Instapaper - like Delicious, but with Tumblr simplicity | Hacker News Reader

Instapaper - like Delicious, but with Tumblr simplicity

instapaper.com

20 pointsjonnytran19 comments

Ironically, I just added this to my del.icio.us account.

This is simply a private read-it-later list and aside from saving a link, nothing like del.icio.us. Crappy title on the post announcing it but not a bad service for some.

I wish more web developers took a moment to state what their site needs up front. I tried to log in a few times with no success, then decided to try different browser settings. Enabling cookies fixed things. The "login failed" page should clearly tell you to enable cookies.

Sigh. This thing clearly only works for a limited set of browsers. Trying the Read Later thing gives this on Opera:

You tried to access the address javascript:var d=document,w=window,e=w.getSelection,k=d.getSelection,x=d.selection,s=(e?e():(k)?k():(x?x.createRange().text:0)),f='http://www.instapaper.com/b',l=d.location,e=encodeURICompone...(l.href) +'&t='+e(d.title) +'&s='+e(s),u=f+p;try{if(!/^(.\.)?instapaper([^.])?$/.test(l.host))throw(0);iptstbt();}catch(z){a =function(){if(!w.open(u,'t','toolbar=0,resizable=0,status=1,width=250,height=150'))l.href=u;};if(/Firefox/.test(navigator.userAgent))setTimeout(a,0);else a();}void(0), which is currently unavailable. Please make sure that the Web address (URL) is correctly spelled and punctuated, then try reloading the page.

Would it be too much trouble to say it only works on Firefox on the front page?

You're in the minority.

I'm from the bay area. I'm used to that :-)

Sounds a bit like http://l8tr.org, except l8tr doesn't make you register and will email later when a dead link (e.g. slashdotted) comes back on line.

Pretty slick, but everytime I click the bookmarklet it freezes up my browser for a while.

Suggestion: pop up the window immediately, then use setTimeout to have it perform the action. That'll actually make it seem more responsive, because people can switch back to the main window and continue doing what they were doing.

(Assuming I diagnosed the javascript problem right..)

Wish it didn't force me to register/login.

Yes; we should at least get some screenshots, or live demo.

Registering is surprisingly easy. "If you didn't set a password, you don't have one."

Good idea....

But if it is that easy I suggest you move the register field to the front page. Just seeing a link that says register will lose you a lot of potential customers because a link that says "register" is normally associated with a form field that goes on for pages and people will not bother clicking. I know I didn't until I read you comment.

I think you will up your conversion ratio about 25% by doing this.

Probably higher than 25%-- it's why I navigated away.

Yeah you might be right.

People should be doing much more A/B split testing of their sites, especially the important parts such as sign-ups and buying.

I built a very similar site a few months back as a way to learn Rails and make a few bucks. It's called http://toreadlist.com/ , and one of the features was not requiring registration. It also had RSS feeds.

Jeez. Sometimes it feels like I'm a subletter. Every few months I "pack up" and move to a different service online. Wouldn't it make more sense to leverage delicious and use a common tag like "toread"? I've been doing that for a while and it works pretty well.

I agree. But I think Instapaper is interesting for its interface alone.

Ideally, cooler interfaces should be implemented over existing APIs. Stand on the shoulders of giants.

Right. It would be killer if you used the bookmarklet as normal, but it would save to your delicious account with toread. And then when you've read it, you could write a summary and tag it as normal.

I use the same keyboardlets to access my bookmarks or add to them. The URL/javascript may keep changing.

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