
Show HN: A bookmarking tool designed to help synthesize your web research - te_ch
https://klobie.com
======
rjeli
Looks very nice.

Relatedly, I wish I could automatically freeze and archive every single web
page I visit, minus heavy media, possibly with very low quality images. I
tried squid and the internet archive’s proxies, but MITM’ing myself is just
slightly too annoying. There’s SingleFile[0] which does pretty much exactly
what I want, ripping every single page into a self-extracting HTML+zip file,
but it runs inside the browser so it adds a little delay after you navigate to
a page, again slightly too annoying. Anyone have a recommendation for a
seamless way to do this? Otherwise I’ll probably roll my own extension that
pipes every URL to a local process that rips in the background with e.g.
selenium.

I wish there were a way to run fully privileged extensions in Firefox, i.e. in
the browser context instead of the page...

[https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/single-
file/](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/single-file/)

~~~
interurban
Saving every single page feels a little overwhelming to me, I open lots of
pages looking for a piece of information or an answer to a question and many
aren't relevant, many others are outright spam.

That said, I use pinboard to save/bookmark links, and I paid for the archival
account type which automatically stores the pages I save. There's a handy
bookmarklet so saving a page is a one click operation.

~~~
treszkai
How do you deal with the eventuality of Pinboard going down? (Which will
almost certainly happen sooner or later.)

While the civilization doesn't depend on my data, I always like to have a
backup, so paying for a service to store my web archive is barely more future-
proof than saving links.

~~~
canadianwriter
You can export the archive and put it on your own harddrive if you want,
that's what I do, so I have an offline backup of all sites I have bookmarked.

------
Abishek_Muthian
Congratulations on the launch!

Although 'synthesise' has broad meaning, I think organising the bookmarks this
way helps to fetch our bookmarks when needed e.g. A need gap - 'I forget my
web bookmarks quite often'[1] was posted on my problem validation platform
which I think this tool can effectively address.

Did you have the intention of solving that problem when creating this tool?
Then I would suggest improving the copy in the home page from 'Synthesise' to
something on the lines of -

'Don't forget your bookmarks again, get them back when you need it'.

Also, an address bar integration which brings results from Klobie first could
serve the purpose better IMO.

[1][https://needgap.com/problems/57-i-forget-my-web-bookmarks-
qu...](https://needgap.com/problems/57-i-forget-my-web-bookmarks-quite-
often.-internet-organizing)

~~~
te_ch
Thanks! Great points.

My specific use case is doing initial, exploratory web research to work on
company, industry and market analysis. This initial phase requires reviewing
many sources and identifying the "important bits" that will help structure the
main project. I take notes for that, at the bookmark, topic and board (theme)
level. I get what you say, the wording of the one-liner maybe doesn't reflect
all possible use cases, or even properly describe my own! I'll consider
options for this.

The idea of address bar integration is _terrific_.

Thanks again for the feedback!

------
sawaruna
Not sure if this will fit the bill exactly, but have been looking for
something like this to accompany knowledge base note tools like Roam,
Obsidian, etc., since those don't work that well with web content IMO. Using
Zotero at the moment, which is fine for something not web-based. are.na is
maybe another similar service aimed at content beyond bookmarks. klobie looks
good though!

A couple of suggestions: I like the 'card view' of the board pages, but
assuming one has a lot of tags, and many bookmarks per tag (or even many
bookmarks for a single tag), I feel the 'overview' you get with the board page
kind of vanishes and the individual tags take over. Something like a fixed
height option for the cards that becomes scrollable would be nice.
Alternatively, each tag becomes a separate page, with the bookmarks being
listed once you enter the tag page instead of the board page, but not sure if
you want that kind of hierarchical structure. Oh, and maybe a tighter column
view might be nice!

~~~
te_ch
Thanks! I appreciate the feedback. I'm not familiar with all those tools, but
yes, the idea here is bookmarks for now.

I get what you say about boards with too many topics/bookmarks. I've been
thinking of different ways to display information, so this kind of feedback is
very useful!

------
mooreed
Looks slick.

What do the numeric figures mean at the top of a topic card?

Things like 1b, 7b, 2.1bt and 11% and 17%

Is there somewhere that explains those? Did I miss some internet wide naming
convention ??? :)

~~~
te_ch
Thanks!

Good question, I forgot to add that to the help section :)

B = board

t = topic

b = bookmark

bt = bookmarks per topic

The percentage is the "coverage" received by a given topic in each board. If a
board has 10 bookmarks and 3 of them are labeled e.g. "topicX", topicX's
coverage is 30%. Totals may add up to more than 100% due to multiple topic
assignments.

It helps you figure out where you stand in terms of the information you
collect. I sometimes have to e.g. research and compare a number of topics
within a given theme (e.g. companies in nanotechnology), and I want to make
sure I do enough digging on each one.

I'm here if you have more questions!

~~~
shaunkoh
Looks super nifty! Is there a way to import pinboard bookmarks or Evernote
notes?

~~~
te_ch
Thanks! Data import is at the top of the pending features, and plan to work on
it within the next week. I'll look into those two sources and see what I can
do.

------
squallstar
I was one of the tech founders of a start-up called Cronycle which made a
similar (but more advanced) tool many years ago:
[https://www.cronycle.com/](https://www.cronycle.com/)

I don't know if I can still recommend the product but for the years I used to
work there I know we built an amazing product.

\---

A few years ago I also made a bookmarking tool expanding links which is open
source and free to use: [https://fragments.me/](https://fragments.me/)

~~~
te_ch
Thanks for sharing these!

------
asimjalis
I like the app. One thing that did not work well for me was the requirement to
enter a topic. I want to quickly bookmark a page and move on. Why is topic
required?

~~~
te_ch
Great point. I wonder if you use bookmarking to save URLs "just in case"? When
you are on mobile, and then return to the website when you have more time for
that? Any other use case?

In my use case, it's a matter of organization. But totally get what you say,
classifying things into buckets is extra work. I'll consider options to
address this but, would adding a topic "later" be a temporary solution to you?
Then you can edit bookmarks' topics as you please, but they would initially
appear under the same card corresponding to the topic "later".

Thanks for the feedback!

------
jsnk
This looks useful. But I would like to confirm if it has "export to static
file" functionality.

It would really suck if I spent months accumulating data for some research,
only to have the account banned or suspended, or the app shuts down.

~~~
te_ch
It actually has already an export function hidden somewhere :) But I had to
disable it temporarily. So, yes, it'll definitely have it back in a few days.

Question: are CSV exports ok? Any other format you'd prefer?

Thanks for your feedback and interest!

~~~
indit
For me, markdown will be a great option. Since it would help for deveolping
research or blog notes.

~~~
dhet
+1 for markdown. For me as developer (and for others as well I'm sure)
markdown has become second nature for taking notes.

BTW, great work, te_ch! Do you have any plans for monetization? I can
definitely see myself paying a few dollars a month if I end up using it
enough.

~~~
te_ch
Thanks! I really appreciate the feedback. No plans for monetization yet.

If you decide to try it, I look forward to receiving more feedback and feature
requests!

------
juskrey
Bookmarking does not work. Saving every page of the slightest interest to me,
even if I don't read it immediately, was one of the best things I took as a
habit.

(Using Evernote for this)

------
known
You can bookmark this

    
    
        javascript:void function(){var e=window,a=document,b=encodeURIComponent,c=e.open("https://archive.is/"+b(a.location)+"%26title="+b(a.title),"td_popup","left="+((e.screenX||e.screenLeft)+10)+",top="+((e.screenY||e.screenTop)+10)+",height=510px,width=550px,resizable=1,alwaysRaised=1");e.setTimeout(function(){c.focus()},300)}();

~~~
hundchenkatze
Sure, but the value added by klobie is by organizing and presenting the
bookmarked sites in a useful way. Take a look at the sample board
[https://klobie.com/v/8oqy1eg/coronavirus](https://klobie.com/v/8oqy1eg/coronavirus)

------
neovive
This looks great! There seems to be a renewed interest in bookmarking
services. I've experimented with a few options over the past few years and
recently settled on the Notion web clipper. Although Notion doesn't have all
the features of a dedicated bookmarking service, the ability to save
everything to a table that you can tag, add notes and filter is nice. I will
keep Klobie in mind as an option.

~~~
te_ch
Thanks! I'm glad you found a bookmarking tool that works for you. But please
don't hesitate to reach out to me directly to discuss what features would make
you consider using klobie. Cheers.

------
donbale
Fantastic work, I have been looking for something like this. I have started
using it and it works great, just a little feedback: In Chrome when entering a
new bookmark I have to click back in the box once a topic has been entered and
I wish to add another, which is annoying. It would also be great if the title
was auto populated via the URL and then leave it to the user if they want to
customise this.

~~~
te_ch
Thanks! I really appreciate your feedback.

Re: title: it actually is auto populated when you bookmark a webpage with the
bookmarklet AND the webpage has a title. Let me know if I'm missing something
here.

Re: topics: yes! You are absolutely right, I'm fixing that asap.

------
slowkow
Diigo has been active since 2006. It works well enough for me.

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

> Diigo is a multi-tool for personal knowledge management dramatically improve
> your workflow and productivity easy and intuitive, yet versatile and
> powerful

------
caviv
A bit confusing. Me myself I prefer to use [https://yabs.io](https://yabs.io)
\- like good old del.icio.us

------
kvdr
Love it! Thank you for creating this. Is there a way to add the bookmarklet to
my toolbar instead of having it on the bookmarks toolbar which I keep hidden.

EDIT: Also can I get to my home page when I click on Klobie than clicking on
my username? And can I tag bookmarks with topics under different boards?

~~~
te_ch
Thanks! I'm glad you find it useful!

What browser do you use? Once you created the bookmarklet, you can move it to
your e.g. "bookmarks bar" in Chrome and it's pretty handy (that's my current
set up).

I'll consider your navigation suggestion – any specific reason why you prefer
to click on the logo to go back to your home page rather than the username?
Any problem with the interface? Visibility?

Each board has its own set of bookmarks and topics. If you want to save a
bookmark to multiple boards, you'll need to do save it to each one of them.
Sorry for that – this is at least for now, a copy bookmark function is an
option that I'll consider.

I'll be here if you have questions, or you may want to just send an email to
the contact email (address here:
[https://klobie.com/help](https://klobie.com/help))

Thanks again!

------
kanobo
Great job, looks clean and useful! I think it'll help to put the site's
favicon or some kind of visual differentiator next to each link so it's easier
to scan when you're looking for a specific link.

~~~
te_ch
Thanks! It's a great idea. I've been considering something along those lines
but haven't decided about the ideal way to implement it. But I think I'll have
an update on this in a few days. Stay tuned! I appreciate the feedback.

------
laybak
Been working on a similar tool: [https://getrumin.com/](https://getrumin.com/)

Does the bookmarking, along with a visual canvas for editing the
relationships.

Feedback welcomed :)

------
superasn
Nice but I forgot my password during signup and now can't find a way to
retrieve it. Where is the forgot password page because I can't find link for
it on the login page either.

~~~
te_ch
Sorry for the inconvenience! I still need to implement that feature (I know,
it's important). Would you like to sign up again using the same username?
Please contact me at k at klobie.com and I'll make sure you can access/use the
tool. Thanks!

------
ghostbrainalpha
Great Job on the example board. It totally sells the idea.

I wonder if you could tie in with Googles related search terms to get
suggested ideas to further research and fill out your board?

~~~
te_ch
Thanks! A connection with Google search does sound interesting! I'll look into
it. Feel free to contact me directly if you try the app and have questions.

------
lachlan-sneff
Any chance of being able to host on my own server?

------
cuttyhuddy
we've actually made something similar. Have a few unique workflow features for
switching and searching as well.

[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/blink/jgnbmndipgkk...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/blink/jgnbmndipgkkiedmlkpkonbppmfjjial)

------
weswpg
error upon verifying account:

2 validation errors detected: Value at 'username' failed to satisfy
constraint: Member must have length greater than or equal to 1; Value at
'username' failed to satisfy constraint: Member must satisfy regular
expression pattern: [\p{L}\p{M}\p{S}\p{N}\p{P}]+

~~~
te_ch
Hey sorry for this, the bug was fixed already, please go ahead and try it :)

Thanks for reporting!

------
qwerty456127
I want to feed URLs to a service which would assign relevant subject tags
automatically. Can it do this?

~~~
te_ch
Hey thanks for asking. That's not an option though, at least for now :) But do
let me know if there is any other feature that could help with tagging in the
meantime!

------
jeppesen-io
Just signed up, I ike it and will start using it

A request: Make `topics` optional or ability to set a default topic(s)

~~~
te_ch
Thanks! I'll work on this soon, it's going up on my to-do list.

------
cel1ne
Just a tip, if you want this to become internationally used:

"Klo" means "toilet" in german.

~~~
sdoering
for me the first German association was "klobig" that could be translated as
unwieldy.

not sure if this is better, though.

------
veleventh
OMG. When will someone make a free Pinboard clone and that's enough

------
tsieling
Ah another round of 'guess the password policy'!. Try a password. No, it needs
a capital letter. Next try, No, it must also have a symbol.

I moved on after that. If this is the UX of setting up a password, I'm not up
for the rest.

~~~
te_ch
Thanks for the feedback and sorry for the inconvenience!

The sign-up page actually does include the password requirements: "The
password must be at least 8 characters long and include upper and lowercase
letters, numbers and symbols."

In sum: * 8 chars long minimum * include all of these: upper and lower case
letters, numbers and symbols

I do realize that such a combination of characters is somewhat hard to
remember compared to simpler passwords. I'll consider options to simplify all
this.

I appreciate your feedback.

~~~
zikzak
I keep getting an error with the username and finally inspected the validator.
I think you could be applying your pwd validation to the username field but I
could be wrong, anyway I figured it out eventually.

~~~
te_ch
Thanks for your feedback! Please contact me (k at klobie.com) if you still
encounter any issue when signing up/logging in.

------
vagsmith
there was an over-engineered tool called Surfmark which was trying to do the
same a few years ago. the website still seems to be active. surfmark.com

~~~
te_ch
Thanks! I'll take a look, it does seem to be active.

------
im_dario
Nice :) Do you have any plan for paid subscriptions?

~~~
te_ch
Thanks! No plan for subscriptions. I look forward to receiving more feedback
if you use it (feel free to reach out directly to me).

------
CarlosMoz
Really useful. Great project!

~~~
te_ch
Thanks!

------
CharlesMerriam2
FYI... Chrome only; no Firefox.

~~~
te_ch
Thanks for your feedback. Having trouble with Firefox? Something specific?

~~~
zikzak
I'm late to the party but do you have tips for adding pages quickly on mobile?
The boomark I created in the desktop Chrome client either isn't syncing or
isn't available in mobile Chrome (Android).

~~~
te_ch
Thanks for the feedback! The bookmarklet should actually work on both desktop
and mobile. Please consider that bookmarking on Chrome (Android) requires you
to type the name you used when creating the bookmarklet into the browser's
address bar to bookmark a web page. You may want to reach out directly: k at
klobie.com if it still gives you a hard time.

