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Ask HN: What is your workflow for saving bookmarks?

29 points by mr_november ↗ HN
Interested in hearing the various services/methods folks use to save url's. Especially with delicious likely shutting down (which I used), I'm interested in hearing about this. The only requirement is that the url's are available everywhere and not (just) stored locally.

Thanks.

54 comments

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bonquesha99
I've been happy using Google's simple bookmarking service: http://google.com/bookmarks
minalecs
another vote for Google bookmarking along with YAGBE - Yet Another Google Bookmarks Extension - Chrome extension.
taylorwc
Used this for a long time, and it was functional...ended up switching to Evernote for that (and importing Google Bookmarks to it), and love it--but I don't have a massive volume of bookmarks.
kevinold
Anyone know of a good way to import bookmarks from delicious to Google Bookmarks? Searches only turn up several scripts that have rotted and to install Google Toolbar in FF. I just want a simple script or am hoping Google jumps on this and offers importing via any browser.
mr_november
+1, this is really surprising to me that there is no way to import delicious bookmarks to google bookmarks.

The one 'supported' method doesn't even work and even if it did, it's a bit ridiculous (export delicious bookmarks, import to firefox, export from firefox, install google toolbar and import into google bookmarks). For one, you will lose all your tags.

scraplab
http://pinboard.in
youngtaff
+1

Although I understand their servers are taking a hammering at the moment

mitchellhislop
I also am a huge pinboard fan, but not for things that I use daily. I use XMarks for all my main things, and pinboard to store things that I rarely use, or if I am going to need a list- for instance, one of my physics professors wanted a list of web sources to save him some time (60 term papers). I used pinboard to store them all, and just had to give him a link at that point.
revorad
I just use Instapaper bookmarklet and search. Don't have the time or patience for tagging.
lepht
I came to the same conclusion after using delicious for a few years... right before they came out with the intelligent auto-tagging stuff, which would mark bookmarks with perfectly relevant and useful tags automatically.

When it comes to bookmark retrieval, tags can be awesome. None of delicious' competitors that I've seen offer decent auto-tagging.

sga
I often email urls to myself.
Shamiq
I use specific gmail labels, so I can quickly go to those emails when I want to rewiew sites/ideas/things I've saved.
notahacker
Delicious :( and low tech options like browser bookmarks, leaving tabs open or emailing links to myself.
ancymon
I use Opera which allows synchronizing bookmarks between computers.
DanHulton
I just use Google Chrome and synchronize bookmarks, is all.
bockris
Me too except for my Android device. I have to 'Share' those links that I find on my phone by emailing myself. Serious pain point for me.
babeKnuth
anyone know if the browser slows down in any way due to massive amounts of bookmarks?

1000? 10,000? 1 million?

dstein
I'm almost at the point where I should probably go bookmark-free. Inevitably, bookmarks start becoming a micromanagement nightmare. The ability of google to find the site I'm thinking about it is almost on-par with my ability to find it hidden in my bookmarks.
pclark
I think this is absolutely the way bookmarking - and browser history - will go. Search is too fast and good now.
babeKnuth
Unsure if you just have an exceptional memory, but I find this to be the opposite for me, to the point where none of the available services do enough for me.

My use-case might be different from yours tho. I do quite a bit of scientific research. Thus I require a vast array of mediums to be able to navigate and store data.

rudle
Depending on the type of bookmark, I use a combination of Read It Later and leander https://github.com/rudle/leander .

Shameless self-promotion: leander provides full text search on webpages from the command line. There is also an (experimental) sinatra web frontend/API.

pstinnett
1. Anything I plan to read later goes into Instapaper using the Instapaper bookmarklet.

2. Anything that I want to watch or return to later gets thrown into a "Read" or "Watch" bookmark folder I have which I clear out occasionally. For example, I have a few Ruby and Git guides that I refer to. Even if I have it bookmarked here I'll sometimes just Google for the link.

bignerds
I store all of my bookmars in evernote. The chrome and firefox extensions are pretty solid, and make bookmarking very easy.
w1ntermute
Xmarks (now owned by LastPass) - cross-browser & cross-platform sync.
zdw
was del.icio.us, with a script that pulled a backup down nightly.

Most likely I'll jump to pinboard.in

xenophanes
i just hit cmd-d and then return. in the future it will be available for address bar url completion.

the most frequently used sites i drag onto bookmarks bar. or just leave open in a tab.

WillyF
Although I don't do it (maybe I'll start now), setting up a WordPress blog and using the Press This functionality is a pretty nice way to do it.
gcaprio
I know it's probably not a popular option, but I use the bookmark syncing features of MobileMe. Always backed up, always in sync with my phone. Works great.
gcaprio
Oh and it works right from Safari. So just adding a normal bookmark is enough for it to sync.
JSig
I've used delicious and xmarks.

I'm going to write my own bookmark plugin that syncs data to my own server the way I like it. I don't care about sharing or viewing other people's bookmarks. I certainly don't feel like paying to organize my bookmarks.

babeKnuth
+100. Eventually will do the same as well. I figure this type of thing is part of a programmer's rite of passage.
mmb
I wrote this so I would not have to rely on a third party for bookmarking and so I could have regex search:

https://github.com/mmb/murlsh

babeKnuth
that's full-text regex, correct?
mmb
It's regex search the of the url itself and the page title. It doesn't match against the full document if that's what you mean. That's an interesting idea though.
babeKnuth
ah, yes. that's what i meant. thnx for the clarification tho. i assumed it was full-text.
gte910h
Chrome shares your links to all your computers via a feature in the browser.
kirubakaran
With Favbot, you don't need a workflow : http://www.favbot.com/

Smart Automatic Bookmarks.

dwynings
Favbot looks like it'll be my Delicious replacement. The fact that it's passive/ automatic is neat!
pclark
I'm not convinced about auto tagging services. The reason why tagging is so great is because the taxonomy is in your head not decided by a machine. Tags are literally bookmarks for your brain, if you're not making the tags - they're bookmarks for a machine (which are then hard to browse/cluster content by.)
lepht
In looking through my options for transitioning away from delicious, Favbot is the one that has we genuinely excited.

If it works in the way that it's described and works well, I daresay I'd consider switching even without delicious' impending doom. The analytics are especially interesting for a stats addict like myself.

I just hope the invite wait isn't too long.

pclark
Did you really just make me sign up only to tell me you're going to send me an invite sometime in the mysterious future? Ugh.
kirubakaran
It is not vaporware. Most of it is done. You will get an invite soon. Limiting them to ensure quality.
pclark
Why does it say "Signup For Free Now" if I'm not signing up for the service? You should make it "Signup For An Invite" or something. (I just noticed it says next to it about invites, and on the right on the next page - but no one reads that.)
ay
Worried back in the day about the precisely this event, I store my bookmarks in my own "service" - the UI being minimalist since I like it that way.

http://twagr.com/adduser.lua - but, a warning, it's just running on chewing gum and matches, so be gentle :-)

Dramatize
I use my To-Do List on my iGoogle homepage to store links (normally short term for later blogging/sharing). Every few weeks I'll go through them and clear them out.
iamgoat
I use Evernote because it's easy to tag/organize/reorganize stuff and search is fast (desktop client). Plus it automatically syncs.

Bookmarking client side for me is > web based because of speed.

_b8r0
I use http://www.minklinks.com/ to email links to friends and to myself. I'm eating my own dogfood, beta should hit before christmas, signups are still available.
babeKnuth
no screenshots???

at the very least get some screenshots

_b8r0
Thanks, I'll do that.
babeKnuth
ya. i recommend you minimize all points of friction as much as possible.
sjs382
I use chrome to sync bookmarks between machines.

I have a bookmarks bar where the bookmarks have no names. They are represented by their favicons. Then, I have 3 bookmark folders on my bookmarks bar. Currently they are "!" "11" and "12"

"!" is for bookmarks I keep long-term. "11" is for bookmarks created in november. "12" is for bookmarks created in december.

I'm pretty loose about bookmarking. If it's something I might want to bookmark, I just bookmark it to the current month's folder. Then, when the month is up (Jan 1), I will clean out the "11" folder, moving stuff I really want to keep to "!". Few things make it to "!". Then, I delete "11". Afterward, I will do a first wave of deletions on "12", keeping stuff I still find interesting. Then I'll create the "1" folder for January and start again.