Like many others, I have a process for bookmarking web pages to read later. My requirements for web page bookmarking are:
Ability to bookmark pages must be available from all (within reason) platforms - PC/browser, mobile device, etc.
Bookmarks must be centrally stored (implicit from #2) so that I can read the bookmarks from anywhere/any device
Full text of web pages must be stored
Bonus features would be:
Bookmarks and page content should be
full text searchable
Maintain an archive indefinitely
Distinguish between what's read vs. unread
Bookmarked page content is cleaned up, e.g. ads eliminated, unnecessary html removed, pages better formatted for reading
My current process (which addresses most of these requirements) is as follows:
I
set up a Gmail account with 2 labels, "Bookmarks Unread" and "Bookmarks Read"
Gmail filters
set up such that depending on the form of the address (using Gmail's '+string' functionality in addresses), the incoming bookmark gets labeled appropriately
On each of my browsers/devices, I have an address book entry for
[email protected] and
[email protected].
If I want to clean up the page content, I use the Readability bookmarklet which does a great job of giving me the essential content only
Anywhere I have Firefox, I use the Send Page by Email extension which, with 2 clicks, allows me to send the cleaned-up Readability page URL and content to one of the above email addresses.
Where I don't have Firefox (e.g. iPhone or other mobile device) I use the native ability to send the current link via email (most/all apps have them, including the browser, RSS readers, NYTimes, etc.). In most cases (unless it's built into the particular app), this won't include the page body.
The process is almost perfect. I've got the central access and ubiquitous access of Gmail as the storage mechanism,
full text searchability (due to Gmail, but of course only for the URLs I send from that Firefox extension), a cleaned up page due to Readability, ability to read offline (assuming I use an IMAP client against Gmail) and permanent archiving of content, including what's been read vs. unread.
The missing pieces are:
The Send Page by Email Firefox extension seems to only send X bytes of a web page. Or some portion. So it limits my
full text searchability.
Where I don't have Firefox, I can only send the link, so no
full text search at all in those cases.
Instapaper looks like it meets most of my requirements (and bonus items). The only downside to me (personal preference) is that central storage is based on Instapaper vs. something more broad like Gmail, which as a generalized service and with Google behind it pretty much means it's permanent. I'm not too hung up on this, but I would definitely prefer to keep Gmail if possible. An upside of Instapaper is that it does the page clean-up as well as stores the entire page content, unlike my Firefox extension.
Thoughts on addressing the gaps and improving this process further?
