For months now Delicious users have been hearing from the internet community that Delicious was going away and that we needed to transfer our bookmarks to any one of dozens of new bookmarking sites out there on the internet.

We did that, but we never really felt at home in any of the places. Delicious doesn’t look like much visually but it’s just so simple and easy to use, easy to find things in and it’s included in pretty much all of the social bookmarking tools, widgets and plugins so we still weren’t really using anything else.

Today we finally heard from Yahoo (The current owners of Delicious) that indeed they are not going to be supporting it anymore but instead of we “Deliciousers” being orphans we are now part of the YouTube family of AVOS.

They plan on breathing new life into this very stagnant yet well loved simple bookmarking site.

“We’re excited to work with this fantastic community and take Delicious to the next level,” said Chad Hurley, CEO of AVOS. “We see a tremendous opportunity to simplify the way users save and share content they discover anywhere on the web.”

“We spoke with numerous parties interested in acquiring the site, and chose Chad and Steve based on their passion and unique vision for Delicious,” said John Matheny, SVP of Communications and Communities at Yahoo!

The YouTube founders plan to innovate the site in the next few months to help solve the problem of “information overload “We see this problem not just in the world of video, but also cutting across every information-intensive media type,” said Chen in the official AVOS Press Release

Why people like to use these things I really couldn’t explain to you, but the fact is that they DO use them and they have become very popular.

As a business you can for FREE claim your business on foursquare and reward your loyal customers and you control the entire thing.  Again, this is FREE marketing! You can create a special for a first time visitor, your Mayor (which is the person who checks in most often along with some other mysterious criteria) for someone on their 10th visit to your location, you as the business owner decide and create your specials.

When anyone is near your location and check in on foursquare they will see a little red note next to your business name and they can check out your special. It draws attention to those that might be near you but not realize you are there and can create enough interest to make them stop by.

The thing that’s great about almost all social networking ideas is that most of them are FREE! Yes they take a little time, but while you or your employees are sitting around waiting for the next customer you can be pro-active with your marketing.

If you don’t do anything else, at least make sure that your business is listed on foursquare. Chances are you might not be and this is yet another free advertising/ marketing opportunity for you. You can even add your twitter link (You do use twitter… right?) and your website address.

Check out foursquare here.

It also makes creating a note on the page almost impossible as it makes you jump through 3 different hoops to get to the right spot.

I recommend waiting until Facebook redesigns this particular ap before you “Claim” your Facebook place.

Check it out and share with me what you think!

I found this video by Perry Belcher on social networking and it is right on Target.

He talks about people wanting to know how you can make money on social networking?  His answer? You don’ t make ANY money on social networking! You make friends and connections with social networking.  Eventually down the road, you probably will “sell” them or someone they know something, but that’s not really the point of social networking.

Perry Equates Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube with acting the same on your social network as you would if you were going to a big party!  You don’t walk around a party you are invited to saying.. “Buy this.. Hire me.. Come to my store..” or if you do, you aren’t making many friends at the party! You try to connect with people at the party. You might look for people that live near you, or that you are in the same live stage with or that you have similar interests with.

Perry Belcher says he doesn’t know how women start up a conversations. Well Perry if you ever read this article I’m going to tell you the big secret! Women usually meet and then start sharing things about themselves looking for commonalities…. kids, church, hobbies, husbands, single, married, divorced, empty nester… If we find something in common then ZOWIE, we are off and running and will be sharing our innermost secrets within minutes!  We also often will compliment one another on something not necessarily to start a conversation or a relationship but we might want information.  An example would be  “.. I just love your earrings.. where did you get them?”  So that woman is flattered that you not only thing she has great taste but now she gets to do something women LOVE to do.. she gets to pass on her shopping expertise!  “OH! Thanks! I got them at this great little boutique over off of Mainstreet. Sally Jo is the owner, tell her Jackie sent you.”

Social networking is just like THAT! You are on Twitter, you just found the worlds best Mexican Restaurant in your town.  You Tweet that.. someone else says oh I have been wanting to try that spot, they love it, they say thanks for the tip, you’ve established you both love Mexican food and you live in the same area.. pretty soon you are meeting at Starbucks and finding out more things you have in common like she says one day.. oh WOW My husbands company has a website and he told me  it never gets any traffic, isn’t that what you do? … well hey “Yes it is .. I can help with that…”  and now you have a friend and a client, but you never made a dime from being on Twitter.

I find myself on Perry Belchers Blog quite a bit!  You might really enjoy his stuff too so visit him here.