Todd gave me a beta invite to the new bookmarking site Mento this morning. He really likes it, and thinks that it is del.icio.us on steroids. I agree.
More or less the sites are very similar in their core functionality — to bookmark sites with the potential to categorize and share them. However, Mento has added a few bells and whistles.
While del.icio.us is much more spartan in its design (which isn't necessarily bad –compare Google to Yahoo!), Mento has a lot more graphics and more friendly user interface. I personally don't mind a spartan site, but Mento is refreshing. For those who are new to the bookmarking game, they probably would find Mento easier to use.
Another cool bell and whistle that Mento has added is the ability to get a customized screen shot (whole or partial) of a web page that one is bookmarking. I must admit that this is way cool. A picture is worth a thousand words, and bookmarking sites aren't made for tomes about links. Further, it is easy to do. The tool pops up in one's browser, and the instructions are very clear what to do.
Mento is also gracious enough to understand that we weren't born for the sole purpose of using it. That's why it allows users to export links from it to other bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, Ma.gnolia, and tumblr. That's pretty generous. Of course, can or will also export links to sites like Facebook, which makes perfect sense since bookmarking is a complementary activity to social networking.
If that's not good enough, Mento also enables you to filter the links that your connections can send you or that you'll see as you peruse their bookmarks. For instance, if Todd tags something "battlestargalactica," I can choose not to see these links. No offence meant, but I'm a Star Trek guy. Likewise you can make sure that pages from a certain site are included in what you see. That's pretty nifty.
The site is still in beta — thus, a work-in-progress. But it seems cool to me. If you would like an invite to test the site, either leave a comment below or send us a direct message through The Bivings Group's Twitter page.
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