Bookmarks are far from dead. They’re built into every browser, sync with our mobile devices, and for the most part just work. And yet, there’s more ways than ever to get around using the traditional bookmarks.
Take reading services. They’re essentially ways to bookmark stuff you want to read later, with the added advantage of automatically saving the page so you can read the article in one tap. Then there’s note-taking apps, the likes of Evernote and others, that let you clip parts of sites you come across to pull up later in your own private library of Internet wisdom. You’ve also got the various favoriting and liking in any number of apps, from RSS readers to news apps, that let you keep up with stuff you might want to come back and check later. And don’t forget the online bookmarking services, ranging from the private to the social, where you can save bookmarks in a way very similar to the bookmarks in your browser.
You know what’s the worst thing? When we’re looking for something, most of the time we simply Google it instead of checking our bookmarks or notes.
It’s all a bit too much. I use a mix of local bookmarks (mainly for bookmarklets), reading services (instead of saving bookmarks I’ll want to revisit precisely once), and note taking tools — but lately have shifted away from normal bookmarking in Pinboard since it just doesn’t seem that I’m getting much benefit out of yet another bookmarking place. Saving a note, though, often means I’ve got the info without opening the site again, and that’s nice.
How about you? How do you save online info these days, and do you still keep a meticulous list of bookmarks? We’d love to hear how you bookmark in 2013 in the comments below.
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