Social Bookmarks preview for MSDN now available

For Windows developers, MSDN has been the de facto resource for all things Microsoft, and the site made it easy for programmers to find documentation, code samples, and other developer content. With the rise of social media, however, the Servers and Tools Online division, which handles the global MSDN, TechNet, CodePlex, and Expression, decided to switch to a community-based platform that would add more functionality to the current platform. At TechEd 2008, Microsoft previewed Social Bookmarking for MSDN, TechNet, and Expression.

The Social Bookmarks application is among the first in a series of new features designed to help users collaborate and share information. In a blog post, Dan Truax, general manager of Servers and Tools Online, writes, "Many posts have been somewhat ambiguous as to the purpose of our Social Bookmarking capability and some have also speculated that this is an announcement that Microsoft is releasing a Social Bookmarking ‘product.' The bookmarking capability that will be previewed at TechEd is specific to MSDN, TechNet and Expression."

Although the preview is definitely still in beta—it currently is English-only—it does allow users to save bookmarks to the My Bookmarks tool and apply tags. Much like other social bookmarking sites, tags, bookmarks, and bookmarkers are enabled as links, allowing users to view related content. Social Bookmarking has yet to be fully integrated into the rest of the sites, but users' Profile pages will now display their bookmarks.

At first glance, Social Bookmarks looks like TagSpace all grown up, but John Martin, lead evangelist for Servers and Tools Online, disagrees. "Our launch is not about Microsoft trying to get into the social bookmarking market—we're simply trying to open MSDN and TechNet up to the technical community so that our customers can be more successful," he writes. "We believe the future of the online experience will be inherently social and that we should invest in ways to allow people to contribute, connect, and share on our sites—including tagging and sharing resources they find useful from our sites (like Forums threads) and from other sites."

As part of a broader social platform that aims to provide shared tagging, identity, and collaboration services across all of Microsoft's sites—and include content from external sites—Social Bookmarks looks like a promising new feature.

The Social Bookmarking Preview is currently open to all registered MSDN, TechNet, and Expression users.