That's a great question, and I'm glad you asked :)

The short answer is that those are links that enable BLADAM readers to bookmark and optionally share their favorite BLADAM pages.

But how exactly do these services work and why are they better than just bookmarking or "favoriting" pages in one's browser?

Here are some of the advantages of "community-oriented" bookmarking and tagging services like Spurl and Del.icio.us and many others:

• You can quickly and easily access favorite pages on any computer using almost any browser. Great for keeping track of cool or important pages from home, school, or work!
• You can let others know of interesting pages you find on the Web. Of equal coolness, by browsing the homepages of these services you can find what others have marked (or "tagged"), too!
• By categorizing your favorites using tags (short descriptors like "music" or "travel tip"), you can find them more easily than if you had to delve four levels deep into bookmark or favorites folders.
• Your browser or even hard drive may crash, taking all your bookmarks with it. In contrast, these services are likely to be around for a while, so your bookmarks are more secure.
• These services are all FREE! :)

So which one should you choose? That's a harder one to answer. At risk of taking the easy way out, I'd invite you to check out at least a few different ones and see which ones fit the way YOU think and work best. Honestly, I think you can't go wrong!

For your review, here are the different communal bookmark/tagging services I've "endorsed" here on BLADAM by linking to them on each entry:

• Spurl
• Furl
• Del.icio.us
• Yahoo! My Web
• Digg*
• Slashdot*

*Digg and Slashdot are a bit different from the service-type I've described above; rather than the focus being on your personal bookmark/favorites depository, these sites are more of a "What's News" or "What's Hot" sort of community "newspaper," comprised of by and rated/commented on community participants.