Though a few other lifestreaming sites such as Jaiku and 30 Boxes and services with lifestreaming such as 43 People came first, FriendFeed found its niche among the Google and ex-Google and A-list blogger crowds, and quickly became a hit. Sites such as Plaxo Pulse and MyBlogLog have followed on, but without such popularity. Similarly, Facebook can now feed personal streams from other popular sites into its Minifeed and added commentary there.

Twine empowers collaborative sharing and search using the Semantic Web to uncover and tie together concepts and deeper-than-textual relationships in Web pages.

Whether some stories truly need condensing editing to 1000 characters, or suffer it tolerably, Clipmarks can excerpt and share only that, though it allows another 1000 for commentary and numerous additional pictures, each worth maybe a thousand words. In addition to viral appeal in way of a Facebook app, the new Clipcast interface looks and works like a widget, perhaps to target mobile users. For this category, a thousand character summary of a page would then seem ideal! Linkmarking, indexed from terse to featureful, might go Reddit, Del.icio.us, Digg, Google, Yahoo, MyWeb, Clipmarks, Ma.gnolia, Faves (Blue Dot), Tumblr, and Google Reader Shared items.

Oriented towards news and journalism, Newsvine features originals stories and linkmarks to stories. As a cofounder with Wired Magazine and the New York University School of Journalism, it also participates in Assignment Zero, a crowdsourced journalism experiment.

A Semantic Web innovator, this flexible and powerful linkmarking platform accepts only OpenID and Sxip Identity 2.0 logins. Groups can host discussions distinct from linkmark entries. It also publishes hFolk and hReview microformats. Its tags feeds my Claim ID sidebar tagroll.

A most powerful and flexible linkmarking platform, and unlike others, Faves (formerly Blue Dot) requires no registration. For minimal functionality, it saves user identity in a browser cookie and invitation identities in a coded link sent via mail, so recipients need not register to reply. The coded link also establishes a friend relationship with the recipient, should they also join. In addition, members can group friends, and share specific links only with those groups. It feeds my Tribe and Gaia summaries and other tumblelogs, and marks items i feel worthy of my readers.

Here i submit discoveries worthy of recommendation and comment, especially along categories: programming, ArXiv, Infogami, New York Times, Joel on Software, and science.

A social and collaborative linkmark sharing site, Del.icio.us features a rich Web programming interface and desktop applications, such as Cocoalicious, and informative graphic design. Though Del.icio.us may be social, it also lacks features useful for communications. It limits notes to a few hundred characters, cannot capture images, cannot generate mail nor invitations for non-members to specific links, does not support Open ID nor discussions. Since Del.icio.us published an add-on extension for Firefox, in place of Firefox Bookmarks as the main linkmarking service, i keep Del.icio.us marks mainly for my own use, and to share between Firefox and Flock. Though not a top priority, i also share for friends and readers, and rarely lock down my links. For sharing links, i prefer more feature-rich services, tagged “linkmarks” here.

Formerly Zaadz, Gaia combines intentional community, social and green enterprise, and conscious capitalism to foster a spirituality and vibe that encourages and enables its members to act and accomplish. Groups embrace ancient concepts, from organic farming and community to spirituality and literacy, and modern concepts, from sustainability and nutrition to social capital theory and economics. It links Amazon items and features a business directory.