What can you use the application for?
BlinkList is an online bookmarking application.
What is the history and popularity of the application?
BlinkList's performance is too sluggish to be of any practical use and is like a flashback to the 1990s, with pages taking a very long time to load. Once you've found your way to your profile page, figuring out how the thing works is a time consuming and laborious process, not helped by the extreme slowness of the website's connection, with the site sometimes even failing to load at all. The idea behind BlikList is that you can store a list of your favorite sites in a central, online location, rather than having a list of bookmarks stored on a home computer. This means that you can access your favorite bookmarks from any computer connected to the internet. In order to store bookmarks you will have to first add a plug-in to your browser, which, you could argue, kind of defeats the purpose of a web application. This will enable you to add a site to your BlinkList account simply by clicking on a button in your browser. As well as your own personal list of bookmarks, you can view a list of the most popular bookmarks overall or by subject area, but you'll find that this service is generally abused by spammers promoting advertising related links.
What are the differences to other applications?
BlinkList competes with other social bookmarking websites such as Digg. Unfortunately it is let down when it comes to quality in connection speed and regulation of site misuse by spammers.
How does the application look and feel to use?
BlinkList doesn't have a very impressive look and feel, but then again it does go for a simple look that isn't too distracting. Finding your way around the site is quite difficult however. Navigation is far from simple and finding even the simplest functions can be quite difficult.
How does the registration process work?
Registration for BlinkList seems, at first, to be an easy process, requiring you to specify only a username, password and e-mail. Once you have done this, it takes quite a while before your details are registered, after which you will then be brought to a screen promising you a "free gift" if you fill in extended personal details, such as name, address, telephone number and date of birth. There is no option to skip this page, but you can navigate away from it manually (hit your browsers back button a couple of times) and it won't affect the registration process, which will already have completed. This is a particularly underhanded way of collecting people's personal data and doesn't reflect well upon BlinkList.
What does it cost to use the application?
BlinkList is a free service, funded by advertising.
Who would you recommend the application to?
While BlinkList is a decent enough service, due to its sluggish performance and quite underhanded attempts to gather personal data, we recommend you use another service.
