13 ms·

Instapaper - like Delicious, but with Tumblr simplicity

20 points by jonnytran 19y ago

apgwoz 19y ago
Ironically, I just added this to my del.icio.us account.
rlm 19y ago
Wish it didn't force me to register/login.
- hhm 19y ago
  Yes; we should at least get some screenshots, or live demo.
- jonnytran 19y ago
  Registering is surprisingly easy. "If you didn't set a password, you don't have one."
  - mixmax 19y ago
    Good idea.... But if it is that easy I suggest you move the register field to the front page. Just seeing a link that says register will lose you a lot of potential customers because a link that says "register" is normally associated with a form field that goes on for pages and people will not bother clicking. I know I didn't until I read you comment. I think you will up your conversion ratio about 25% by doing this.
    - thorax 19y ago
      Probably higher than 25%-- it's why I navigated away.
      - mixmax 19y ago
        Yeah you might be right. People should be doing much more A/B split testing of their sites, especially the important parts such as sign-ups and buying.
- paulgb 19y ago
  I built a very similar site a few months back as a way to learn Rails and make a few bucks. It's called http://toreadlist.com/ http://toreadlist.com/ , and one of the features was not requiring registration. It also had RSS feeds.
gsiener 19y ago
Jeez. Sometimes it feels like I'm a subletter. Every few months I "pack up" and move to a different service online. Wouldn't it make more sense to leverage delicious and use a common tag like "toread"? I've been doing that for a while and it works pretty well.
- jonnytran 19y ago
  I agree. But I think Instapaper is interesting for its interface alone. Ideally, cooler interfaces should be implemented over existing APIs. Stand on the shoulders of giants.
  - gsiener 19y ago
    Right. It would be killer if you used the bookmarklet as normal, but it would save to your delicious account with toread. And then when you've read it, you could write a summary and tag it as normal.
    - akkartik 19y ago
      I use the same keyboardlets to access my bookmarks or add to them. The URL/javascript may keep changing.
bayareaguy 19y ago
I wish more web developers took a moment to state what their site needs up front. I tried to log in a few times with no success, then decided to try different browser settings. Enabling cookies fixed things. The "login failed" page should clearly tell you to enable cookies.
- bayareaguy 19y ago
  Sigh. This thing clearly only works for a limited set of browsers. Trying the Read Later thing gives this on Opera: You tried to access the address javascript:var d=document,w=window,e=w.getSelection,k=d.getSelection,x=d.selection,s=(e?e():(k)?k():(x?x.createRange().text:0)),f='http://www.instapaper.com/b',l=d.location,e=encodeURIComponent,p='?v=3&u='+e http://www.instapaper.com/b',l=d.location,e=encodeURICompone...(l.href) +'&t='+e(d.title) +'&s='+e(s),u=f+p;try{if(!/^(.\.)?instapaper([^.])?$/.test(l.host))throw(0);iptstbt();}catch(z){a =function(){if(!w.open(u,'t','toolbar=0,resizable=0,status=1,width=250,height=150'))l.href=u;};if(/Firefox/.test(navigator.userAgent))setTimeout(a,0);else a();}void(0), which is currently unavailable. Please make sure that the Web address (URL) is correctly spelled and punctuated, then try reloading the page. Would it be too much trouble to say it only works on Firefox on the front page?
- alaskamiller 19y ago
  You're in the minority.
  - bayareaguy 19y ago
    I'm from the bay area. I'm used to that :-)
akkartik 19y ago
Pretty slick, but everytime I click the bookmarklet it freezes up my browser for a while. Suggestion: pop up the window immediately, then use setTimeout to have it perform the action. That'll actually make it seem more responsive, because people can switch back to the main window and continue doing what they were doing. (Assuming I diagnosed the javascript problem right..)
webology 19y ago
This is simply a private read-it-later list and aside from saving a link, nothing like del.icio.us. Crappy title on the post announcing it but not a bad service for some.
jgrahamc 19y ago
Sounds a bit like http://l8tr.org http://l8tr.org, except l8tr doesn't make you register and will email later when a dead link (e.g. slashdotted) comes back on line.

20 points by jonnytran 19y ago

apgwoz 19y ago

Ironically, I just added this to my del.icio.us account.

rlm 19y ago

Wish it didn't force me to register/login.

hhm 19y ago
Yes; we should at least get some screenshots, or live demo.
jonnytran 19y ago
Registering is surprisingly easy. "If you didn't set a password, you don't have one."
- mixmax 19y ago
  Good idea.... But if it is that easy I suggest you move the register field to the front page. Just seeing a link that says register will lose you a lot of potential customers because a link that says "register" is normally associated with a form field that goes on for pages and people will not bother clicking. I know I didn't until I read you comment. I think you will up your conversion ratio about 25% by doing this.
  - thorax 19y ago
    Probably higher than 25%-- it's why I navigated away.
    - mixmax 19y ago
      Yeah you might be right. People should be doing much more A/B split testing of their sites, especially the important parts such as sign-ups and buying.
paulgb 19y ago
I built a very similar site a few months back as a way to learn Rails and make a few bucks. It's called http://toreadlist.com/ http://toreadlist.com/ , and one of the features was not requiring registration. It also had RSS feeds.

gsiener 19y ago

Jeez. Sometimes it feels like I'm a subletter. Every few months I "pack up" and move to a different service online. Wouldn't it make more sense to leverage delicious and use a common tag like "toread"? I've been doing that for a while and it works pretty well.

jonnytran 19y ago
I agree. But I think Instapaper is interesting for its interface alone. Ideally, cooler interfaces should be implemented over existing APIs. Stand on the shoulders of giants.
- gsiener 19y ago
  Right. It would be killer if you used the bookmarklet as normal, but it would save to your delicious account with toread. And then when you've read it, you could write a summary and tag it as normal.
  - akkartik 19y ago
    I use the same keyboardlets to access my bookmarks or add to them. The URL/javascript may keep changing.

bayareaguy 19y ago

I wish more web developers took a moment to state what their site needs up front. I tried to log in a few times with no success, then decided to try different browser settings. Enabling cookies fixed things. The "login failed" page should clearly tell you to enable cookies.

bayareaguy 19y ago
Sigh. This thing clearly only works for a limited set of browsers. Trying the Read Later thing gives this on Opera: You tried to access the address javascript:var d=document,w=window,e=w.getSelection,k=d.getSelection,x=d.selection,s=(e?e():(k)?k():(x?x.createRange().text:0)),f='http://www.instapaper.com/b',l=d.location,e=encodeURIComponent,p='?v=3&u='+e http://www.instapaper.com/b',l=d.location,e=encodeURICompone...(l.href) +'&t='+e(d.title) +'&s='+e(s),u=f+p;try{if(!/^(.\.)?instapaper([^.])?$/.test(l.host))throw(0);iptstbt();}catch(z){a =function(){if(!w.open(u,'t','toolbar=0,resizable=0,status=1,width=250,height=150'))l.href=u;};if(/Firefox/.test(navigator.userAgent))setTimeout(a,0);else a();}void(0), which is currently unavailable. Please make sure that the Web address (URL) is correctly spelled and punctuated, then try reloading the page. Would it be too much trouble to say it only works on Firefox on the front page?
alaskamiller 19y ago
You're in the minority.
- bayareaguy 19y ago
  I'm from the bay area. I'm used to that :-)

akkartik 19y ago

Pretty slick, but everytime I click the bookmarklet it freezes up my browser for a while. Suggestion: pop up the window immediately, then use setTimeout to have it perform the action. That'll actually make it seem more responsive, because people can switch back to the main window and continue doing what they were doing. (Assuming I diagnosed the javascript problem right..)

webology 19y ago

This is simply a private read-it-later list and aside from saving a link, nothing like del.icio.us. Crappy title on the post announcing it but not a bad service for some.

jgrahamc 19y ago

Sounds a bit like http://l8tr.org http://l8tr.org, except l8tr doesn't make you register and will email later when a dead link (e.g. slashdotted) comes back on line.