Kaboodle: For the really "Web 2.Organized"

Far too many articles about the latest in Web 2.0 start off like this: "With Flickr, you organize photos; with Delicious, you organize links; with 43 Things, you organize goals; and with (insert name of new Web 2.0 gimmick), you organize (insert name of something you probably don't organize well enough or may have never thought to organize)!"

It's a cliche, but it's got some truth behind it--from friends to shoes to books, there's probably something on the Web that will help you put it in meticulous order. With all this focus on organization, you'd think that this next-generation Internet was trying to make Adrian Monks out of us all.

Enter Kaboodle, the newest member of the pack. It has plenty of familiar features--bookmarking, networking, tagging--but unlike many of the more niche-oriented Web 2.0 start-ups, Kaboodle claims it will help you organize, well, just about everything, provided you can find it on the Internet.

Kaboodle is, to put it simply, a graphical and more guided Delicious. Like the famously stripped-down social bookmarking site, Kaboodle allows you to aggregate a collection of links, toss them into categories, and share them with whoever might be peeking. But that's where the two diverge. Not only does Kaboodle incorporate images, ratings and "highlights" for each link, it provides suggestions for exactly what your set of bookmarks can detail. Some of the most popular themes are shopping lists, vacation planners and wish lists.

On Tuesday, Kaboodle launched additional features, including a selection of graphical viewing options--dynamic "collages," schedule-oriented "itineraries," grids and slideshows--and user groups that add even more of a social-networking feel to the site.

You might say it's "Web 2.Overkill." (Look on the bright side: at least the creators didn't name it "Kaboodlr.") But that doesn't seem to be the opinion of Shopping.com, the eBay-owned comparison shopping site, which announced Tuesday that it would be integrating its catalog into Kaboodle. People will now be able to see Shopping.com comparisons for items they've bookmarked and a link to more detailed reviews from partner site Epinions.

Kaboodle is a cool concept, and the partnership with Shopping.com will certainly help this still-in-beta start-up gain a stronger footing--especially now that the virtual-doomsday crowd has started to predict that Web 2.0's shiny, gradient-filled bubble may eventually burst.

But, as usual, it's a toss-up as to whether Web users will actually want to use Kaboodle for back-to-school shopping lists, wedding planning, and comparison shopping. There are plenty of other sites out there for all three of those; having them all in one place might be unnecessary for some and a little too obsessive-compulsive for others. A fictional portrayal of OCD and hyper-organization won Tony Shalhoub an Emmy last weekend, but some of us are perfectly content to go on with our laid-back (and even sloppy) ways.