So this article starts back in 1997 or thereabouts. There was a program called PowerMarks that had this really innovative approach to managing your bookmarks for your various websites. It was a Windows-based plugin that synchronized your bookmarks to a server that they managed. Don’t call it ‘the cloud’ …
This gem of software solved a severe nuisance for me given my career – how to best manage all of the bookmarks that I had stored in IE and other browsers of the day.
Well, the software eventually stopped working, not totally sure what happened to the service either. So I’ve been ambling along with a variety of hacks over the ensuing decade or two with bunch of shitty approaches aimed at managing my points of interest online. Until about three months ago.
Enter Raindrop.io
This is a free service that has enabled me to bring my bookmarks to any device or browser of my choice. There is a $3 per month Pro option that I’ve yet to upgrade into, because the entry price point seems to be just fine for what I need. This service allows me to index sites/points of interest online with keywords and tags of my choice. There is an option to build collections/folders for your bookmarks if you are of that mindset.
For me this has enabled a greater singularity of focus when I’m opening up my browsers, because I no longer run the risk of getting distracted by the 14 browser tabs I had to leave open from the day before! I can pull up my collections on my iPhone just as easily as on my work laptop or iPad. No more lost sites that ‘I’ll get back to someday’ as I have the sites and content worthy of a bookmark all housed in a single catalog that is unified, searchable, and increasingly complete.
There is a workflow that lands bookmarks into raindrop, as raindrop is storage and retrieval resource – not so much a file for review later resource or a to do manager. I use pocket for processing of pending content, and if it is good enough to save I’ll then move the URL/point of interest over into my raindrop.
If it is a straight up useful bookmark / location I know I’ll need to hit again down the line with no need for further review – it’s getting dropped into raindrop with at least one tag and a meaningful description of some sort. If a site was referred to me by someone close to me, I’ll tag the site with their name. If the site was a professional or online association referral – I’ll reference either the individual’s name or the group from which it was sourced as my tagging methodology.
Give it a shot as an app, and let me know if you think this little workflow could help you out as you begin to shutter all those browser windows sitting in Chrome and In Safari…