
Kippt (YC S12) Launches Bookmarking App To Become The GitHub For Links - jorde
http://techcrunch.com/2012/06/14/yc-backed-kippt-goes-collaborative/
======
nosignal
Am I the only one who doesn't use bookmarks?

99% of the time, if I need to find something I've read before, I'll just
search for it & find it.

The exception to this is when I was working support and had several product
spec sheets & other reference pages bookmarked for quick access to email links
to customers. Even while I was at Uni, I'd download articles to PDF.

On the rare occasion that I like or am interested in something enough to want
to bookmark it, I find I rarely actually come back to it. Just looking now, in
my Bookmarks menu I have a couple of folders — apparently the result of me
saying "save all open tabs as bookmarks" in the hope of coming back to it
later — but never having done so.

Long-form articles I come across while I should be doing something else go to
Instapaper to be read later (is this what people use bookmarks for?). Even
then realistically I only actually read 20% of them.

Anything I _really_ think a friend of mine should read, I email a link there &
then. This is a 1- or 2- click operation.

Anything that I think is just too interesting/funny/important to keep to one
or two friends, I put on Twitter, or here on HN. (I guess that ends up being a
kind of bookmark service; I have scoured my submitted stories (and upvoted
stories) to find them again.)

For my frequently visited sites without RSS, the browser URL bar is my friend
- just start typing & it autocompletes. The only bookmark in my bookmark bar
is the "Instapaper: Read Later" bookmarklet.

What does everyone else use bookmarks for? Is there some awesome use case I've
been ignorant to since 1996? Am I just a freak for never wanting to revisit
things?

~~~
nathan_long
I use Pinboard.in a lot. I do _not_ use it for "frequently visited sites"; I
can type the URL faster than clicking, especially with autocompletion.

For me, bookmarks are mainly for 1) things I may want again and only vaguely
remember 2) articles I'd like to read when I have time.

Examples of stuff I've recently pinned:

\- An article that has a quote from Linus Torvalds that I'd like to use in a
blog post I may write someday \- The best Inkscape tutorial I found in maybe
10 minutes of searching \- An HN article comparing A/B testing with multi-
armed bandit, which is irrelevant to me right now but maybe someday I'll want
to read

In each case, I pin that thing, give it whatever tags make sense to me, and
possibly write a quick description.

There are 51,200,000 search results in Google for "Linus." In my personal
pinboard, there are 2. Guess which I'm going to try first if I vaguely
remember something I once saw about him?

Probably 80% of my bookmarks are never used, which is another reason why the
"tag now, search later" approach is so nice to me; those neglected ones aren't
cluttering up a GUI, making it hard for me to find what I want right now;
searching cuts right to what I want.

Pinboard.in is fast, simple, super-effective, cheap (but not free, so I'm the
customer), and cross-browser (since it's a bookmarklet).

It also lets you mark everything private by default, which I like. Too many
things are social these days. I don't want to broadcast my opinions about
sites; I just want to find things again later.

It's one of my favorite tools.

~~~
gdilla
Dittpo. Pinboard.in rocks. It's like what bookmarks should be - cloud based,
taggable, and easily searchable. Also it allows you to just shove URLs into a
read later category. I do find myself going back to it - something will come
up at work and I'll remember, oh i read something about that approach that was
very insightful, and just quickly grab it to share with others or refresh my
memory.

------
tosh
The UI is very very slick, saw them a few weeks back featured as one of the
twitter bootstrap example apps. Reminds me of the warm fuzzy feeling I got
when I first used Path.

I especially like the introduction flow for connecting accounts (fb, twitter)
and the call to action to install the browser extension in the end.

kudos.

~~~
smiler
Yup this is a really good example. Only thing I didn't understand was I signed
up with FB so I had a verified e-mail address, yet they asked me to put one in
- the default of my FB one would have been a little bit better

~~~
jbigelow76
I found that annoying too when signing up with Twitter, if I knew I would
still have to create a username and provide an email address I would have
skipped signing in with Twitter.

------
alttab
Maybe techcrunch isn't doing this app justice, but I'm at a loss why we are
re-doing bookmarks... again. Maybe its just me, maybe I'm so well organized
that I only need a place to jot down notes on paper - but I honestly do not
see that many people having so much pain for freaking bookmarks that we need
another social X for Y start-up that ultimately won't be compelling enough to
change users behavior.

I imagine there are users out there that would benefit from this, but is it
enough to run a business? I agree with another commentor that this seems more
like a talent acquisition play than an actually viable business.

As I said I'm probably not the target market, but the tech crunch article made
me cringe a little bit. When I see stuff like this I wonder if there is a
funding bubble.

Kudos definitely to the engineers that put this together. Clearly a lot of
thought went into the product. For me though, it left a "why are they solving
_this_ problem, AGAIN" taste in my mouth.

------
DanBC
This could be popular with readers of text erotica. See, for example, the
Pinboard spikes when delicious changed.

(<http://blog.pinboard.in/2011/10/the_fans_are_all_right/>)

I think it's a cool idea. It could be really useful for some things I do. I'm
glad to know about it.

I have no freaking idea what you mean when you say "The github for links" -
and the people I'd want to use this with will never have heard of github.

~~~
nosignal
That blog post was fascinating — I had no idea the Fan community was so
mobilised (nor that they were even a community cohesive enough to have a name,
nor that the name was Fans).

I wonder how many other comprehensive communities exist like this, somewhat
under the radar, serving themselves.

------
revorad
You need to improve your onboarding process.

The sign up process is slick but way too long. Need to provide some instant
gratification.

Just because I like to check out new products, I was patient and did all the
steps properly. But, in the end I just got a blank screen saying "this list is
empty". That was pretty disappointing. Then I imported my Instapaper articles
and still the list is empty.

If speed is an issue, why don't you just show me "today's popular articles" or
just fetch the last 10 links I shared on twitter? Show me _something_ or I
might never come back. This is not exactly a space without competition.

Edit: I'd like to be able to save articles with a single click. The 2-click
save thing is what everyone gets wrong and why I end up using Instapaper for
all my bookmarking.

~~~
deanacus
There are one-click bookmark lets for each list you create, as well as your
inbox and read later list, on the tools page[1], under Quick Bookmarklets

[1]:<https://kippt.com/tools/>

~~~
revorad
Thanks, I didn't see that. Clicking on a list-specific bookmarklet didn't seem
to work. So, I clicked a few times and then found that article saved multiple
times. You need to provide some visual feedback while saving the article,
otherwise it looks like it's not doing anything. Also, de-duplication would be
nice.

Generally, I don't like managing bookmarks. I think that's what search is for.
I should just be able to save pages with one click and then find them easily
with search later on.

Bookmarklets for each list seem way too complicated. I don't want to have more
than one kippt bookmarklet on my toolbar. So, I'll end up using your app just
with one list bookmarklet.

If you find this is common among your users, then this could be the basis of a
freemium model. Users like me with simple needs can use it for free. People
who want multiple lists can pay a small fee.

If you're aiming the product only at power users who don't mind lots of
complex options, then you can probably ignore my comments.

~~~
enra
Thanks for the feedback. It's really helpful.

Generally we try to make the service as simple and effortless to use as
possible. You shouldn't need to manage your bookmarks (if you don't want to,
that what the search is for). The visual feedback has been long time on my to-
do list, hopefully I get to it soon :)

------
smiler
I love the UI and everything about this, however it's another free service I
won't be using - no revenue therefore highly likely these guys will get
acquired as a talent acqusition and then the service will be shut down.

~~~
nathan_long
Pinboard.in is similar but has a one-time fee. I use and love it.

------
dm8
I really love the interface. Congrats!

Any idea about mobile integration?

~~~
jorde
We know about few third party clients that are build on top of our API.
Hopefully they will be released soon as we would also like to use them (still
quite busy with the site).

------
pasbesoin
The best bookmarking experience I've had was with PowerMarks (commercial
product by Kaylon, long discontinued).

Anyone doing bookmarking would serve themselves by having a look at it -- even
though today everything seeks to be "as a service" as opposed to a local
application.

------
spindritf
I see there's a wide range of import options, is or will there be a way to
export bookmarks too?

~~~
drac
import isn't instantaneous - I uploaded my delicious links, and was promised
an email when import finished.

Still no email (an hour or so later) :) - tbf, there's about 3000 links

~~~
jorde
Shouldn't take that long. Could you email me at hello@kippt.com with your
username and I'll take a look?

~~~
drac
mail sent, thanks for taking a look. Same username as here.

------
g0su
Good job so far, I really like it. May I ask what is the business model behind
it?

------
nodesocket
Nice use of bootstrap, but modifying it on the homepage as well. Great design.

~~~
enra
Thanks! Bootstrap has been a big help for us

~~~
jbenz
I discovered Kippt through the front page of Bootstrap (it's one of the main
thumbnails - I would say the best looking thumbnail - under "Built With
Bootstrap"). Has that been a good source of users for you guys? Or not at all?

------
arihant
Lot of negativity in the comments. Maybe power users don't use bookmarks as
much. But I have seen people using browser auto-complete with a mouse. There
is a lot that can be done when it comes to empowering the regular user to use
web better.

------
sandollars
OMFG Kippt just tweeted my bookmarks :O

