A while back I posted side-by-side comparisons of Furl, Spurl, del.icio.us and other similar social bookmark managers. Since then, I have continued to use both Furl and Spurl quite a bit, but for slightly different reasons. I just read an interesting interview with the founder of Spurl, Hjalmar Gislason and it has helped me better understand the key differences between the current status and future direction of these tools.

” … if one says that Furl is about building highly personalized resource collections to potentially share with others, one might say just as simply that Spurl (www.spurl.net) is about building highly collaborative resource collections with others to perhaps personally keep.”

What has really been a neat feature of Spurl is that one can develop “Spurl directories” where groups can collaborate to develop resource lists. Gislason lists several examples of active Spurl directories including our own iTeachered directory. With a little playing around, Dan was able to connect this Spurl directory to the teacher resource page at the iTeachered site. This provides an excellent method of providing updates to the site through the Spurl engine.

Gislason also presents his thoughts on the key differences between Furl and Spurl:

“The main differences between Spurl.net and Furl are in my mind: 1) the sidebar that quickly becomes a favorite tool of the users that give the service a spin, 2) the directories that allow groups to work together on a subject and 3) the complete anonymity even to the Spurl.net staff (all you have to do is choose a username and password).”

If you still haven’t checked out either tool, now is always a great time to start. It has certainly changed the way I handle information … for the better.