Did you know that bookmarks were first used in the 13th century? These bookmarks were made out of vellum or leather. They were used by monks, and some had rotating disks that could indicate which column the reader had left off on.

Today, bookmarks are available on the internet, and are as easy to create as one click. There are, in fact, several websites that actually help users with organizing and sharing their bookmarks. Here are three things you need to know about social bookmarking.

1. Some of the Most Popular Sites

Did you know that sites such as Delicious, Reddit, and Twitter would all be categorized as social bookmarking sites? The main technical function of these sites is to allow you to store and organize sites, but the full intended use is for you to share these bookmarks with your friends, as well as other online users. This can be a great way not only to connect with other people, but to learn more about your favorite topics.

2. How to Share Posts with Your Friends

When you want to share posts with the rest of your friends, all you need to do is hit the correct social media button. On the above mentioned sites, there are usually quick hit buttons you can press, that will allow you to instantly cross post your favorite links to other networks. If you want to share to Facebook, for example, you just follow the commands and hit “enter,” and the post will syndicate there. If you have trouble adding links this way from certain sites, it is often possible to download browser apps that create this ability for you. Delicious, for example, has the downloadable “bookmarklets.”

3. Responsible Ways to Bookmark Pages

If you want to share food pictures with your friends, and you’re in a restaurant, check to make sure it does not actually have any smart phone policies prohibiting picture taking. Restaurants feel it distracts other diners, gives them less control over their image, et cetera. In most cases, you just need to remember to turn off the flash. If you like copy pasting images onto your sites from other websites, remember that many images are copyright protected by law. If you post it to a site, and you don’t own it, you can be held liable no matter if you indicated where you found it, make no money from it, or anything else.

Do you bookmark pages often?