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Instapaper is joining Pinterest

blog.instapaper.com

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Re: Instapaper is joining Pinterest

#181

Post by greedo »

paulcole wrote: post #161
nroach wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do I get my data out of instapaper, if I don't want Pinterest using my reading history for targeting me or sharing with their data brokers?

Isn't that the kind of question you should have an answer to before signing up for a service, knowing that it could be sold to whoever down the road?

Basic Internet hygiene should have instilled in most users that any data put online is immediately out of the user's control. If it's on a self-hosted site, the contents are long gone the minute you hit post. If they're on a third-party site, it'll eventually be sold to the highest bidder when the site is either acquired, or goes defunct and the scraps sold off. There is no sanitation online.

Re: Instapaper is joining Pinterest

#182

Post by jen729w »

derefr wrote: post #28
athenot wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're on macOS / iOS, you can use the reading list. When you add items to your reading list from Safari, they get synced to your iOS device so you can read them offline from any of your devices. It does require iCloud but nothing beyond that.

I use Mobile Safari on iOS but Chrome on macOS. This means that, as much as I love Safari's Reading List, it's basically "unavailable" to me on the desktop. To put something in the Reading List from Chrome, I have to focus the URL bar, copy the URL, open Safari, paste and go to the URL, and then ⌘⇧D to put it in the list. (I can also right-click on the URL bar in Chrome and use the "Add to Reading List" OS Service, b…

I go the other way, sending pages from Safari to Chrome when I need Flash content, using a TextExpander snippet. It's not a perfect solution for you, but it might help.

Here's the code, which I have tied to "stc " (send to Chrome). [Ha! In typing the snippet shortcut, of course, I sent this very page to Chrome. :-)]

  property theURL : ""
  tell application "Safari"
  	set theURL to URL of current tab of window 1
  end tell
  if appIsRunning("Google Chrome") then
  	tell application "Google Chrome"
  		make new window
  		set URL of active tab of window 0 to theURL
  		activate
  	end tell
  else
  	tell application "Google Chrome"
  		do shell script "open -a \"Google Chrome\""
  		set URL of active tab of window 0 to theURL
  		activate
  	end tell
  end if
  
  on appIsRunning(appName)
  	tell application "System Events" to (name of processes) contains appName
  end appIsRunning

Re: Instapaper is joining Pinterest

#183

Post by deanishe »

paulcole wrote: post #161
nroach wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do I get my data out of instapaper, if I don't want Pinterest using my reading history for targeting me or sharing with their data brokers?

Isn't that the kind of question you should have an answer to before signing up for a service, knowing that it could be sold to whoever down the road?

There's an API, but I'd rather not have to write my own script to export the data. Which I'll be doing lickety split.

Not a fan of Pinterest (the company), not one bit.

Re: Instapaper is joining Pinterest

#184

Post by overcast »

bthdonohue wrote: post #96

Hi all, Brian from Instapaper here. There seem to be a number of comments expressing concerns about the acquisition, and I wanted to just jump in and offer to answer any questions you have about the acquisition. Based on the comments I've read below the main concerns seem to be that Instapaper will either be shutdown or materially changed in a way that effects the end-user experience. I can tell you that neither of t…

While we all would like to remain optimistic, the reality of the situation, is that Instapaper will eventually be wound down. Likely within the next year. The "our incredible journey" speech has become a meme in itself.

With that said, thanks for taking the time to respond, and congratulations on the acquisition.

Re: Instapaper is joining Pinterest

#185

Post by frankquist »

bthdonohue wrote: post #96

Hi all, Brian from Instapaper here. There seem to be a number of comments expressing concerns about the acquisition, and I wanted to just jump in and offer to answer any questions you have about the acquisition. Based on the comments I've read below the main concerns seem to be that Instapaper will either be shutdown or materially changed in a way that effects the end-user experience. I can tell you that neither of t…

I've got two questions:

- Has there been any consulting with Marco about this acquisition? It being his brainchild.

- The blog post mentions some concrete ways on how your Instapaper mad skills can/will be used to make Pinterest more useful. In what concrete ways will Instapaper be made more useful and/or stable because of Pinterest?

Myself, I'm concerned. I've found Pinterest to be user-hostile in a way that seems opposite to the Instapaper philosophy: it's naggy (notification-wise for starters) and aimed at hooking me into their ecosystem. It's in-your-face instead of hands-off.

Edit: added a question, and also I'd be remiss not to use this opportunity to thank you for the great service! It's the only 'bookmarking' service I use, after many years of trying many sorts.

Re: Instapaper is joining Pinterest

#186

Post by frankquist »

bthdonohue wrote: post #127
AndrewWarner wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate when apps I like shut down. David was pretty open in the post you linked to: "Though the team will live on, we’ll be focused on building within the core Pinterest product."

Obviously the Math Camp acquisition was before my time, but my understanding is that acquisition was explicitly for the team and not the technology.

Isn't the technology of Instapaper separate from Instapaper as a product, though, to some extent? (at least the parser bit. I get that the information about reading habits is inseparable from a running Instapaper service)

Re: Instapaper is joining Pinterest

#187

Post by ihuman »

TillE wrote: post #79
bishnu wrote: post #41

Worth re-reading Marco Arment's blog post about selling Instapaper 3 years ago: https://marco.org/2013/04/25/instapaper-next-generation "Instapaper needs a new home where it can be staffed and grown, but I didn’t want to give it to a big company that would probably just shut it down in six months." Oof.

He "sold a majority stake", which means he still owned part of Instapaper. I assume Pinterest bought the whole thing and therefore gave Marco a large chunk of money? Nice for him.

Even in 2016 Marco is still selling things. Never change Marco, never change.

Re: Instapaper is joining Pinterest

#188

Post by dexterdog »

jasikpark wrote: post #169
leejoramo wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the link to Wallabag, I had never heard of it. Looks very interesting. I use Pinboard, and pay for the archiving option. I even periodically request a tarball of the archive for my own backup. Pinboard archives the entire page, not just a readable version of the content. For archival and reference purposes, I like this. It would be nice if Pinboard also provided a readable option. In fact, a number of the…

One option is to have a browser that can render webpages in reading mode like safari on iOS. Hopefully chrome and Firefox have extensions as well.

They do

Re: Instapaper is joining Pinterest

#189

Post by dexterdog »

paulcole wrote: post #161
nroach wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do I get my data out of instapaper, if I don't want Pinterest using my reading history for targeting me or sharing with their data brokers?

Isn't that the kind of question you should have an answer to before signing up for a service, knowing that it could be sold to whoever down the road?

Isn't that the kind of question everybody already knows the answer to?
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