Chris Pirillo has an interesting rant on how social bookmarking buttons for sites like del.iciou.us and digg are popping up on sites all over the web – many that he feels have false expectations.
“Okay, I understand the need to make it easier for your visitors to bookmark sites on their favorite Web service(s), but enough is enough. I keep finding Digg and del.icio.us icons on sites and pages where they just… don’t… belong! Seriously, Answers.com has deployed a set on every single page. Yeah, because Answers.com answers are just so digg’able. Whatever.”
Does Chris have a point? Perhaps. If you are adding anything to your website and your brand, you should have metrics or a strong reason to justify it. Many feel that if they simply throw enough Web 2.0 elements on their site, then something will stick. Perhaps others feel that they are not represented on Digg because their fanatical user base doesn’t know about it, and these buttons are a way to educate them and increase your chances of being represented on a site like Digg.