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Ask HN: Do you still bookmark websites?

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Re: Ask HN: Do you still bookmark websites?

#51

Post by jamesrr39 »

aagha wrote: post #50
jamesrr39 wrote: post #36

I still bookmark websites. Just in the standard browser, not in Pocket, etc. I found searching for and finding bookmarks a pain, so made a Chrome extension to natural language search with lunr.js. It works nicely and I open-sourced it. Extension: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/bookmark-search/fcj... Code: https://github.com/jamesrr39/chrome-bookmark-search

Do you know if it works in FF?

Most likely not in it's current state as it uses the `chrome.bookmarks.getTree()` API.

However the Chrome-specific stuff is in this file: https://github.com/jamesrr39/chrome-bookmark-search/blob/mas... , and creating an equivalent for this should be enough to support firefox.

I am open to pull requests!

Re: Ask HN: Do you still bookmark websites?

#52

Post by discardedrefuse »

Bookmarks... This is a rabbit hole I dive down at least once a year. And always come up disappointed.

The problem with discussing bookmarks is that everyone has different needs. Some people want a system that takes snapshots, generates pdfs, allows for offline viewing, creates AI summaries, lets you share with other users, (supports other users), archives everything into a database, and more. Other folks just want a simple, literal bookmark system that only manages links to websites.

If you're in the latter category (like I am), the perfect system already exists. It's called xBrowserSync and it's wonderful. It's open source. You can self-host the sync server. Data is encrypted before leaving the client. It has browser extensions. It has an Android app. And it uses tags / search instead of endlessly nested folders.

But there's one huge problem: The project has been abandoned for years. The public sync servers are still up and running. But the Chrome extension has fallen into disrepair. I use Firefox, so I'm still good, but for how long?

And so every year I go on this quest to gauge the state of bookmark managers. It seems everyone is trying to build the 1st kind of system. I get it. You're not gonna convert users to subscriptions with a simple link database. But that's not the system I want.

So if you're just looking to sync web links between devices, in a private, browser agnostic way, organized with search tags instead of folders, and without having to manage a huge tech stack. Your current options are: xBrwoserSync, Linkding, Shaarli, and LinkAce.

Re: Ask HN: Do you still bookmark websites?

#54

Post by pointlessone »

I kinda do.

I keep a tab open if it’s something I want to look at later. I have like a bajillion opent tabs. Literal southands (plural). Once in a while I go through those and close a lot of them. Like hundreds at a time.

And I keep a web archive of a page in DEVONthink if already read it and I want to keep it for reference. Southands of pages spanning more than a decade back. Quite a few of them ar not on the web any more. Some are not on the Internet Archive either.

Re: Ask HN: Do you still bookmark websites?

#55

Post by eth0up »

indus wrote: post #42
eth0up wrote: post #16

I use an ever expanding text file, plus bookmarks. The textfile is #1 for me, and can live on various drives.

like physically ctrl-v-ing the links to a file? that is quite a mental muscle to build every time you find something interesting.

It's a pretty simple script mapped to a hotkey. Press ctrl-xyz after copying a url and voila. Not much of an effort at all to maintain a stable bookmark file. I use txt over other formats because I'm unsophisticated. But it's no marathon.

Re: Ask HN: Do you still bookmark websites?

#56

Post by xnx »

pixelmonkey wrote: post #39

I sometimes describe Instapaper as "/dev/null for web content". I reflexively share to Instapaper not to read it later, but to absolve guilt for not reading it at all. It is one of my weirdest web habits, on reflection. OTOH, back when del.icio.us was good, I used it for roughly the same purpose. These days, I still send links to Instapaper when they are essays or articles. I send links to Raindrop.io when they are a…

> I sometimes describe Instapaper as "/dev/null for web content"

Ha! I used Read It Later in a similar way. I thought of it as "Read It Never".

Re: Ask HN: Do you still bookmark websites?

#58

Post by SoftTalker »

xnx wrote: post #56
pixelmonkey wrote: post #39

I sometimes describe Instapaper as "/dev/null for web content". I reflexively share to Instapaper not to read it later, but to absolve guilt for not reading it at all. It is one of my weirdest web habits, on reflection. OTOH, back when del.icio.us was good, I used it for roughly the same purpose. These days, I still send links to Instapaper when they are essays or articles. I send links to Raindrop.io when they are a…

> I sometimes describe Instapaper as "/dev/null for web content" Ha! I used Read It Later in a similar way. I thought of it as "Read It Never".

By the time you go back to read it, the link will be broken.

Re: Ask HN: Do you still bookmark websites?

#59

Post by SoftTalker »

I bookmark stuff I refer to frequently, but not really stuff that I want to "read later." I figure if I want to read it later I'll search for it then.

But I don't use browser bookmarks. I have a `~/home.html' that is my default home page and I organize it in a way that works for me. Any links I use regularly go in there, and I pretty quickly develop a memory for where they are on that page.

Re: Ask HN: Do you still bookmark websites?

#60

Post by password4321 »

password4321 wrote: post #38
curiousObject wrote: post #27

HN itself is a bookmarking tool, BTW The management and search and annotation options are very weak, but when you submit a link here at HN, you are also making a permanent bookmark that will remain accessible via your account

Let me know if there's ever a tool to search HN limited to discussions I've interacted with in some way eg. submission/favorite/comment (public) or upvote. My interactions disappear quickly and are no help when trying to find that one relevant discussion to link.

Sorry for causing some confusion here; I understand I can search using Algolia's author: keyword within my own comments. I want to limit my searches to all comments by anyone within discussions that were interesting to me in any way.
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