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The next generation of Instapaper

marco.org

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Re: The next generation of Instapaper

#31

Post by w1ntermute »

incision wrote: post #28
rkudeshi wrote: post #3

I wonder how much this has to do with the rise of Pocket over the last year. It's no secret that Pocket has improved dramatically since rebranding a year ago. And I'm sure most people who are looking for their first "read-later" app are trying Pocket (free) before buying Instapaper ($5). Personally speaking, I bought Instapaper for myself and gifted it to a few other people over the years, but I switched to Pocket a…

Speaking of Pocket, I'm baffled by their lack of (recently upgraded to simply lacking) sharing functionality and full-text search. Passing a Pocket link to someone without a Pocket account leads to a sign-up page. If the recipient already has an account or goes to the trouble to sign up, they're redirected to their own queue, not the linked article. If the recipient goes to the trouble to sign up and pocket the same…

> Passing a Pocket link to someone without a Pocket account leads to a sign-up page.

I'm not sure what you're talking about. I just tried sharing something from the Pocket Android app and it gave me the original URL in the Gmail message I opened.

Re: The next generation of Instapaper

#32

Post by brianwillis »

I'm hoping that when Marco says "I've sold a majority stake" he doesn't mean "I've sold everything". I'm a big Instapaper fan, and I'd hate to see someone else take over deciding the direction the service should move in.

A big part of Instapaper's success comes from the fact that Marco's done a great job at steering the ship. He really is a world-class product guy who knows what to say no to.

Congratulations to Marco and Betaworks. I hope it works out well for all of us.

Re: The next generation of Instapaper

#33

Post by wklauss »

blairbeckwith wrote: post #26
barredo wrote: post #23

Twitter can be dramatic https://twitter.com/SteveStreza/status/327550484745445376

This is classic Marco, nothing to see here. He's just a child who starts this stuff over nothing, from what I've seen.

I would have done the same as Marco. It was unasked for and unnecessary. Pocket is a great app but so its Instapaper and Marco has done a tremendous job over the years by keeping it in shape by himself (with exception of the Android app). This is a way on pissing all over the the efforts of a independent developer. Just because.

Re: The next generation of Instapaper

#35

Post by incision »

w1ntermute wrote: post #31
incision wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking of Pocket, I'm baffled by their lack of (recently upgraded to simply lacking) sharing functionality and full-text search. Passing a Pocket link to someone without a Pocket account leads to a sign-up page. If the recipient already has an account or goes to the trouble to sign up, they're redirected to their own queue, not the linked article. If the recipient goes to the trouble to sign up and pocket the same…

> Passing a Pocket link to someone without a Pocket account leads to a sign-up page. I'm not sure what you're talking about. I just tried sharing something from the Pocket Android app and it gave me the original URL in the Gmail message I opened.

>I'm not sure what you're talking about.

That probably has something to do with failing to read what I wrote.

I'm talking about a link to the "read later" view. I even described the original URL functionality you're confusing it with.

"Within the last month, they finally added some sharing functionality, but it sends links to the original not the pocket version."

Re: The next generation of Instapaper

#36

Post by enra »

incision wrote: post #28
rkudeshi wrote: post #3

I wonder how much this has to do with the rise of Pocket over the last year. It's no secret that Pocket has improved dramatically since rebranding a year ago. And I'm sure most people who are looking for their first "read-later" app are trying Pocket (free) before buying Instapaper ($5). Personally speaking, I bought Instapaper for myself and gifted it to a few other people over the years, but I switched to Pocket a…

Speaking of Pocket, I'm baffled by their lack of (recently upgraded to simply lacking) sharing functionality and full-text search. Passing a Pocket link to someone without a Pocket account leads to a sign-up page. If the recipient already has an account or goes to the trouble to sign up, they're redirected to their own queue, not the linked article. If the recipient goes to the trouble to sign up and pocket the same…

We also do full-text search for Pro users, and you can sync with Pocket. http://kippt.com

Re: The next generation of Instapaper

#37

Post by uxp »

Kylekramer wrote: post #7

Arment two days ago: https://twitter.com/marcoarment/status/326757551947530240 He may be just refuting the "peak downloads/full time on Magazine" claim, but kind of an odd response given this.

Actually, it doesn't sound odd in the slightest if you read the whole thread, including the two people at the end complaining about the lack of support. Reading the article, it sounds like Instapaper was just too big for Marco to support on his own, and has partnered with BetaWorks to help him make the product better, probably by giving it support.

It seems incredibly cut and dry from that perspective.

Re: The next generation of Instapaper

#38

Post by smackfu »

wklauss wrote: post #33
blairbeckwith wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is classic Marco, nothing to see here. He's just a child who starts this stuff over nothing, from what I've seen.

I would have done the same as Marco. It was unasked for and unnecessary. Pocket is a great app but so its Instapaper and Marco has done a tremendous job over the years by keeping it in shape by himself (with exception of the Android app). This is a way on pissing all over the the efforts of a independent developer. Just because.

C'mon, that tweet from Steve is exactly the kind of thing Marco would post if Pocket or any of his other competitors were getting bad press.

Re: The next generation of Instapaper

#39

Post by tomkarlo »

incision wrote: post #35
w1ntermute wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Passing a Pocket link to someone without a Pocket account leads to a sign-up page. I'm not sure what you're talking about. I just tried sharing something from the Pocket Android app and it gave me the original URL in the Gmail message I opened.

>I'm not sure what you're talking about. That probably has something to do with failing to read what I wrote. I'm talking about a link to the "read later" view. I even described the original URL functionality you're confusing it with. "Within the last month, they finally added some sharing functionality, but it sends links to the original not the pocket version."

Seems like it makes a lot of sense to do this. They don't want to become a de-facto mirror for the content, they want to provide it only to people who are actually their users. I'd rather have that, along with a bias towards sharing the original link, than a lot of sharing of the reflowed content.

Re: The next generation of Instapaper

#40

Post by smackfu »

Kylekramer wrote: post #7

Arment two days ago: https://twitter.com/marcoarment/status/326757551947530240 He may be just refuting the "peak downloads/full time on Magazine" claim, but kind of an odd response given this.

The odd thing is that he already hired an editor for The Magazine so it's not like be needs to work full time on it.

Maybe he has another idea for a new project. He has definitely "seen the light" about a product producing monthly revenues instead of a one time purchase price.

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