Social Bookmarking Soulmate

I blog about sports. However, chances are I won't be regurgitating information from ESPN or your favorite sports media outlet. I write about the business side of sports. I write about the ethical questions that come up in sports. Basically, I write about things that no one seems to care about despite their impact in our everyday lives. Due to the specificity of my topic I really don't expect other people to be particularly interested in what I have to say. However, last week I discovered a social bookmarking website called Delicious. I consider myself a pretty educated internet user, but I had never even heard of "social bookmarking" until I found Delicious. The basic idea is that people share their bookmarks with other users. The potential here is obvious - if I could search for keywords that are related to my blog topic, then I would be able to connect with other users with similar interests.


After some extensive cyber-stalking (innocent, I swear...it was all in the name of research!), I was actually able to find someone with similar interests to me. This came as a huge surprise to me. There are actually people out there who are not only interested in sports business, but also willing to share those interests with the world? I had to investigate further. The user, Maristonian52, is actually more similar to me than I initially thought. Of his top 10 tags,  5 are directly related to my blogging interests. The name Maristonian kind of caught me off guard given this users tagging choices. "Marist" is derived from Mary, mother of Jesus Christ. I would think that someone who would be so religious as to make their username "Maristonian" would have other bookmarking interests. But that's besides the point. The fact is, Maristonian seems to be just as interested in sports business as I am.


From Maristonian's bookmarks, I have found myself exposed to an even wider array of sports business websites. I had no idea that there could be that many people out there that similar interests to me. However, I think I have learned even more about sponsorships and business in general from Maristonian's bookmarked sites. The impact that these seemingly meaningless business decisions have on us on a daily basis is unreal. I will definitely be referencing some of these sites in the future. 


Thanks to Delicious.com I was able to find someone out there that actually had similar interests to me. Maristonian, I don't know who you are, but thank you for your bookmarks.