Plain Text Bookmarks
Brent Simmons at inessential.com:
I’ve not yet found a bookmarking service that I love, but this new Kippt could be it. It’s attractive and simple — and, best of all, has no social aspect.
Last year I gave up saving my bookmarks in a web browser. I realized it had just become the place where links go to die. I’d save things of interest, but hardly ever reference them again. If I switched browsers I’d either start from scratch or end up transferring dozens (hundreds?) of unused links. I needed one, permanent place to store my bookmarks. I also wanted to include notes, clearly displayed next to each link, which provide order and relevance.
Bookmarking services, especially Pinboard, seemed like the way to go. But I ended up settling on a different solution: plain text.
I keep plain text notes in Notational Velocity, on every conceivable topic that I have any interest in. For each topic I keep any links, comments, or ideas that I may later find useful.
This makes my ‘bookmarks’:
- simple
- comprehensive
- creative
- ubiquitous (see simplenote)
- permanent
That last one is the most important to me. Whatever appeal there may be to the latest bookmarking service, I’m not willing to bet it will still be around in 20 years. I guarantee my plain text files will still be here, though I’m not taking bets on what hardware or software I’ll be using to maintain them.
