[j_baker]

I used to set transient-mark-mode to t myself. But being able to set a mark and use C-xC-x to switch the cursor and the mark point is too powerful. It allows you to set a mark, go edit something else, and then go back to where you were.

Granted, you could probably do that with transient mark mode, but seeing everything highlighted would be too annoying.

[technomancy]

C-u C-SPC cycles through the mark ring and works with transient-mark. Just use C-g to deactivate the region so everything isn't highlighted.

[yummyfajitas]

You can do the same thing with bm.el, but you also get multiple bookmarks (visible in the buffer) which you can then cycle through. I find it helpful to have bookmarks and the region decoupled.

http://www.nongnu.org/bm/