E-Media Tidbits

Look at the bottom of this page. Am I crazy? Is this stupidity? Or the latest fad? Or maybe as a 53-year-old am I just too demented to "get it"?

ellipses.elliott.org Social bookmarking run amok?

These logos respectively refer to  Google and to the social bookmarking services Digg, Newsvine, Spurl, Technorati, Furl, Ma.gnolia, del.icio.us, Reddit and Blinklist.

Now, I'm one of "the sharpest minds in online media / journalism / publishing" -- that's not my ego talking, that's Poynter's label for this groups weblog (see above) -- but I've only heard of five of these. And I've used only one. (That's an easy guess.)

For a site like this, which relies on viral marketing and external links, I guess providing all these external connections and link tools makes sense, because it costs nothing --- and it may lead to add-on traffic, additional mentions on various sites, more exposure, and higher search-engine rankings. And I suppose some of those companies are going to be winners and ultimately losers in the viral-marketing / mash-up / linking game.

But still: To me, it looked more like a puzzle than a strategy. Am I crazy? Or perhaps appropriately skeptical?