Since we’ve launched Panelio.me last November, we’ve been fielding questions from good folks who stumble upon our website or even those who have already downloaded our app: is Panelio.me a social network?

The short answer is ‘No’, but let us explain a bit more…

In a completely unscientific poll of current Panelio.me users, about two thirds of them agreed that “it’s a positive quality” that Panelio.me is not a social network. A number of potential Panelio.me members declined to download the app based on their perception that Panelio.me is “a social network” and that they felt “they couldn’t handle another social network.”

It’s important to get it out there that creating yet another social network was never our intention. While Panelio.me users can socialize if they wish to do so, the application clearly favors collaboration and boosting productivity over sharing, reacting, and commenting.

There’s no shortage of quintessential bookmarking apps with an explicit purpose of being a social network of sorts, Reddit being the most famous and enduring one, but also Delicious and many others. All of them encourage sharing and user interaction. Panelio.me is different.

True, our application deals with bookmarks, bookmarking, and links, however, it’s primarily a tool that helps save and annotate links, including videos. This is why on occasion we try to avoid the term “bookmarking”, since it has implications of in-browser experience as well as sharing and discussing.

In our universe, links are not unlike files; not all of them should be shared and definitely not with just everybody.

If you’re in a process of writing a blog post, you have to go through a stage of research and preparation. Not all material that you stumble upon will make it into the final blog post and sometimes you end up completely pivoting and heavily curating some, yet abandoning other sources or topics completely.

Speaking of curation, a blogger goes through a lot of links, even if those links sometimes lead to a file (like a PDF). In fact, a successful blogger deals almost exclusively with online sources that are accessed in a form of hyperlinks. (Here’s our first unapologetic plug: bloggers love Panelio.me, because it saves time and helps planning a blog post and researching a topic a piece of cake.)

The same is true for collaborating on a work project or even planning a trip. All of the above, even if it’s a collaborative effort, require going through a stage of research, evaluation and then sharing (or not); and even then sharing is usually limited within a closed group of people involved in the project or a trip.

This is why Panelio.me is a great tool for individual and group activities that involve reading online and online research in general. Research is, of course, a very broad term and can involve anything from writing a book to planning a family vacation to planning the next culinary adventure. (Here’s our second unapologetic plug: foodies love Panelio.me because it makes collecting, annotating and retrieving recipes a breeze.)

All in all, Panelio.me is for individuals who engage in activities like blogging, writing, reading, researching, cooking, listening to music, creating websites, etc., etc. They are most likely going to share their final result – a blog post, a meal, a favorite song, -- most likely it’s going to happen on one of “real” social networks, and it’s OK: our job is to make your process of getting it done easier.