YCNewsers: Help me create better online bookmarking(ninua.wufoo.com)
ninua.wufoo.com
YCNewsers: Help me create better online bookmarking
http://ninua.wufoo.com/forms/help-me-create-better-online-bookmarking/
21 comments
Most people I talk to (outside of the Web2.0 crowd) have never even heard of social bookmarking, so I think there is a great opportunity here waiting to be discovered. I want to hear from you guys what you like and dislike about what's available today. Especially from those of you who don't use an online bookmarking web site. Why don't you?
I use my own site as a start-page, where I store a list of links. I put up a relatively simple interface for adding-removing links, plus some extra visuals.
http://www.lkozma.net/links
I use del.icio.us, it's good for what I need. Would be nice if I can set it so that all my bookmarks are private so I don't have to check that litle checkbox everytime. I don't use public bookmarks.
Browser autocompletion is fine for me. 99% of my web visits are the same 7 sites (Reddit, News.YC, LiveJournal, GMail, PlanWorld, Yahoo Finance, and diffle.com), so there's a good chance whatever I'm looking for will popup with one keystroke.
If I do need to look something up, I usually just Google for it. I'll usually remember at least one phrase from the article, so I'll stick it in quotes and it pops right up.
I'm not one of those people who absolutely must be able to return to anything I've found. I figure that websites - like nearly everything else - are ephemeral, so if I can't remember one, it must not have been very important to begin with.
If I do need to look something up, I usually just Google for it. I'll usually remember at least one phrase from the article, so I'll stick it in quotes and it pops right up.
I'm not one of those people who absolutely must be able to return to anything I've found. I figure that websites - like nearly everything else - are ephemeral, so if I can't remember one, it must not have been very important to begin with.
Are your interests in social bookmarking (a la delicious/clipmarks..) or social annotation (diigo/fleck/stickis/trailfire ...) ?
The scene is pretty crowded and traction will be very difficult unless you have significant differentiator.
Based on my prior experience getting friends/family to use a social bookmarking service , most folks don't use any because organizing bookmarks never gets elevated to problem from a mere inconvenience. They have to shown thats it's really really easy before they become converts. Your trick is going to be how to reach this audience.
The scene is pretty crowded and traction will be very difficult unless you have significant differentiator.
Based on my prior experience getting friends/family to use a social bookmarking service , most folks don't use any because organizing bookmarks never gets elevated to problem from a mere inconvenience. They have to shown thats it's really really easy before they become converts. Your trick is going to be how to reach this audience.
That's exactly my problem, and that's why I'm searching for new ideas. The market seems large and waiting for something new to unlock it. After all, almost everyone keeps bookmarks one way or the other, and most people use more than one computer, so they would need to sync them somehow. And, of course, we'll need a viral hook to help with the marketing.
Oh and to add .. perhaps this is the wrong crowd for market research.
I usually go down to the local starbucks (I've even sat outside a large grocery store) to ask my market research questions. It's funny the perspective you gather from non tech folks.
I usually go down to the local starbucks (I've even sat outside a large grocery store) to ask my market research questions. It's funny the perspective you gather from non tech folks.
CoReap is one service that I've started using more frequently off-late. It combines social search and social bookmarking with a no-frills browser sidebar for bookmarks management and a browser extension for social search integration. See: http://www.coreap.com
I use the new one in the Google Toolbar as it's a single button press (star) to add it. No dialogs or anything. I can't be bothered with tagging or confirmation dialogs. I just want to press a single button and have the browser remember it.
http://www.google.com/support/firefox/bin/static.py?page=features.html&v=3
http://www.google.com/support/firefox/bin/static.py?page=features.html&v=3
Thanks. So, I understand the convenience of the one click, but how do you organize your bookmarks? Isn't it hard to find things when you it's a long list? Especially if you have many bookmarks?
Now you mention it, I am not a big fan of the "flat list" organizing principle, as popularized by iTunes. If you can think of anything to better organize bookmarks, you might be on to something. However, I also usually prefer to keep them on my local computer and not to share them with the world.
"I also usually prefer to keep them on my local computer and not to share them with the world".
You could keep it online, without sharing it with the world. This should be done with a transparent encryption scheme. The server stores only the encrypted version of your list. Your browser decrypts it and shows it to you, wherever you are. This should work for anything where searching/indexing is not needed. Sadly, this would remove the possibility of targeted advertising, which is the main (only?) source of profit these days.
database tables are a flat list, but that doesn't mean that the they aren't organized. I usually search my flat list of bookmarks chronologically and by searching for some keywords.
I guess you could map the whole universe to a flat list, that wasn't my point ;-)
With iTunes or thousands of bookmarks, I find that I can't "stumble upon" things anymore - I have to know what I am looking for, so that I can search it. I used to have my music simply organized in folders, and it was so much easier to browse (and still searchable).
Of course the iTunes style allows for new ways of stumbling across music, like "all songs that beginn with the Letter A", but I prefer the "old way" so far.
With iTunes or thousands of bookmarks, I find that I can't "stumble upon" things anymore - I have to know what I am looking for, so that I can search it. I used to have my music simply organized in folders, and it was so much easier to browse (and still searchable).
Of course the iTunes style allows for new ways of stumbling across music, like "all songs that beginn with the Letter A", but I prefer the "old way" so far.
I use my bookmarks as a "read later" list. So I remove them once I have read them.
By the way Google does let you also tag (label) the bookmark. It's just that you have to press a different button to do that. Supporting both methods like Google does would work pretty well.
By the way Google does let you also tag (label) the bookmark. It's just that you have to press a different button to do that. Supporting both methods like Google does would work pretty well.
I thought I was the only one who uses the bookmarks for things to "read later".
Yes, Google let's you label the bookmarks. However, I was curious about the preference for a flat list that some people seem to like. Would a bookmarking site that doesn't have tags nor folders be something that people would like to use?
Yes, Google let's you label the bookmarks. However, I was curious about the preference for a flat list that some people seem to like. Would a bookmarking site that doesn't have tags nor folders be something that people would like to use?
I don't use social bookmarking, it has never appealed to me. Browser based bookmarking has always been sufficient for me, and I don't spend much time "browsing" the internet, I am typically trying to find something specific, so a general search engine is usually sufficient for me.
Some features that might make me more likely to use social bookmarking: OpenID accounts, really simple and good search, RSS for tags (no doubt this already exists), syncing with my bookmarks on all the browsers I use and aggregating them in one spot, letting me save my bookmarks to a bookmark file readable by Firefox... thats all of the top of my head, although fundamentally I don't think they fit in my life flow :/
Some features that might make me more likely to use social bookmarking: OpenID accounts, really simple and good search, RSS for tags (no doubt this already exists), syncing with my bookmarks on all the browsers I use and aggregating them in one spot, letting me save my bookmarks to a bookmark file readable by Firefox... thats all of the top of my head, although fundamentally I don't think they fit in my life flow :/
I'll second the syncing across browsers. What I read and search for at work is drastically different from what I read and search for at home so I've ended up with two distinct sets of 'marks and my del.icio.us account is chaotic beyond hope of simplifying the problem.
how far are you into the planning of this application? and where are you based?
i've been somewhat following this space. i agree there is lots of room for improvement, and i even think it's not saturated yet, that is if you have a flexible definition of a bookmarking application.
i've been somewhat following this space. i agree there is lots of room for improvement, and i even think it's not saturated yet, that is if you have a flexible definition of a bookmarking application.
I'm close to releasing a private beta in a few weeks; but I'm flexible with the concept and will continue to tweak it until it fits. I'm based in Redwood City, CA. I'll drop you an email to discuss this further.
I applied with a "mainstream bookmarking" idea for YC about a year ago or so. PG sent me a one liner, which I'll forward along to you:
"how is this different from reddit?"
"how is this different from reddit?"