keyboard shortcuts to Firefox. Now when I find an interesting page, I hit command-D. Up pops a window with a post-to-Del.icio.us form already bearing the URL of the page I’m browsing. I can quickly fill out some notes or copy-and-paste and excerpt. Best of all, I can just type the first few letters of any tag from my personal tag list and Del.icio.us will auto-complete. (Tags work best when you eliminate typos, and auto-complete helps.)
The Del.icio.us Bookmarks plugin offers many more features. For instance, select “more about this page” to quickly see what other Del.icio.us users have noted about any Web page you’re on. Or you can view and search your Del.icio.us bookmarks in a browser sidebar. It’s an easy way to become a Del.icio.us power user.
From there, you can learn how to participate in and benefit from tagging communities, automatically syndicate your Del.icio.us bookmarks to your blog (an easy way to keep it fresh), find experts and more. I even use Del.icio.us as a key part of my production process for the occasional Mini Tidbits items you see in E-Media Tidbits. (See my Tidbits fodder tag.)
