Like me you probably have lists of websites that you bookmarked but you can’t remember why or what they relate to. They end up in a long list in your browser with little to suggest why you bookmarked them or what they might be useful for. I have discovered Pearltrees – www.pearltrees.com – that allows you to visually organize your websites into useful (and memorable) clusters.  In the software’s terminology a “pearl” is a site that you mark and a ‘tree’ is acollection of sites that are organized based upon common theme or use.

You may create more than one ‘tree’ – perhaps for an overall subject and then individualcourses. I have mine divided into major categories – eg. web resources – as well as courses.

In a more ‘social’ angle Pearltrees also allows you to search other Pearltree users who have marked the same sites as you to find sites that you might find useful. It also let’s you know who has sampled your ‘pearls’ as well but ,no, it doesn’t bother you with suggestions!

If you use Firefox or Chrome you can also add a plugin that allows you to quickly save a new site (or pearl) and add to your collection to be organized later. When you land on a site that you would like to save – click on the pearl (circle) icon to the left of the site’s url and it is automatically added to your Pearltree site.

Pearltree may not be for everyone but as a visual learner, and thinker, I found it a quick and easy way to organize my sites – and remember why they were considered important in the first place. If you  want any further information just tweet!!

Colleen