Ask HN: how do you keep track of interesting stuff online? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: how do you keep track of interesting stuff online?

5 pointsmpcadosch15 comments

Pocket? Evernote chrome add on, bookmark ?

Is there a way to highlight stuff like we did with real papers/ magazines in the old day?

For stuff I need all the time (wiki's, forms for work, code repositories), I simply use bookmarks. For ideas / notes, I email myself with "idea: <...>" or "note: <...>" in the subject and have gmail stash them under labels for this purpose. So for example, if I came across an interesting article that raised some questions or that I might want to discuss with someone later, I'll put the link in a note to myself.

I admit it sounds a bit crude but gmail search is really powerful; I can usually find things from years ago with only a vague query. I can come back to the note later and amend it by just replying in the thread. Moreover, "collaboration" is already built-in: just cc a friend. Finally, the medium is not limited to stuff I found online; I can snap a picture w/ my cameraphone/screenshot, or write up some LaTeX equations to scratch down a back-of-the-envelope calculation.

I've tried Evernote, but I just couldn't get into it. It's a whole additional app/browser extension that I have to worry about, and requires a context switch. I'm already in my inbox all the time throughout the day, so it's a no-brainer to use it.

After using evernote for a while, I recently decided to switch to Zimilate (www.zimilate.com). Evernote was frustrating because I read a lot on my phone and iPad, and evernote only saved the link. That means there’s no full text search, and if the page disappears or changes you’re out of luck. When you email a link to Zimilate from your browser or an app, it actually saves the entire webpage, including all the assets. You can save web pages, images, files, and create notes, which is pretty standard, and their desktop web clipper is great. I’ve found the interface to be cleaner and easier to use across all my devices, especially since Zimilate creates thumbnails of everything you save - really nice for web pages. You can also organize collections hierarchically and with tags, which is a big plus for me.

It depends.

If I want to read/watch something later, then it gets sent to Instapaper. If it's an article/site that I think I might want later, then it gets sent to Pinboard. If I want to quote something, then I post it to Tumblr. I've also got some IFTTT rules set up to save links to pinboard if I favourite on Twitter, post to Tumblr, like on Instapaper, etc. The goal for me is to make Pinboard the central repository of everything I want to remember; other services end up there if it's worth remembering.

I use Evernote Web Clipper which strips out clutter and just posts the simplified article to my Evernote.

For e-books I tend to use the highlight service on the Kindle/Kindle App (Just recently seen you can follow other peoples highlights which is interesting).

Oh really? Do you use the follow functionality?

I was thinking of getting a Kindle, and this may tip the balance :)

I don't really follow other people but it does allow open aggregation of highlighted text.

So you can compare and contrast your highlights versus the masses. It is interesting to see how common certain passages actually are.

However, I used the Kindle App on iPad, not a Kindle ;-) I have a nook glow I picked up for $40 a while ago.

Oh, really? Open aggregation of highlighted text? On the one hand it could be cool to compare what I find relevant to what others find find relevant. But on the other hand, can't it get too cluttered and distracting?

I believe you can disable the highlights in the settings; maybe even temporarily.

Kippt. I really recommend Kippt. You can also create public collections and have other people contribute to them.

I also apply some FollowUpThen if I need to come back to it soon

I commit spreadsheet abuse,

I have excel files with tons of links

I use toread.cc. It's basically a js script that mails you the contents of the page you are currently at. Quite nifty.

Feedly, I can then save/bookmark it to view through feedly and/or Evernote it

Interesting links -> Pinboard

Interesting articles, blog posts -> Pocket

Thanks guys! This is incredibly helpful!

Bookmark, USB Flash drive, save interesting sections to a text document with notation to the related source.

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