On 10e20 we talk a lot about social bookmarking sites. To put it simply, social bookmarking is a way for people to save, classify, share and search Internet bookmarks. For me, I am always more concerned about how social bookmarks can drive traffic to my sites and increase sales and its important to know which ones can drive the most traffic. With that in mind, the folks over at eBizMBA have put together a list of the top 20 social bookmarking sites. They based their results on data on a combination of Compete.com and Quantcast data. I have provided the list below with a short explanation of each site (from the sites themselves & Wikipedia) and also their Alexa ranking to see if its consistent with their findings.

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1 | Digg – a user driven social content website. It combines social bookmarking, blogging, and syndication with a form of non-hierarchical, democratic editorial control. Alexa Rank = 89.

2 | Netscape – a social news portal programmed by you. Users can vote for which stories are to be included on the front page, and may comment on them as well. Alexa Rank = 544

3 | Technorati – searches, surfaces and organizes blogs and the other forms of independent, user-generated content (photos, videos, voting, etc.) increasingly referred to as “citizen media.” Alexa Rank = 201

4 | del.icio.us – the definition of a social bookmarking site. It is now a part of Yahoo! Alexa Rank = 186

5 | StumbleUpon – a web browser plugin that allows its users to discover and rate webpages, photos, videos, and news articles. Alexa Rank = 310

6 | reddit – a social bookmarking website where users can post links to content on the web. Other users may then vote the posted links up or down, causing them to appear more or less prominently on the reddit home page. Alexa Rank = 826

7 | Slashdot – is a science, science fiction, and technology-related news website which features user-submitted and editor-evaluated current affairs news with a “nerdy” slant. Alexa Rank = 433

8 | BlinkList – allows you to save a website instantly, and add the “Tags” and description later, in one click on a different button. Alexa Rank = 3,617

9 | FARK.com – a community website created by Drew Curtis allowing users to comment on a daily batch of news articles and other items from various websites. Links are submitted by Fark members, which are then approved for posting on the main page by administrators (not really a social bookmarking site). Alexa Rank = 1,521

10 | ClipMarks – Save your clips privately, email them to friends, post them on your blog, or share them on ClipMarks for others to see. Alexa Rank = 4,944

11 | Newsvine – Placement of stories is determined by a multitude of factors including freshness, popularity, and reputation. Contribution is open to all, and editorial judgement is in the hands of the community. Alexa Rank = 3,600

12 | furl.net – stands for File Uniform Resource Locators. It’s a free social bookmarking website that allows members to store searchable copies of webpages and share them with others. Every member receives 5 gigabytes of storage space. Alexa Rank = 3,904

13 | BlogMarks – a collaborative link management project based on sharing and key-word tagging. Alexa Rank = 6,619

14 | ShoutWire – a news and information web sitethat allows its users to vote on or “Shout” submitted articles. Alexa Rank = 11,899

15 | BlueDot.us – a social bookmarking and networking software that installs a single browser button for users to “dot” a webpage, making a link to the page part of their Blue Dot profile. Alexa Rank = 11,494

16 | Spurl.net – allows you to store, share and search all the interesting things you find on the web (currently quite limited service due to heavy spam attacks – concentrate your efforts elsewhere). Alexa Rank = 14,009

17 | SpotPlex – allows you to find what is the hot news today, this week, or this month in real time. Not a list of articles people recommended or voted for, but a list of articles read most in a given timeframe. Alexa Rank = 30,339

18 | Simpy – allows you to save, tag and search your own bookmarks and notes or browse and search other users’ links and tags. Alexa Rank = 11,107

19 | MyBookmarks.com – allows you to keep your browser bookmarks and favorites online so you can access them from anywhere. Alexa Rank = 127,018

20 | SpotBack – a personalized rating system that recommends relevant content based on personal rating history using collaborative filtering and aggregated knowledge technologies. Alexa Rank = 44,850

Added:

21 | ma.gnolia – members save websites as bookmarks, just like in their browser. Except with a twist: they also “tag” them, assigning labels that make them easy to find again. Alexa Rank = 7,236

22 | Shadows – link-sharing website that allows you to tap into the collective wisdom and interests of the entire Shadows community. Alexa Rank = 25,636

23 | Jots – a collaborative bookmarking system that allows you to Store, Share and Discover relevant links. Alexa Rank = 65,484

24 | RawSugar - a place to save, share and discover your favorite content in an organized and highly flexible way. Alexa Rank = 26,238

As you can see the Alexa rankings vary a bit from the combination of Compete.com and Quantcast data. If this same listing was based on Alexa’s data – your priorities would lie in this order:

1 | Digg (89)

2 | del.icio.us (186)

3 | Technorati (201)

4 | StumbleUpon (310)

5 | Slashdot (433)

6 | Netscape (544)

7 | reddit (826)

8 | FARK (1,521)

9 | Newsvine (3,600)

10 | BlinkList (3,617)

11 | Furl.net (3,904)

12 | ClipMarks (4,944)

13 | BlogMarks (6,619)

14 | Mag.nolia (7,236)

15 | Simpy (11,107)

16| BlueDot.us (11,494)

17 | ShoutWire (11,899)

18 | Spurl.net (14,009)

19 | Shadows (25,636)

20 | RawSugar (26,238)

21 | Spotplex (30,339)

22 | SpotBack (44,850)

23 | Jots (65,484)

24 | MyBookmarks (127,018)

Either way, this list is an excellent starting point for anyone interested in harnessing the power of some of the most popular social bookmarking services today.