Go Beyond the Tip of Your Research With Icebergs – Blancer.com Tutorials and projects

Whenever I find a service claiming that it “collects and organizes files”, I wonder “Why?”. This is not only curiosity, but an essential part of what we do here: “What’s the purpose of a new app of this kind in a world with Evernote and Springpad?”. This helps digging into the mind of its creators, allowing us to guess what issue made the developers think of a new solution.

Thus it is, when inquiring why a service such as Iceber.gs is born. Were its developers unaware of its competition or it definitely brings something completely new to the game? Let’s find out together — and then if you like it, we’ve got some exclusive early access codes for you below!

Iceberg ahead!

As opposed to real icebergs, this one can be spotted from afar. The design is flat and gorgeous, tinted with great shades of blue and gray. Just don’t try accessing it from your phone. Even if grid-based, Iceber.gs is not responsive at all and no mobile app is available as well. This already puts the service behind its two main contestants, since we can only use it on our personal computers.

This dazzling design is probably what hypnotize the Titanic crew.

The lack of a mobile alternative may hurt if you do your research on the go; in my case, though, I prefer to patiently sit down and work on it. Somehow, mobile is more for things I stumble upon occasionally, if it fits a project or not is a matter of chance. Research, being a bit more objective, often takes place in a controlled environment, such as my computer. Of course, not having a responsive platform is no excuse in the actual state of online browsing.

Ice, Ice, Baby

In general terms, the design of Iceber.gs is outstanding. Its options pop up only when needed and you’re never cluttered of information. You create icebergs (they work like Notebooks) and add files or notes to them, these are called Icedrops. There are no tags, you can only search or filter within an Iceberg, for some, that means focus, for those used to other services, this probably won’t be good enough.

Iceber.gs still has many solid features, specially when it comes to visualization. The thumbnails look better, compared to Springpad. Since it is not a place where you keep receipts or something, but a bucket to your research material, items are stripped from date. The structure of a Icedrop contains the item, a title and a place for comments. Every Icedrop or Iceberg can be shared on Facebook, Twitter, or directly with Iceber.gs’ own link.

You can also group Icedrop just by dragging one onto the other. Still, you can’t drag an Icedrop to change its place in the Iceberg.

The coolest thing you can do to an Icedrop is highlighting, which increases the size of the thumbnail by four. Doesn’t seems like much, but as you use Iceber.gs a bit further, you start sensing that its purpose is to visualize larger things. It’s like a white board of content and such feature makes it much better to sort your Icedrops. How Iceber.gs deals with its thumbnails is what justifies its description as “Visual organization for creative minds” with more emphasis on “visual”.

Freezing content with the bookmarklet

Iceber.gs allows you to upload any kind of file, for quick adding around the web it offers an extension. It behaves nicely and will stick to the bottom left corner until you change page. The benefit of a fixed position is that you can add several Icedrops from the same page. Just drag images or links into it, change the name or add a comment if you wish, pick an Iceberg and you’re done. For text, just select the quote you want to store and you’ll get a “Save Text” option.

Icedrops from the web carry the original url, even text, which makes them different from regular notes.

Crashing the Titanic

This article is a search for the purpose of Iceber.gs in a world with Evernote covering most of the business side of content storage and Springpad building a social network out of stored contents. The truth is that I’m not convinced. Iceber.gs has one of the most gorgeous and well thought interfaces I’ve seen on the web lately, but the lack of a few features most of us consider essential and a mobile counterpart is killing me.

But there are some bigger plans awaiting for Iceber.gs, as you can feel that the actual state of the services today seems like a blueprint. Iceber.gs 2.0 is already on development, which promises a new, bold and fresh experience. The first step was taken and they’re looking for beta testers, and then as far as I can tell, we’re getting Iceber.gs for Business soon. I believe this is a promising service with great minds behind it, but its just got to find its potential and stick to it to the end.

Oh, we’ve got invitations!

Iceber.gs is invitation only at the moment and we got 30 exclusive codes. So if you believe that Iceber.gs fits your needs or just want to give it a shot, visit https://iceber.gs/users/register and enter one of these codes after filling your details. Whoever gets there first wins the spot, so you better rush. If you want to be the next Good Guy Greg, leave a comment with the code that got you in.