Comments on: Read It Later

Read It Later

WCityMike — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 09:31:35 -0800

Given that you're a Metafilter user, if you're also a Firefox user, you may want to check out the Read It Later extension. It's not an unfair assumption to assume that Metafilter users tend to do a lot of online reading (who, us?), and the Read It Later extension is well-suited to help you manage your online reading while not cluttering up your bookmarks. It began as a bookmarklet but now has its own online site, RSS feed, intracomputer syncing, caching of pages for offline use, integration with Google Reader, and customizable keyboard shortcuts, and has really matured into a really great (free) extension.

Not Pepsi Blue -- just a recommendation of a really nifty extension.

By: cimbrog

cimbrog — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 09:34:55 -0800

So, wait. Now I can use favorites for just stuff I really like and don't have to use it as a bookmark for stuff to read later anymore? I'll check it out.

By: not_on_display

not_on_display — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 09:42:55 -0800

Now I just need to unfavorite all the stuff I've ever favorited on MeFi and... oh hell with it. (Thanks, actually; looks useful!)

By: Dumsnill

Dumsnill — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 09:46:07 -0800

Sounds good. I'll take a look at it later.

By: chrismear

chrismear — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 10:03:56 -0800

And for non-Firefox users, there's always Instapaper, which works with any browser.

By: grobstein

grobstein — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 10:07:02 -0800

Ooh, I hope the Reader integration is good.

By: Citizen Premier

Citizen Premier — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 10:13:24 -0800

RTFLL

By: WCityMike

WCityMike — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 10:24:37 -0800

Okay, what does RTFLL mean? Read the fucking something? Rolling [on] the floor laughing loudly?

By: Fupped Duck

Fupped Duck — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 10:26:12 -0800

not compatible with FF v0-2.x

By: Wolfdog

Wolfdog — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 10:29:33 -0800

To be honest, an extension which claims to file things away for you to read later but actually just forgets about 90-95% of them would be better for most people. That way you can feel virtuous about saving that so-so-important article to read later and then (look, you weren't going to read it anyway) if it ever occurs to you later on that you never got around to reading it later you can just say "Oh, that gosh-darned extension forgot about it again!" It won't ever even occur to you, though, unless it was actually important, so everything works out automatically without making a lot of clutter and wasting bits storing things.

By: markavatar

markavatar — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 10:35:33 -0800

this is a pretty good idea in theory. I tried instapaper for awhile but found it just didn't work for me. Knowing that the page isn't cluttering up my tabs or your bookmarks, I just tended to forget about it completely and not bother coming back to it. Simpler to just use delicious, where clutter isn't much of an issue, and throw a couple of tags on it. Still, there is an idea in there somewhere, so I'll probably give this a look.

By: merelyglib

merelyglib — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 10:38:15 -0800

I like this add-on too. Of course, I never actually read anything I've added...

By: jbickers

jbickers — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 10:42:54 -0800

OK, so some techy person, splain me this: if you install plug-ins like this from third parties you don't know - the Lifehacker types probably have 20-30 at any given time - how do you then feel safe doing things like online banking or shopping? Aren't you giving really high-level access to your online activities to strangers?

By: Happy Dave

Happy Dave — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 10:44:10 -0800

Instapaper does this, and with a bookmarklet. It's genius, I click something and bam, I can access it from any browser, including my phone browser.

By: cavalier

cavalier — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:04:38 -0800

(24 FF tabs currently in my browser, making this my 25th tab) I have my... own system.... for keeping track of things I intend to read sooner .. or later. And with session saver, these 24 tabs (clicking.. ah yes.. tab #3 is from September..) will keep on repopulating, every time I start FF... (closes 3rd tab in embarrassed realization)

By: edlundart

edlundart — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:05:25 -0800

I'm favoriting this post so I can read more about the extension later.

By: DU

DU — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:11:49 -0800

Yeah, I just open a tab and then close it 3 weeks later unread like everyone else.

By: Citizen Premier

Citizen Premier — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:13:30 -0800

Okay, what does RTFLL mean? Read the fucking something? Rolling [on] the floor laughing loudly? Read the fucking link (later). I thought it would be obvious...

By: Marisa Stole the Precious Thing

Marisa Stole the Precious Thing — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:27:52 -0800

Maybe because I'm using FF3, but this extension seems a little redundant to me. "Cluttering up my bookmarks" isn't much of a problem, really - I have a bookmarks folder called "Misc." that I use expressly for those pages I intend to read later, just one time. When I'm done, I just right-click that bookmark and select "Delete". A bigger concern to me - FF3 being a big enough memory hog as it is, especially with enough extensions - is adding yet another extension that contributes to the memory bloat.

By: martinrebas

martinrebas — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:30:41 -0800

(24 FF tabs currently in my browser, making this my 25th tab) I've just spent hours trying to read all the pages I have open so I can close them. Seeing this thread, I decided to check how many tabs I had left. 127.

By: chunking express

chunking express — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:37:55 -0800

I use Instapaper, which is awesome. And if you have an iphone, the Instapaper app is also great.

By: blue_beetle

blue_beetle — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:54:35 -0800

Given that you're a Metafilter user I take offense at that. I am not merely a Metafilter user, I sir, am a Metafilter connoisseur!

By: Durn Bronzefist

Durn Bronzefist — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 12:01:04 -0800

I was going to say abuser. But I can quit anytime I want to. Honest. Just watch me. Well, I could if I wanted to.

By: Harkins_

Harkins_ — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 12:01:14 -0800

I prefer to use the ScrapBook extension for pages I plan to read or really enjoyed reading, because it saves the full page and (if so desired) links from that page to others. I now only have a handful of bookmarks that really are shortcuts to things I visit often, I'm sick and tired of pages being gone when I want to refer back to them.

By: googly

googly — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 12:05:59 -0800

When they develop a FF extension that includes a single-click way to immediately respond to emails that I (a) haven't yet read, but know i need to; (b) have read, but don't consider important enough to warrant an immediate response; and (c) have read, and consider responding to be so important that I have to wait until I have more time to respond in the way that the email deserves --- well, then I will be a happy, sane, and productive person. And my email queue will dip below 400.

By: Pronoiac

Pronoiac — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 12:24:13 -0800

grobstein: Ooh, I hope the Reader integration is good. What, Google Reader? There's got to be offline access for that around already - I've got an app for that installed on my ipod touch! *searches* Google Gears supported this over a year ago.

By: threeturtles

threeturtles — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 12:45:39 -0800

I may check this out. Mostly I use delicious. But what I really need is some what to bookmark things on my work computer so I can read them at home. Unfortunately, I've got IE and can't DL or install anything on my work computer. So I think I'm stuck with e-mailing links to myself and then marking them with delicious and then never reading them.

By: cobra libre

cobra libre — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 13:20:06 -0800

jbickers: OK, so some techy person, splain me this: if you install plug-ins like this from third parties you don't know - the Lifehacker types probably have 20-30 at any given time - how do you then feel safe doing things like online banking or shopping? Aren't you giving really high-level access to your online activities to strangers? Easy as pie! 1. Find the extension. Usually, it's somewhere like C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\mbz0oq3p.default\extensions\{b3a1a37c-f2ad-410b-b12d-fe182bc24981}\. 2. Dig in there and pore over the source code. See anything suspicious? Seriously, though, you generally have to rely on the assumption that other people are going to raise holy hell if an extension tries anything sneaky. And for people that do read source code, it is at least possible to audit Firefox extensions because the source code is not compiled. This isn't the case for, say, InputManagers in OS X.

By: jenfullmoon

jenfullmoon — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 13:39:01 -0800

I am SO downloading this when I get home. Too bad they won't let me install anything at work. *also has 25 browser windows up*

By: paisley henosis

paisley henosis — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:33:50 -0800

I use this, I have used this for a while, and I like it.

By: wildcrdj

wildcrdj — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 20:18:57 -0800

I have my... own system.... for keeping track of things I intend to read sooner .. or later. And with session saver, these 24 tabs (clicking.. ah yes.. tab #3 is from September..) will keep on repopulating, every time I start FF... Wow... your Firefox is way more stable than mine. Full crashes lose my session state (at least on Linux, which is the only place I use it), so that would be an unworkable system. Not sure how useful this is though, bookmarks (site and/or browser) are sufficient for me... and like some others said, I rarely even go back and read those.

By: zardoz

zardoz — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 05:25:07 -0800

Thanks for the link, but I found this about a month ago and find it really useful. One of these days I'll go through my 100-plus bookmarks and pare them down to size.

By: anirvan

anirvan — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 11:21:51 -0800

Does this actually work for anyone, at least in terms of workflow? I tend to mark dozens of articles as "to read" via Instapaper but somehow never get around to actually reading them.

By: Helga-woo

Helga-woo — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 11:53:01 -0800

I use toread to email links to my home email address so I don't get distracted by non-work stuff at work. You can add a bookmark to toread that automatically emails the link to you. I have the added bonus of not checking the email I send the links to that often, so I often neverread. It's my system, and it works... sometimes.

By: cavalier

cavalier — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 07:04:34 -0800

wildcrdj, oh, I crash occasionally, but I do have a session addon attached that usually does a boffo job of taking snapshots I can restore. Have you tried any of the FF3 addons for managing sessions?

By: Phire

Phire — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 02:30:34 -0800

Awesome, and installed. I used to use del.icio.us for this, but I found that because I had to tag things, I didn't use it consistently enough to actually have a roster of interesting things to choose from when I went back to it. So it was a mix of bookmarks and del.icio.us, but then I had overlap and got grumpy everytime I clicked on a link I'd already read. Maybe this will solve my problem. It won't, of course, but a girl can dream, right?