Ask HN: Review my web application

oh and EXTRA MASSIVE KUDOS for not requiring an email.

To your points.

I've intentionally left out the delete function, nothing lasts longer than a week without manual intervention. Despite using the service daily, I can't think of any cases outside of me manually messing with data as tests that I've missed having a delete.

This is a great idea, and I'll definitely be making a new initial login "landing" page!

There's something odd in my Apache setup, as the slowness looks like it's from load, but there's not that much strain on the box. The other issue, which I've tried to optimize as much as possible, is that it loads a LOT of JS when you click the bookmarklet, and it doesn't show the message until it's all done. I need really should pare that down some more, thanks for the push!

This is the important one. Instapaper offers an RSS feed and a top-notch iPhone app, too.

Instapaper primarily targets the mobile market with it's main feature being the reformatting of pages for offline viewing. (And damn is it a cool, and extremely well done feature.)

My focus is on making a lean, cross browser, bookmarking site with a focus on short-term storage. If you don't opt-out of the feature you can get a reminder the day before any links expire in case you forget to read one.

This app grew out of the habit I had of emailing articles to myself several times a week so I could go back and read them after work, or at lunch, or whenever. I realized there had to be a better way. Looked at a few of the other sites around at that time, didn't really like any of them, so I wrote my own.

One of the big reasons I wrote my own was that I'm addicted to interfaces like Hacker News and Reddit. Simple, concise, and almost exclusively text only. I modeled the link-list on that idea. The one twist being, thanks to some nifty JS code, that the longer a link hangs out on your list the more faded it becomes. To me this makes it a much quicker and easier interface to get in, find what I need, and get out. I carried the same idea through to the bookmarklet in that it doesn't redirect you to the MarkitForLater site when adding a link. Instead it adds it in the background and notifies you once it's done, this way you can continue reading, or move on with minimal interruption.

In summary, I think MarkitForLater provides a minimal impact on the way you browse, while still providing a useful service.

I think Instapaper is one hell of a cool application and has definitely earned it's place in the market. I won't tell you which is better for you, but I know which one I use ;)

It's actually an out of context quote from the film "The Big Lebowski". A copy of the quote can be found on this page.

http://www.listology.com/content_show.cfm/content_id.20733/M...

As for what makes me zesty, well, you should follow the link for a bit more of an explanation.

I have looked at several apps that work in similar ways. The big advantage I had was that the lists are "private" as well as the ability to get a private RSS feeds for your list.

I thought very hard about doing progressive signup, but I couldn't find a good method that didn't require a user to finish the signup on the same machine they started on. If you have any examples of sites that do this well, or at least in a way that you like, let me know!

Meh, the problem and it's solution isn't that original so I wouldn't scream ripoff just yet. Also The other site want's you to install an extension. In my personal experience (a while back so don't know current situation) it was a bit buggy, and the offline reading thing didn't work very well. With this you can have sort of the same (minus offline reading). I still prefer delicious (tag: toread or towatch) though, have to admit I'm a bit of a fan of the delicious site, so I'm not that objective.

Edit: How do you plan to monetize this service? Or is this more for fun?

Right click (or the equivalent on your platform) on the link labeled MarkitForLater Bookmarklet, and add it to your bookmarks. Optionally if you have the bookmark toolbar enabled in your browser you should be able to drag that link to it.

Can you elaborate a bit on #2? I'm not sure I get what your getting at.

Edit: And thanks for the bug report, that should be fixed now!

Any bookmarklets for that? i.e., tag and save it automatically?

This isn't tied to a single location/browser. You can mark sites from your javascript enabled phone, and read them on your desktop, or vice versa. If you use the web interface you can have it auto-hide any links you've already visited through the site. You can also get an RSS feed of your listings so that you don't NEED to use the web interface if that's your thing.

Edit: Thanks for the mention of the design, I'm far from a designer so I've been as worried about that aspect as any other.

If you're happy with Instapaper then there's nothing to apologize for!

Nice catch, thanks!

It's intentionally non-social, your stuff is yours. It doesn't require a redirect when adding a bookmark, and in general I find it simpler and quicker to work with than delicious (especially the newest version).