Andrew L. Van Slaars

I recently discovered Instapaper. This is a simple app that allows you to bookmark an item to be read later. It is simpler that del.icio.us, in that there are no tags. It doesn’t appear that your list of bookmarked items are meant to be shared or searched. The items are simply put into a list of things you want to read later. So, using a simple bookmarklet to your bookmarks toolbar, you can load up a web page, click on the bookmark, and that current page is added to your instapaper page. When you want to read the item, go to Instapaper and find that item in your list.

This is great. It’s fast and simple, but there is only one problem. Like del.icio.us, I tend to forget to go to the site to actually look at my bookmarks again. There is a simple solution though… Instapaper exposes an RSS feed of your unread items (you get the link once you’ve added an item to your list). So, I have subscribed to my own feed and now, when I have time to read, my items will show up in Google Reader, which is where I go when I have time to read. Perfect.

Remember, this is more about marking pages to come back and read when you have time. I don’t see this as a replacement for other bookmarking sites.

Andrew Learning, Tools bookmarks, rss, Tools