
Ask HN: Where do you store bookmarks? - tosh
I&#x27;ve started to post URLs I find interesting to Twitter and Facebook but both platforms are terrible for finding stuff again.<p>What do you use? What&#x27;s the del.icio.us of 2018?
======
gtf21
+1 for pinboard.in

I have been using it for years and all my bookmarks are private. I love that
it is very minimal, with exactly the features I need, and doesn't tie me to a
browser. It has an API, plenty of apps and browser plugins, and I've always
found Matiej to be responsive whenever I've had a problem.

He also has a great twitter account, where he spends a lot of time being
snarky about tech companies [1].

[1]: [https://twitter.com/pinboard](https://twitter.com/pinboard)

------
haney
About a year ago I copied everything into Evernote. I had a bunch of disparate
bookmarks across different desktop/mobile browsers and in places like
medium/feedly. I created notebooks for different topics (in my case, "Data
Science", "Frontend", "Design / Product", "Personal Efficiency", etc.). Then I
use Evernote's chrome plugin to clip pages (I usually clip the whole thing so
Evernote can do full text search over it). I then use tags for sub-sections of
each topic. It's worked pretty well for me and I'm able to hold onto things
even if the original source goes away.

------
daphneokeefe
I have a huge collection on Pinboard
[https://pinboard.in/](https://pinboard.in/). It's a very simple browser-
accessible site that charges $11 per year for what seems like an unlimited
number of bookmarks. The item properties are URL, title, description and
tag(s). And it displays how many other users have added the same link. I
consider this tool indispensable.

------
ericthor
[https://pinboard.in](https://pinboard.in)

Been a Pinboard user for several years. Simple and flexible. You can use tags
to organize everything or fill in the bookmarks description field and use
search. Have over 4,000 URLs saved with no issues. Easy to backup with a one
line script.

    
    
      curl "https://api.pinboard.in/v1/posts/all?auth_token={$pinboard_api_key}&format=json" -o $pinboard_backup_dir 
    

Pinboard also has some good Twitter integrations that might speed up your
Bookmarking process
[https://pinboard.in/faq/#twitter_archive_extent](https://pinboard.in/faq/#twitter_archive_extent)

------
andyjohnson0
For sites that I visit often, I add them to my browser bookmarks in Chrome.
Mainly for the autocomplete when I start typing the name of the site. Things
to read get queued in the browser bookmark bar where they are visible, and I
fight a losing battle with this getting too full.

For links to reference material and reading I have a collection of private
OneNote notebooks with links and notes and bits of code. These notebooks are
sync'd in a onedrive folder so I can access then in Office on my primary
machine, or via the onenote webapp at work. It may not be fashionable but I
like OneNote.

I used to use delicio.us back in the day, but never found its social aspect
that useful. The nearest I now have to a public list of links is my HN
favourites.

------
overcast
I'm curious as to the reason for storing bookmarks. It was a feature long ago,
before search engines became so powerful. So what exactly is the use case now?

This guy on the Pinboard google group reached TEN THOUSAND bookmarks. For what
reason exactly? [https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/pinboard-
dev/JKSUpO6...](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/pinboard-
dev/JKSUpO67cuA)

Here's another user with A HUNDRED THOUSAND.

[https://groups.google.com/d/msg/pinboard-
dev/JKSUpO67cuA/7Hd...](https://groups.google.com/d/msg/pinboard-
dev/JKSUpO67cuA/7Hdd4j6MBAAJ)

Ooh, that looks useful, thanks! (I’m approaching the 100k bookmark barrier,
and I’m well-behind in tag maintenance over the last couple of years. Thank
goodness for full-page search of my archives!)

\- Lynne

That sounds like a manual search engine to me?

I tried many times to manage bookmarks in various forms, and it just turns
into a giant list that you never revisit. Cathartic to just delete them all.

It sounds like a utility for people who hoard things in general.

Thoughts?

~~~
hprotagonist
it lets me cite myself easily. "I read somewhere that X" is much less useful
than "on such and such a date, person X wrote this oped in Y that asserted Z
and i thought that was interesting..."

~~~
overcast
That sounds like a ton of administrative work. Imagine 100,000 bookmarks!

~~~
hprotagonist
search is fast when you have many tags (and tag suggestions on new bookmarks)
and full-text search of your cache.

Normally I can remember a phrase to search on, and that's fast.

~~~
trowawee
Yeah, my brain tends to categorize things a little differently than Google
does, so being able to tag something in Pinboard makes it much easier for me
to find it later.

------
bertjk
[https://pinboard.in/](https://pinboard.in/)

~~~
AndrewDucker
Definitely. Reasonably priced, I'm the customer, and it works with Android and
Firefox, which are my everyday tools.

~~~
faehnrich
Had an account for a while, just now really starting using it. How do you use
it with Android and Firefox? The official plugin says it doesn't work with
Firefox Quantum.

~~~
hprotagonist
There's a quantum port: [https://github.com/gapop/pinboard-
webextension](https://github.com/gapop/pinboard-webextension)

~~~
faehnrich
Someone else just suggested this too, thank you. I try to just go with
official plugins, don't want to invest time looking into some random person's
plugin. But this one looks legit, and recommended.

------
agentultra
An org file on my hard drive. It's plain text so... universally supported
everywhere, woo!

~~~
hammerandtongs
Also universally supported across time.

People have no sense that they might want to look at something in 10-20 years
in that web service that was so handy at the time...

------
icedchai
I used to bookmark things, then realized I never went back to look at them.

If I find something especially interesting and important, I email a link to
myself.

Most of the time if I want to find something again it's easier to just google
it again than to dig through bookmarks.

~~~
jpm_sd
Same. My bookmarks are a form of write-only memory.

~~~
kaycebasques
I’ve been slowly realizing this, too. I’m finding it more effective to
categorize ideas based on certain topics, and then have a Google Doc where I
store links, with a brief paragraph accompanying each link on my key takeaways
from the link. E.g. I’ve got an “Investing Notes” doc, a “Psychology Notes”
doc, etc.

------
roadbeats
Kozmos: [https://getkozmos.com](https://getkozmos.com)

It simplifies adding and organizing bookmarks into a heart button, also uses
modern & open source libraries
([https://github.com/kozmos/likedb](https://github.com/kozmos/likedb)) so you
can build your own clients & servers.

ps. I built Kozmos as one of the first users of both delicious and pinboard,
feedback is welcome.

------
nikivi
I have had a big issue with storing bookmarks and found Safari's way of
managing them too limiting.

I decided to off load my public bookmarks to the web and let other people
manage my bookmark collection instead. I built Learn Anything ([https://learn-
anything.xyz](https://learn-anything.xyz)) to store my 'learning' bookmarks.
And I manage many curated GitHub lists to store everything else
([https://github.com/learn-anything/curated-lists](https://github.com/learn-
anything/curated-lists)).

I also have a wiki that stores both bookmarks and my notes, open source. This
way anyone can extend both the bookmarks and notes if they wish.
([https://wiki.nikitavoloboev.xyz](https://wiki.nikitavoloboev.xyz))

I have then built my own tool in Go to query any of these public bookmarks.
([https://github.com/nikitavoloboev/alfred-learn-
anything](https://github.com/nikitavoloboev/alfred-learn-anything))

------
tsumnia
Not using anything other than my browser's bookmarking system
([https://imgur.com/a/BsaC6ZA](https://imgur.com/a/BsaC6ZA)) I think the
biggest way to maintain it is to keep a firm control on categories and
subcategories - very similar to setting up folders on a file system or labels
in my email. As things become less relevant, I archive them into another
subfolder for things I never need to return to again.

Overall, I've never been a fan of the other types of bookmarking tools; I like
the ol' fashion because its barebones and reduces the number of accounts I
need - however, if you are looking to add something like tags to URLs I would
suggest something else. Maybe a private subreddit?

EDIT: Fixed Link

~~~
ASalazarMX
Fixed link: [https://imgur.com/a/BsaC6ZA](https://imgur.com/a/BsaC6ZA)

~~~
tsumnia
Thanks for catching that!

------
workona
We're still in beta, but you should check out Workona if you're looking for a
work-focused solution:

[https://workona.com](https://workona.com)

Think of it as a way to save links organized in "workspaces" for a specific
project or workflow rather than a traditional bookmark manager.

For example, if you were writing a blog post, you could create a workspace for
the Google Doc, Wordpress page, Hemingway Editor, and all the research you
might want to include in the post.

You can then shut the workspace and pick up right where you left off with
everything you need to work on the blog post later. This way you don’t clutter
up your bookmarks with links that will be irrelevant once you're done working
on the project.

------
Mahn
Evernote for things that I may need to come back to later in the future or
remember (documentation, guides, workarounds, lists, etc), Pocket for articles
that I'd like to read sometime but that I never actually read.

------
yodon
Chrome Tabs Outliner extension. Brilliant unification of tabs management and
bookmarks, with local storage and cloud backup if desired. I think it costs
something like $15 for the full version, which is what you want.

------
dlahoda
Firefox Sync + Firefox Bookmarks + Firefox Addons for managing native
bookmarks + [https://github.com/WebMemex/webmemex-
extension](https://github.com/WebMemex/webmemex-extension) for indexing +
custom code to generate static web pages with pure JS search with content out
of bookmarks + I send interesting links to my friends if these could be
interesting to them via email.

Do not use proprietary closed source solutions.

UPDATE: For something more importatng I use gitlab/gitlabe pages(my works
usually) or syncthing (copies)

------
hprotagonist
another vote for pinboard.in. Some features that make it well worth the full
cost:

\- Cached snapshots

\- search bookmarks by _actual boolean operations on tags_ , which is
something hardly anyone does for reasons I've never understood.

\- Fast, simple website. Everything that was good about 1999.

\- Browser integrations for every browser worth mentioning

\- OS integration for quick search outside of a browser

\- mobile apps aplenty (i use Pinner on iOS)

\- fully private bookmarks, if you want (which I do)

\- nice API (I have some silly python scripts that give me tag statistics and
clean things up; they took about 20 minutes to write)

\- it's a one-man show, and he answers emails!

\- tarball-of-all-your-data on demand.

~~~
faehnrich
How do you integrate with Firefox? Their plugin says it doesn't work with
Firefox Quantum. (Or is that one not worth mentioning? ;)

~~~
hprotagonist
I've been a devoted FF guy for 15 years, so I sure think it counts!

There's a quantum port: [https://github.com/gapop/pinboard-
webextension](https://github.com/gapop/pinboard-webextension) (also available
by looking through firefox plugins, but i'm linking to the source for clarity)

~~~
faehnrich
Thank you. I try to go with official plugins, because who knows about all
those similar named plugins made by random people. But this one looks legit.

------
etcet
I use Nextcloud Bookmarks [1] and Floccus [2] to sync the bookmark toolbar on
Firefox/Chrome. I like to host my own, I don't need to sign into a 3rd party,
and it's more cross-platform than browser sync.

[1]:
[https://github.com/nextcloud/bookmarks](https://github.com/nextcloud/bookmarks)

[2]:
[https://github.com/marcelklehr/floccus](https://github.com/marcelklehr/floccus)

------
tandav
on macOS i just drag link to Finder. Or drag "+" in the left of address in
Safari. In chrome drag https lock icon.

It is .webloc format.

I sort it, move folders/subfolders. You can easily preview it with space
button in Finder.

The whole folder is repo stored on github. Also there are many markdown files,
screenshots, interesting files.

I use symlinks (softlinks) which points to large binary files outside repo.

Often i want to put bookmark in markdown file. For this i use this
bookmarklet:

javascript:var%20text='-%20%5B'+document.title+'%5D('+location.href+')';window.prompt(%22Copy%20to%20clipboard:%20Ctrl+C,%20Enter%22,text);void(0);

it is 5th bookmark in my Safari's favorites. I just hit ⌘⌥5 then ⌘C - and then
paste it in markdown.

\--------------------------------

If you're interested in this system there are PRO-TIPS:

* if you drag "+" in safari or "https-lock" in chrome - the .webloc is binary.
    
    
      - name of .webloc is page <title></title>
    

* if you drag link on page - then .webloc is plain text. And name is na
    
    
      - name of .webloc is what inside <a></a> html - tag
    

* there'is plain text .url format, which you can also open in both macOS and windows. But macOS's Quick Look is not works. Thats the reason why I decided to keep using bad-for-git binary .webloc

* .webloc is actually plist which is actually xml. You can easily parse binary plists with python's plist module

------
rpdillon
TiddlyWiki + SyncThing! I'm a heavy emacs user and used org-mode for a long
time, but I'm finding that TiddlyWiki already lives in the browser, so it
works well in places that Emacs has a harder time (tablets, phones,
Chromebooks, whatever).

TiddlyWiki is quite underrated, I think.
[https://tiddlywiki.com/](https://tiddlywiki.com/)

------
faehnrich
Used to just use a plain text file, but that's become untenable.

Going to really start using pinboard.in

Have been bookmarking in Firefox, which is great for syncing between devices.
But I got so many even that's seeming slow and hard to search through (but to
be fair maybe I'll have the same problems with pinboard once I get to that
many.)

------
sireat
Over 20k bookmarks on pinboard.in half of which were migrated over from the
original delicious

Started with the $11 forever plan but then actually started paying for archive
option on pinboard just in case.

Link rot is a bit of problem I think about 30% are dead.

I trust pinboard more than pretty much any VC backed company.

Only problem is the bus factor of 1.

~~~
bewe42
Honest question, not meant to be rude, but what value do you get from having
created 20k bookmarks?

~~~
sireat
Probably 99% of bookmarks I am not ever going to see again, but finding that
1% is such a lifesaver.

As in I am doing a research on some topic and I already have a whole bunch of
links nicely tagged and ready to go.

The problem is that you do not know which 1% are going to be useful again.

------
klez
If you mean social bookmarking, I don't do that. If I find something
interesting I share it on HN (happens really rarely) or on the chat of the
"newsroom" for our podcast.

If it's stuff that I need to bookmark for further personal use, I have an
owncloud (yes, I know) instance with the Bookmarks app installed.

~~~
y4mi
> _yes, I know_

I don't. Would you clue me in?

~~~
judge2020
Slightly debated topic, but most people who used to use it have gone to
Nextcloud (a fork) since it has more frequent updates and a few new features.

------
falcolas
For things that really interest me, I print out the sites as a PDF and store
them locally. That bookmark can't rot, it's (moderately) searchable, and you
can reference it offline.

It's an OK solution at best, but it's the best for references I really want to
keep that I've found.

------
abhas
I have used pinboard in the past. However, right now, I feel that Shaarli is
one of the best self-hosting options for bookmarks.

[https://github.com/shaarli/Shaarli](https://github.com/shaarli/Shaarli)

------
coffeymug
[https://raindrop.io/](https://raindrop.io/)

------
raphinou
Diigo is working fine for me. They try to do more (annotations eg) but I don't
use it.

~~~
kanak
I switched from pinboard to diigo around 2 years ago. I love the "Annotate
Page" functionality. I use it on all my bookmarks to quickly save the parts
that I found useful or interesting. It is particularly useful when bookmarking
HN/Reddit discussions, newsletters / link aggregations like High Scalability
Newsletter. The hightlights are available when I open the page later so I know
what I liked. Furthermore, the highlights show up when browsing the bookmarks
on diigo, which makes it really great for research.

------
mcjiggerlog
Toby [1] - the only actual bookmarks I have are for the bookmarks toolbar
quick links. Anything that I need to save for later use goes in Toby.

[1] [https://www.gettoby.com/](https://www.gettoby.com/)

------
SuperNinKenDo
I'd actually be interested in hearing about this too. I stopped storing them
in my browser now.

I figure some kind of org-mode solution will be my eventual tactic, but I'm
interesting if anyone else on here has a more purpose built system.

------
paublyrne
I don't bookmark much. Just things I know I will want to refer to again but
that wasn't particularly easy to Google, like certain so answers or blogs. I
just use Firefox and tag them with the subject.

------
kbd
I just use Chrome everywhere (home, work, phone, tablet) and it syncs
everything real well if you're signed in. I have a "to read" folder I dump
stuff in to go through later.

------
tmlee
Try [https://www.pagedash.com](https://www.pagedash.com)

Works like an archiver for web pages, saves everything! Yes includes
bookmarking

Built by a friend!

------
whitepoplar
I just dump everything in Instapaper.

------
mspasta
[https://www.are.na/](https://www.are.na/)

------
graf00
hacked this
[https://github.com/grafoo/webdmp](https://github.com/grafoo/webdmp) together
some time ago. nothing fancy but works for me and i can host it on my own
server.

------
jachin
[https://www.diigo.com](https://www.diigo.com)

------
vborovikov
OneDrive, text files. I can access it on my phone too if I need to.

------
rabboRubble
Firefox. Bookmarks are synced across multiple platforms.

~~~
haolez
Same here. I also use tags a lot in my bookmarks.

I have tried Pocket and Google Keep before, but Firefox Sync is an order of
magnitude more fluid to me.

------
butz
Firefox bookmarks, under "Other Bookmarks".

------
ojuara
I use Things 3 to store bookmarks.

------
azizsaya
I use xmarks. It is free and simple.

[http://www.xmarks.com](http://www.xmarks.com)

~~~
x2f10
>LogMeIn is retiring Xmarks from its line of products as of May 1, 2018. After
this date, you will no longer have access to Xmarks.

~~~
azizsaya
Oh shoot! Thank you.

