No, I’ve never really understood the point. I have bookmarks in my browser if I want to save something for later. I don’t really need anything more fancy than that.
I think most people these days don't use browser bookmarks as a "check this out later" tool, and instead as more of a "I frequently need to access this page" function. For me, I only bookmark a page if it's something I frequently access; things like my email, Lemmy, some work apps, etc. In my use-case, bookmarks are a more "permanent" installation to my browser.
Also, "read later" apps generally strip the web page formatting and advertisements, and usually have an offline function of some sort; both of which you typically can't do with bookmarks. These are especially useful for those who like to read on their commute.
I think most people these days don’t use browser bookmarks as a “check this out later” tool, and instead as more of a “I frequently need to access this page” function.
So what’s preventing those people from using bookmarks as “check this out later” tool? The personal preference of using an app that reinvented those same bookmarks? Just create a “read-it-later” later directory and boom, you’re good to go.
Also, “read later” apps generally strip the web page formatting and advertisements, and usually have an offline function of some sort; both of which you typically can’t do with bookmarks.
Yeah, because these are features typically provided by your browser. Hence, browser bookmarks. It’s not a unique feature to read-it-later apps in any way.
So what’s preventing those people from using bookmarks as “check this out later” tool?
Bookmarking a page does not give you control over its content. So if you bookmark something and the host deletes it, you are screwed.
If you instead clip the content or save it as a PDF, you retain access regardless of the original host.
For example, I save every good article I read as a PDF, which I cloud sync to a folder. I have a second folder for stuff I don’t want to keep open as a tab but still want to read later. There are probably far better services out there, but I like the lack of technical dependencies and lock-in.
I don’t use pocket any more but I tried it out. I think the benefit was that you had the sync of articles to read between all devices with pocket.
Personally, I use a browser for specific sites or searches. I use apps like Lemmy (connect) for content discovery pocket is a bridge between the two. It also allowed sharing between peopke. So rather than sharing a link by email or WhatsApp, I’d just add it to their pocket.
So this article was included with Omnivore, which is suggested elsewhere in this thread, but it does provide a bunch of well structured arguments for the utility of a dedicated app.
I use Inoreader to read RSS feeds of my favorite sources, and I save interesting articles to Pocket. I use the tagging feature and sync my Pocket entries to an Obsidian vault using an extension. It creates a web of information I found valuable enough to save, connected by tag. It helps me see trends and topics I’m interested in emerge over time
I use Google Keep (I know, I know). I can share any link to the app and then I can access it from whatever device I’m on. You can also notes, which can come in handy for random things.
I use omnivore for longer articles and highlighting parts of the text. It also have a plugin to sync with obsidian. It’s really good, but I imagine self-hosting it can be tricky.
For a link-dump, I use Shiori. Could be anything vaguely interesting but I want to take a look later - works wonders for that.
And I have been a former pocket user, wallabag… But I stick with omnivore and Shiori.
I tried it. I tried just opening lots of tabs. I tried grouping tabs. Open tabs strewn across 3+ devices, “to read later”, until eventually some months later I just give up and close them, having lost interest or simply seeing a need to close some of the overflowing tabs.
My only solution to this problem - as BAD as ChatGPT is and as much as we hate it - feed the thing I’ll want to “read later” straight into ChatGPT RIGHT THEN, and just read a summary of it.
I’ve been doing this for a couple weeks now and so far, so good.
Neither, especially with Pocket. There’s something about an add-on integrated into a browser that makes me worry about privacy. I hate how pocket is bundled in Firefox and take great pleasure in disabling it in the browser’s config file. If it was something that could be downloaded on your own I might have had a different opinion about it. I just make a bookmark folder for articles I want to read later. It takes a few extra seconds to store and access but I think it’s worth it.
Thanks for this. I don’t usually dive into longer format article stuff because I find it on my phone and reading on my phone sucks. I tried pocket, but it didn’t function at all on my reader.
This solves that problem reasonably well.
(Edit: also an RSS reader? Maybe I should start using RSS again. I do wish it offered paged navigation controls to better work on an ereader, but it’s definitely an improvement still.)
I scroll through arstechnica headlines and save to pocket the most interesting ones. When I am in the bathroom or having a snack I can choose from my saves which article I’d like to read, instead of mindlessly scrolling, and the saves indicate estimated reading time in minutes so I can pick the perfect article to match the amount of time I plan to spend. Best of all, the articles are saved in a minimalist text-only format, stripping out all ads and other garbage. It even bypasses some paywalls, like the login prompt on seekingalpha.