Simpy Chichimichi

I've been running Simpy for almost 4 years now. Every once in a while I get the "Why should I use Simpy?", "Why is Simpy better than, say, del.icio.us?" This post answers those questions in the form of "Why I use Simpy" answer. This are my personal reasons for using Simpy, but you can also read other people's opinions. I also encourage you to add your reasons in the comments, so I can add your reasons to this list.

So, why I use Simpy:

1. Search! Powerful search! Fast search! Accurate search! Search that lets me easily refine the query via additional tags, or even expand it or alter it with a single click on a related tag. Why do I care about search so much? Because that is how I use Simpy - that is how I prefer to get to my previous saved bookmarks - I enter a few keywords (you can call them tags, sure) and a second later I have my bookmark(s).

   A lot more could be said about Simpy's search, but you can read about that in the search section in the FAQ.

   So is Simpy's search better than del.icio.us? Yes. It supports more operators, more powerful queries, and it's faster. Try, compare, and tell me what you find.

2. Speed. Simpy is fast! Search is fast, bookmarking is fast, browsing through your own or anyone else's tags is fast, and so on. Don't believe me? Look through these:
   • Ahead of Google, del.icio.us, etc.
   • Technorati - Google - Simpy
   • How I Learned to Love Tuning
   • How I Learned to Love Cache

   So is Simpy faster then del.icio.us? Oh yes! Just check GrabPERF any day of the week and you'll find Simpy way ahead of del.icio.us and the other bookmarking services that are being monitored there.

3. Tag completion and tag management. I hate seeing noise in my tags. I hate seeing multiple slightly different tags that are really the same thing. For example, I don't like seeing both "share" and "sharing" in my tags, and tag-completion exposes this very quickly. Whenever I see such near-duplication of tags, I click on the "tags/manage" link at the top of each Simpy page and quickly rename "sharing" to "share". Tag management also lets you delete tags, merge them, and split them.

   So does this make Simpy better than del.icio.us? Partly, I think. Del.icio.us has a nice tagging interface, similar to Simpy's tag-completion, but its tag management functionality is.... non-existent.

4. Groups. Simpy is a social bookmarking service, and Groups (FAQ entry) are not only how we share bookmarks, but really also how we people live. We have cliques, we have groups of friends, we have friends, we have family, we have colleagues. We share different things with each group. Groups let you share bookmarks with all Group members, even if you keep your bookmark private and thus hide it from the crowd. Here are my groups.

   There is also a handly Group Directory which lets you quickly find interesting Groups to join.

   How does Simpy compare to del.ico.us in this area? Well, del.icio.us doesn't even have Groups.

5. Good browser integration. Besides offering bookmarklets, Simpy offers 2-3 Firefox plugins:

   Andu's Firefox Plugin is simple, elegant, and does not use any of the valuable screen space - it sits in your existing Firefox toolbar!

   Smarky is another Firefox plugin and it is super powerful - it keeps your Firefox bookmarks synchronized with your Simpy bookmarks, has built in search (or can use Simpy's search), it uses your tags to create in-browser folders, much like with the original Firefox bookmarks.

   There is also a simple Firefox search plugin that goes in the top-right search field in your Firefox browser and allows searching directly from your browser.

   I'm a happy user of all 3 Firefox plugins and I use them daily.

   Del.icio.us comparison? Del.icio.us is just as good, I think, as it has good browser integration. No, del.icio.us is actually better, as it also has Internet Explorer integration via a toolbar.

   NOTE NOTE NOTE: Can you program? Windows? I would loooooooooooooove to get some help with Simpy integration into Internet Explorer or Windows in general. Please let me know if you can help.

6. Privacy. I like to share, as you can see on my profile. But some things I like to keep private. Again, this is how we live, too, so Simpy allows that natural behaviour.

   Del.icio.us? Has privacy option now (it didn't have it for the first few years of its life).

7. Natural tags. Do you like seeing TagsWrittenLikeThis? Or maybe tags_such_as_this? I do not. I prefer seeing "tags written like this" and "tags such as this". Isn't that more natural? This looks like a detail, but when you start tagging, using a system that comes naturally helps, trust me.

   del.icio.us is horrible in this respect, forcing people to WriteTagsLikeThis or like_this and separate them with spaces instead of commas (Simpy uses commas).

8. Notes. Although I don't use them daily, I do use Simpy for saving Notes. Notes are private, taggable, and fully searchable. I use them to save all kinds of little nuggets of information, from recipes to geek tips and tricks.

   You can't save Notes via del.icio.us, del.icio.us is only for bookmarks.

9. Transparency. Just like you can see posts about Simpy's improvements, you can also see posts with its Dirty Laundry. This doesn't benefit me directly, but being open makes me happy, and I hope others find this valuable.

   Is del.icio.us transparent? I don't know. Is it?

10. Damn, I need one more reason to make this a proper "10 Reasons...." post. What could I add? What did I miss? Got a suggestion?