I have been using Pocket since it was known as Read It Later, and it’s served my purposes brilliantly, replacing Evernote whose interface I never much cared for. Whenever I come across an article or video that I want to revisit later, I add it to Pocket and forget about it. But there is still one feature in Evernote that I sorely miss: tagging.
When I first came across FaveBucket, it seemed to offer the perfect marriage: Pocket’s lovely interface and Evernote’s robust tagging and categorising abilities. What’s more, it also offers an ability to password-protect bookmarks. So how does it actually fare in real-world?
Getting Started
When signing up for FaveBucket, it asks you to connect your social networks for built-in social sharing functions as well as other features, which we’ll get to later. Then, you’re taken to your FaveBucket account along with a starter page that asks you to drag-and-drop two bookmarklets to your bookmarks bar: ‘FaveBucket’ adds a page to your collection; and ‘my FaveBoard’ takes you to all your bookmarks.
I would have preferred extensions for Chrome or Firebox browsers to this solution. First, these bookmarklets look quite ugly in the bar, since they don’t even have favicons. And second, there doesn’t seem to be any way for them to remember logins, so each time you start your browser, you will first have to sign into FaveBucket.
Bookmarking A Page
The actual experience of adding a link to my FaveBucket was quite pleasant. Clicking the bookmarklet activates a sidebar that is clearly inspired from Windows 8’s Modern UI, as it slides in from the left with its flat, stark colours.
Choose a bucket (or category), add your tags, and key in notes if needed. Couldn’t be simpler.
This is where you start categorising and annotating your bookmark with three tools:
a) Bucket: Buckets are essentially categories, with preloaded options such as Family, Photography, Videos, etc. Of course, you can create your own.
b) Tags: Type tags for your bookmark (three maximum), or choose from the list of auto-suggestions FaveBucket will give.
c) Notes: A lot of times, I save a link and forget why I had bookmarked it. Notes is a very handy feature for that.
The whole process is quick, but I can’t say it’s entirely painless. I used FaveBucket on Google Chrome and the sidebar always trouble when there was a video on the page, as the video would appear over the bar, making some text unreadable and some options unclickable. Here’s an example:
This bug meant the Bucket options couldn’t be clicked, and the tags couldn’t be seen
The FaveBoard
The FaveBoard itself is the best bookmark interface I have used. The default layout is a bit like Pinterest, with each link appearing as a card with an image and text under it.
Take the mouse over the image and you are greeted with four options: Heart, Share, Open and Details.
-Heart lets you add the link to your FaveBucket favourites.
-Share gives social sharing options for the link.
-Open will open the link’s original website in a new tab.
-Details is the most interesting of the lot. It opens its own minimalistic reader, with options to ‘read, view, share’. It’s clearly inspired by Readability and does a good job of providing a pleasant reading experience too.
Going back to the card, you will find a little arrow at the bottom-right corner, which gives further options such as its tabs, deleting the card, updating the captured image, or marking it as confidential.
Browsing the FaveBoard
Apart from Home (all cards) and Loved (the bookmarks you ‘hearted’), there are three other options in FaveBoard:
-Inbox stores all the links shared with you by other FaveBoard users via email. It’s a handy collaboration feature.
-Confidential requires a password to sign in, thus protecting your more precious links. I found this feature particularly cool because it means even if your kids grab your laptop, they can’t see certain bookmarks that may not be suitable for them.
-My Social is apparently meant to draw in favourites from your different social network accounts, but this just didn’t work for me. The page remained blank throughout.
Choose the buckets and then choose the tags, or simply choose the tags directly
The other way to browse FaveBoard is through buckets and tags, which are listed on the right. Tap a bucket or a tag and all the links under it will be shown. You can even drag-and-drop tags onto a link to add that tag to it. It’s a lovely, sophisticated interface that is an absolute pleasure to use.
And of course, there’s the search engine. I was pleasantly surprised when it did far more than just search by tags or headlines: FaveBucket search will scour through an article and find the keyword you are looking for too! It’s a robust search feature that those who bookmark a lot of stuff will find very handy to have.
In Conclusion
FaveBucket is the perfect app if you are someone who thinks Pocket is too limiting in its features, or Evernote is too intimidating and not eye-pleasing. It has plenty of options for archiving and tagging, a great search engine to make the most of your bookmarking habits, and throws in a Confidential mode for links meant for your eyes only.
This is what I imagine it would be like if Pinterest and Evernote had a baby
That said, FaveBucket is still in its infancy and riddled with bugs. For example, the issue of needing to sign in every time. Then there was the ‘My Social’ feed of FaveBoard which didn’t work at all. And the videos that appear over the FaveBucket sidebar are just annoying. Plus, I didn’t quite understand why the tags had to be limited to three per bookmark.
Still, the app is worth installing and using if you’re willing to put up with these small issues, because what it offers in return is a powerful bookmarking app that looks really good.