Diigo vs. Scoop.it

This week I had the opportunity to work with Diigo and Scoop.it in order to manage my favorite language-inspired websites. After navigating both sites, extensively, I've come to a decision: I prefer Scoop.it's simplicity over Diigo's profound, organizational capabilities.

Let's take the discussion further and analyze the pros and cons of both websites.

Pros: Diigo offers users a wide variety of interactive tools when surfing the web. Users have the ability to group websites under specific bookmarks, add multiple tags to a website and to even highlight text within the website. This portion of the text will remain highlighted, even if the user is accessing the website from a different computer or device. I found this feature very useful, especially for "traveling" teachers such as myself. Next, Diigo's search engine seemed to outperform what Scoop.it had to offer; where Diigo suggested hundreds of websites for the search "L2 learning", Scoop.it only provided a handful. Overall, Diigo is a much more in-depth way to organize and manage useful Internet tools.

Cons: Diigo proved almost too complex for first time users. Falling under this category, I initially found myself lost and confused. Furthermore--and this may be in fact user error on my part--I was unable to use Diigolet (a less intense version of Diigo); I ultimately had to download the Diigo tool bar in order to successfully bookmark any and all websites. Even after watching the "How to" video I still don't understand all of the features. Maybe, in time, my opinion will change? I do however see myself continuing to use this resource in the future because it does organize and store all websites on the cloud. I enjoy the ability to access my favorite websites from any device.

Pros: Scoop.it allows users to organize their favorite websites in a quick, straight-forward fashion. Furthermore, the website itself is much easier to navigate for those with less experience. I was able to jump right in, "scooping" or "tagging" websites immediately, no "how to" video required. Also, I didn't need to download a tool bar in order to use the program. Lastly, and as silly as it may sound, the website layout was more visually appealing. Again, all of this could be attributed to personal preference.

Cons: Scoop.it does not offer nearly as many features as Diigo. Users cannot manipulate the text itself on the website and you cannot organize sites into as many categories. And although Scoop.it does offer suggestions, I often found the suggestions haphazard or less relevant than those of Diigo. I am however already looking forward to sharing some of my Scoop.it findings with my Spanish classes.

As I continue working with both programs I wonder if any of my opinions will change...