The reason diigo cant be used as a real research tool - like Zotero (I still dream about an online version of zotero - it would be the ultimate reference tool!) is that it fails in handling text. The "highligting" function is clumsy and not precise - and most important of all - you cant edit your "clips" in a rich text format editor! This is where many tools fail. Zotero have at least a function to save "snapshots" of pages in a structured way.

I havent evaluated WebNotes functionality yet - every time i trie to highligt a textblock i get a message about server timeout or unability to connect to server - but I suppose that is something temporary - so I cant see how the text editing functions works yet - bu I hope that Webnotes in comparision to Diigo takes the handling of your highlighted text serious and enable the user to edit the text in rich text format (which gives must-have optionality to add links etc)

Thank you!

Sebastian / masters student library & information science

Posted by: rote |
December 10, 2008 12:37 PM

How can you call new attempts to create an online reference tool a "mee-too"-product whem it doesnt exist any good online reference tool?

As i pointed out - Diigo is a great social bookmarking tool But it cant handle text and pictures in webclips - whioh is very important when it comes to an reference / bookmarking/ notetaking tool. I dont know if Webnotes can handle this, it doesnt work for me (there is some server error when trying to save highlights) but of course there is room on the market for tools like this. I almos find it strange there isnt more vendors on the marking trying to make services like this.

Right now the only acceptable reference tool is unfortenatly a local browser addon (Zotero) but Im looking forward for new comanys taking zotero-like skills online.

Posted by: rote |
December 10, 2008 1:34 PM

@ Sudha: Diigo has much richer functionality for information organization and collaboration. Surely those are key parts of the research process.

To put it somewhat bluntly, Diigo can do everything webnotes offers plus a lot more, plus time-tested robustness. Punch me the next time you see me if I am wrong :)

@rote: Diigo does allow you to extract the annotations and edit them rich text editor. For example, once you annotated a page, try "blog this", you will see.

Posted by: Wade, CEO, Diigo |
December 11, 2008 12:33 AM

• Yes, I second Dan, and want to offer unlimited invitations to try Diigo, as it has been the case for the past 3 years :)

  
  
  

  And if you are a teacher, you can get a special premium account so you can get your students research, annotate, share and collaborate using Diigo in minutes ...

  
  
  

  Posted by: Wade, CEO, Diigo |
  December 11, 2008 1:39 AM

  
  

I dont mean to be agressive, so dont misunderstand me - but I have to ask ReadWriteWeb: If this a sponsored blog where you get paid to hype every webservice you write about? Why else would anyonw review this with "Because it seems awfully serious about providing the types of features that allow professional researchers to do online research - and only those features."

Here I think there is room for an explanation from the author. Exactly what does this service that makes it a serious alternative for professional researchers?? Webnotes save textblocks. Not links. Not images. Just txt. You cant edit the textblocks. dont tag them. You highlight text and save in folders with an URL. Thats all. Please tell me what in this makes it to a serious alternative for proffesional researchers?

Posted by: rote |
December 11, 2008 6:23 AM