The roots of free social bookmarking tools date back to the mid 1990s, when itList was launched in 1996. Although crude and limited by the standards of today, itList did feature both private and public bookmarking capabilities. A year later, NASA revealed its own bookmarking system, which it dubbed WebTagger, which featured fairly advanced organizing and sharing potential.

Between 1997 and 2000, there were several other attempts to create a viable bookmarking system, but the bursting dot com bubble put those efforts to rest. It would take another three years before a new social bookmark service finally created a stir within the online community.

When Delicious bookmarks were launched in 2003, it was a pioneer of sharing and tagging; and as a result, Delicious had become a hot commodity by early 2004.The success of Delicious opened the flood gates for both copy cats and legitimate competitor social bookmarking sites; chief among these was StumpleUpon, which remains successful today.
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