How to track bookmarks?

[tictoc]

What is the best way to find out when someone adds your site as a bookmark? is there something to use to monitor this?

[Reid]

I'm not sure how accurate this is but 'request for favico.ico'?

any commments?

[larryn]

Requests for favicon.ico can be misleading as many modern browsers (Firefox, Mozilla, Safari) can request and display the icon in the address bar while the site is being viewed. You could try isolating requests for the icon from Internet Explorer and get a gauge of how many times you've been bookmarked.

On the contrary side - why do you care if you've been bookmarked? Shouldn't you be more concerned about how many visits, repeat visits, etc. What business decision can you make as a result of knowing your bookmark rate?

According to usability studies I've read in passing(and can't quote here because it was in passing), bookmarking is being usurped by searches; patterns indicate that people don't bookmark instead they use Google, etc. to find things again.

Hope this helps,

Larry

[Rollo]

What business decision can you make as a result of knowing your bookmark rate

I think they're getting after Google's latest patent ap which cites the number of bookmarks as a potential factor in determining SERPS.

I guess there is something one can do... perhaps put a big giantic flashing BOOKMARK ME OH PLEASE right in the middle of the site, write duplictous scripts to trick people into bookmarking your site, or other indticemetns for a bookmark... doesn't seem ike the best use of time to me.

[tictoc]

I feel it is important to be able to track what pages that my visitors bookmark. I want to know what pages other people value the most and not just the search traffic. It helps for bringing trust to the website.

Thanks I had forgot about the .ico image download stats.

Has anyone used any type of incentive program to bookmark their website that worked well for them?

[Reid]

Doesn't really matter - how many bookmarks.

But it is reassuring when your developing a new site to see people appreciate it enough to bookmark it.

Also you can get an indication of how user-freindly or how usefull your site is by the rate it is being bookmarked. eg how many bookmarks per thousand new visitors.

That is if you could measure it accurately.

[larryn]

That is if you could measure it accurately

Thats the rub! With the current patch of browsers, its pretty much impossible to determine by looking at requests for favicon.ico, you could make a good guess as percentage of MSIE browsers, but then your sample is automatically biased.

[Rollo]

True, it is good information to have and useful from these perspectives, newfound Google info aside.