After trying out Pearltrees today, I have to say I’m incredibly impressed. It was featured on CNN.com as a possible next big thing on the web and since its beta launched on Wednesday, there has been massive scrutiny in the online world over its social-network-meets-categorized-mind-map-bookmarking style. The webhounds have definitely stirred and are barking up this flash-based (pearl)tree.

What Is It

On the surface, Pearltrees is (are?) a fancy bookmarking system that’s guided by a visually intuitive drag-and-drop interface. Each “pearl” can either be a stand-alone link or a category, a “pearltree”, with branches of pearls extending from it, thereby grouping pearls into a cohesive map of ideas. As far as I can tell at this point, pearltrees can grow exponentially – with the user at the helm of creating and categorizing each branch of each pearltree or re-branching by, literally, plucking it off like an over-zealous gardener with new shears, and linking it to some other category. The possibilities are endless.

Pearltrees also comes with a downloadable add-on (I’m currently using the firefox one) which allows you to automatically create a pearl of whatever site(s) you are currently on. The pearl can then be put in a pearltree category or a drop-zone. The drop-zone is essentially like a the desk of a schoolgirl. Pearls can be stored there and filed away later, or – if everything gets too cluttered – dumped into the bin. Easy.

There’s definitely an emphasis on organizational ability and aesthetics here. You don’t want to be a messy pearl-gardener, so you’d want to keep everything trimmed and neat. Think online bonzai and you’ll get the hang of it pretty quickly. Otherwise watch the helpful video on www.Pearltrees.com.

What’s Awesome About It

1. It’s all about links
For starters, this isn’t your ordinary bookmarking system. Sure, you can organize each pearl into other pearls much like pages within bookmark folders, but can you share it with others in real time? One of the neatest things about Pearltrees is its social-networking style (and you can actually see this network!) where individuals are themselves little pearls of wisdom and can be linked to (after they are categorized into the appropriate trees, of course – friends, family, acquaintances, famous people I want to stalk). Whereas interesting links from Facebook and Twitter are easily forgotten and pushed into the background over time, pearls stick around for as long as the user wants it to. Plus, you explore what you want to – no more sifting through annoying profiles and irrelevant links to get to something you want.

2. Tweet a Pearl and Pearl a Tweet
So you still get all your cool links from Twitter? Pearltrees allows you to synchronize your Twitter and Pearltrees account so that the links can be shared between the two. To pearl a tweet, add #pt and #[pearltree category] and your link. For example:

• #pt #coolstuff www.sinlee.com – will create a pearl for sinlee.com on your pearltree.

3. You Can Browse With It
Each pearl you click on will open up a small (movable) window with details about that pearl including a mini-screenshot, which makes it infinitely easier to find things quickly. Click on the screenshot and you can surf – with the handy Pearltrees interface inside the window. The drop-zone and pearl-to-pearl navigation (using arrows) can open up Pearltree possibilities to act a bit like a slideshow from one link to the next. Of course, you can always go back with the Pearls button, should you get lost (or bored), too.

4. Have a Conversation
The details panel also allows you to discuss each pearl, make comments on it and potentially talk to others who have similar interests or concerns about a link or topic. This makes Pearltrees slightly forum-like, with multiple users able to give their input (as opposed to one-way communication). Also, comments can be as long as you like so you don’t have to condense a possibly complex but insightful thought into a 160 letter message, and thus opens up each pearl to a potential conversation.

5. It looks Amazingly Cool
Enough said.

What’s Not-So-Awesome About It (Currently)
Keeping in mind that it’s still in beta and relatively new, there are a few drawbacks that I have noted that would probably be ironed out soon;

1. Pearls Aren’t Added to the Drop-Zone Immediately
After hitting the button to pearl everything I am browsing, my drop-zone in Pearltrees doesn’t seem to show the new pearls until after I refresh the whole tab. This can be a little annoying and I can’t tell if a pearl has been stored correctly until I do that. What if I close a tab thinking that it was already pearled but it wasn’t? In any case, I don’t know if it’s anything I am doing wrong (or maybe, I’m just not that familiar with it yet) but the add-on could be a little more clear, and the drop-zone a little more responsive.

2. Zoom, Please!
Although I really like the branching system, it would really help if there was a way to zoom out. After a dozen or so trees and categories, the pearltrees start to resemble something like a schizophrenic woman’s bad hair day. It can get too much, and it would be helpful to have a way to get to the ends of a string of pearls quickly instead of having to continuously drag the surface.

3. Connections, Connections
You can see the details of who has picked your pearltree or pearls in the small window that opens up. Who, how many hits and where they planted your little tree. Thing is, though, many people have different names for each pearltree (“computergames” vs “Computer Games” vs “pc games”) resulting in large discrepancies of how people organize things and link them up. Granted, this gives people unbelievable flexibility (and enables the emergence of pearls unlimited by just one language), but it’s a little harder to search and connect to the larger pearlworld (yes, I just made that word up). If these tree names were pre-standardized, it might make it easier to search and organize, and therefore easier to connect to those on the same topic. I do see how  a personalized type of tree, unlinked to many others, can promote smaller discussions among known friends, though. Maybe that’s the point.

4. Too Much Notification
It’s great to know who has said what in which thread. It’s great to know that Mark, Tom and Travis picked this or that tree… but it gets to a point where there are too many notifications received in my inbox (and Twitter, to some extent). It would be great to have an internal settings tool which would limit the amount and type of notifications that are sent, but I’m sure the Pearltrees team is working on it already. ***EDIT: I finally found this tool, Dec 13th at 5am after 24 hours of toying with Pearltrees. It’s on the left, under “Settings” (Duh.). Still testing out the difference between “everytime”, “most of the time”, and “never!” – it’s a little bit of a myster at the moment (in a good way)!

In a Nutshell
I’m terribly excited about the future of pearltrees and its potential for growth (no pun intended!) and I think you should be, too. Just make sure you get your bushes trimmed.