---
title: "Note To Furl: should you be more del.ici.ous?"
date: 2004-11-10T02:21:54Z
modified: 2004-11-10T02:21:54Z
permalink: "https://redmonk.com/jgovernor/note-to-furl-should-you-be-more-delicious/"
type: post
status: publish
excerpt: ""
wpid: 65
categories:
  - Uncategorized
timestamp: 2004-11-10T02:21:54Z
tags:
  - Uncategorized
---

I have pointed to Furl a couple of times [recently](http://www.redmonk.com/jgovernor/archives/000179.html). i like the online bookmarking service. but i do admit to having a certain [del.ici.ous](http://del.icio.us/doc/about) envy.

This [post](http://www.redmonk.com/sogrady/archives/000250.html) from by business partner didn’t help. But i can’t help wondering if some of the apparent momentum in delicious is down to the [Udell effect](http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/). John is a blogosphere supernode and his interest in del.ici.ous is piquing others too.

So am i envious of the buzz or the service itself? and how come furl seems to be garnering less interest.

Well, it turns out [googlefight-ing](http://www.googlefight.com/) challenges assumptions and points to the idea i may indeed have fallen into a self referential chamber:

[furl vs. del.ici.ous](http://www.googlefight.com/cgi-bin/compare.pl?q1=del.ici.ous+api&q2=furl+api&B1=Make+a+fight%21&compare=1&langue=us): furl has about twice as many google mentions as delicious (could be down to the weird periods in the del.ici.ous though)

so i got to wondering whether it was that del.ici.ous is just more API oriented – so it is getting picked up more broadly in developers minds, because of its politics of lighweight service calls.

here googlefight’s results definitely surprised me
[del.ici.ous API vs furl API](http://www.googlefight.com/cgi-bin/compare.pl?q1=del.ici.ous+api&q2=furl+api&B1=Make+a+fight%21&compare=1&langue=us) 13 results for delicious to 8,260 for furl…

and as it transpires there is plenty of [furl buzz](http://www.technorati.com/cosmos/search.html?rank=&url=furl) in feedland.

my opinion is shifting as i look around and remember an article called [10 Cool Things To Do With Furl](http://blog.contentious.com/archives/2004/06/22/10-cool-things-to-do-with-furl), which led me on through [technorati](http://technorati.com/) to [More Furl Tricks](http://blog.contentious.com/archives/2004/07/01/more-furl-tricks)

and then to Travis Swicegood, who helpfully offers a [comparison of the two services](http://www.fromthecrossroads.ws/newmedia/2004/07/01/p103_Furl_It_) The bottom line according to Travis – “Furl does a lot of the same things as del.icio.us, but it appears they’ve taken notice of their competition’s short-comings.”

And so on to what looks like a factor and comment to consider, posted by [Chris Lott](http://www.chris-lott.org/). He points to del.ici.ous role in the world of [Rest](http://www.xfront.com/REST-Web-Services.html)ful interfaces – “del.icio.us excels when you want to share your bookmarks on a wider basis, when tagging makes more sense than categories, and when you want to access programmatically using the REST interface.”

To wrap up – for now! – this is an area that i want to keep tracking. But from what i know of the services so far it seems while furl is more consumer driven in terms of interface and now [ownership](http://www.shareholder.com/looksmart/releaseDetail.cfm?ReleaseID=143636), del.ici.ous is more part of the [restifarian](http://www.webservices.org/ws/content/view/full/39565) universe.

Its not clear which is so far most effectively driving [architecture of participation](http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/3017). Which brings me neatly to Stephen’s discussion of the changing notion of [what constitutes a “service”](http://www.redmonk.com/sogrady/archives/000251.html).

While innovation in WS-I seems to be slowing, there is a world of service splicing where innovation is far less constrained. Finally i have to say to furl again – keep up the good work, you are evidently very tasty, but please hurry up with your group bookmarking functionality! [spurl ](http://www.spurl.net/help/eval.php#what_is_spurl)has that already?

And does anyone know of any furl to delicious integration yet? i hear spurl supports that too-looks like another service to look at.

Anyone reading this blog entry might turn away and think this guy doesn’t know what he’s talking about. fair enough. my point is that the conversation is still ongoing and i am still listening. and hopefully usefully aggregating.