Kaboodle: Another Way to Collect and Share Information

I love using Del.icio.us to bookmark articles and web sites when researching topics for Yahoo! Tech, or finding recipes, or hotels—organizing just about any grouping of items that catch my interest on the Internet.

But I was introduced to Kaboodle recently, and I've found it to be another useful organizing tool with some distinguishing features that make it easy to design projects, plan travel itineraries, compile shopping lists...the list goes on.

What I like about Kaboodle is it automatically includes a photo of whatever you're collecting information about—shoes, hotels, faucets—you name it. You can keep your lists private, share them with friends, or share them with everyone and learn from each other.

Kaboodle's CEO Manish Chandra came up with the idea for Kaboodle, which launched in 2005, after he and his wife went through a major remodeling of their home several years ago. They did a lot of their planning and purchasing over the Internet, but were frustrated by not having a good way to organize all the items and information they found on the web.

Today, Kaboodle introduces some new features to vary the way you can collect, organize, and share information. If you use it for planning trips, Kaboodle now has a calendar tool, which allows you to plan specific parts of a trip by day and time. There also are some new ways to see what you collect, including a collage view, which displays the items in a creative, changeable page layout, and a slideshow.

Kaboodle also begins a partnership with Shopping.com today, which will allow users to click through to compare prices of items being considered for purchase. The free collecting site has already collaborated with eBay with MyCollectibles, a tool which allows collectors to showcase and share collections with other collectors.

I'm not a big collector, but I've been using Kaboodle to compare hotels near Hershey, Pa., for an overnight trip to the amusement park. I can definitely see using it to plan family vacations, especially ones that involve extended family. It's quick and easy to use. Check it out and let me know what you think, and if there are other ways you recommend collecting, organizing, and sharing information.