5 ms·

Show HN: Storing your bookmarks under revision control

181 points by stevekemp 10y ago

bpicolo 10y ago
Seems like you could just put the files that already exist under version control? Chrome just uses a JSON file it seems, as an example. On mac: ~/Library/Application\ Support/Google/Chrome/Default/Bookmarks.bak Separate, re-writeable interface for search is cool though :)
- dotancohen 10y ago
  The Firefox files are SQLite files, and I believe but haven't checked recently that the Chrome files have no newlines (0x0A) in the files. The whole JSON string is on one line, so Git will rewrite the whole file on each change.
  - slim 10y ago
    Git always rewrites the whole file
    - EvilTerran 10y ago
      Sure, technically - but if a file's sensibly broken up into lines on semantic boundaries, "git diff" will at least let you think of it like it only rewrites the bits that actually changed. If you're versioning a file with no linebreaks, the diffs would be meaningless ("minus everything, plus everything"), which is an unfortunate loss of functionality.
      - dom0 10y ago
        I guess you could just smudge/clean it through a JSON linter. You probably don't even need smudge, since Chrome likely has no problems parsing indented JSON.
  - bpicolo 10y ago
    Looked to be pretty printed on my computer.
viach 10y ago
Similar: https://github.com/hmason/gitmarks https://github.com/hmason/gitmarks A web bookmark manager built on git and designed for github. It's searchable and social.
codethief 10y ago
I'm using a similar solution, namely a file I edit in org-mode. Here are the advantages I've found so far: - org-mode or text files in general make it easy to add contextual information, additional notes etc. Bookmarks can finally tell a story. - in org-mode (or Markdown), the bookmark file is well-readable as is in the editor - bookmarks can be rearranged and regrouped quickly if need be - (org-mode at least makes) links to different sections of bookmarks within the same file possible. For this reason, I personally don't use tags but follow a hierarchical structure with intra-document references if need be (e.g. if a group of bookmarks can be considered to be part of two different higher-level groups) - searching is only one grep or one Ctrl+F away. In case of imprecise search terms, the additional hierarchical structure helps. - Easy and privacy-preserving synchronization among devices using git And here are the disadvantages: - No browser integration; bookmarks always have to be added and looked up manually which is particularly cumbersome on a phone.
- EvilTerran 10y ago
  > No browser integration Depending on the conventions you use in the file, you might be able to fix that with a browser extension that can parse it. Alternatively, if one of the places you're replicating it to happens to be a web-accessible machine, you could throw together a basic web interface (behind a login) for it - that'd get you pseudo-browser-integration on any device.
- groks 10y ago
  Use a bookmarklet and org-protocol to trigger an org-capture template: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7464951/how-to-make-org-protocol-work https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7464951/how-to-make-org-... You can make the bookmarklet pass along extra info on certain pages, eg. gmail and have a capture template match it - handy for TODOs with deadlines that link back to emails.
MrQuincle 10y ago
I recently created two shell scripts. 1) site It just adds sites to a list and has basic parameters like "list", "edit", etc. I really like the fact that I can do it from the shell and vim. I often get requests for online information, so cb (clipboard) saves another mouse movement. For me, the quicker I can respond, the higher the chance I'm not out of my flow. 2) note And yes, I'm getting difficulties with flow at times. For example, I'm working on something and need to reorganize a certain datastructure. Something like note "make logmvnpdf.m row-friendly" serves as a todo list, but most importantly does help me continue my flow on starting next day again. Everything I can move from the browser (time sink) to my shell (productivity) I get really happy about!
- ThomPete 10y ago
  I would be interested in hearing if something like https://www.ghostnoteapp.com https://www.ghostnoteapp.com could work for you. Its also made to maximize flow by keeping the notes contextual.
  - MrQuincle 10y ago
    # Shell I applaud any effort for maximizing flow. However, in my particular case I run Linux and I'm not spending any time in a file explorer application for example. Issues like a screen "popping up" as described in the FAQ of https://www.ghostnoteapp.com/ https://www.ghostnoteapp.com/ are just not there because I prefer to run things from the shell. # Syncing I'm the kind of person who happily pays for services like https://www.insynchq.com/ https://www.insynchq.com/ (not affiliated) to be able to get something like Dropbox or Google Drive to my shell without loosing collaboration options. # Text-level access to collaborative documents If there would be cloud service that combines (1) online editing and collaboration with others, and (2) offline editing in a text-editor for myself, for spreadsheets, presentations, documents, etc. I would buy it in a heartbeat. An example is https://www.sharelatex.com/ https://www.sharelatex.com/ (not affiliated) where people can edit online, but behind the screens there is Dropbox/Github integration. # Window manager Another way I organize my "dashboard" for a particular purpose is by using tmuxp. # Browser In the browser I use vimium (https://vimium.github.io/ https://vimium.github.io/) and I've several profiles depending on the task at hand. Probably you can summarize a lot of it as "not needing a mouse". If it requires a mouse it's difficult to let my muscle memory do the work for me.
pka 10y ago
I made something similar [0] for Pentadactyl [1], a vim-like extension for Firefox. By pressing Cmd-D the user is prompted to enter a tag, and after that a .webloc (essentialy a link) file is created in a subfolder determined by the tag name. The location to store the files in can be configured (i.e. some Dropbox folder, so that bookmarks are automatically shared). This has the advantage that it's: * instantly searchable using the same search interface like everything else (Spotlight) * forwards compatible - no need to import/export bookmarks when switching browsers * distributed - bookmarks are instantly and automatically distributed (Dropbox) * automatically backed up forever (Dropbox) I'm not using Firefox right now, so the extension might be out of date. Maybe time to port it to Chrome/Safari :) [0] https://github.com/pkamenarsky/fbookmark https://github.com/pkamenarsky/fbookmark [1] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/pentadactyl https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/pentadactyl
- mrmondo 10y ago
  Very interesting! Keen to try it out, very sick of bookmark syncing and exporting etc... thanks
MichaelMoser123 10y ago
The fun stops if you start to review the bookmark changes via gerrit.
schappim 10y ago
Am I the only one who has started to use the Hacker News "favourite" feature as a make shift bookmarking service? I've found that I now actually submit links I want to save...
- stevekemp 10y ago
  Many of the things I bookmark wouldn't be interesting to this audience, so it'd feel a bit abusive to try.
paradite 10y ago
Oh no, I am so interested in this but the demo is not loading. Why not host it using GitHub pages instead of your own server to handle more traffic?
- stevekemp 10y ago
  I'd be interesting in seeing how it is failing for you? Timeout, or something else? As far as I can see the server is up and running on both IPv4 & IPv6. Load is low, and I see no failures logged. Edit added to github pages: * http://skx.github.io/bookmarks.public/ http://skx.github.io/bookmarks.public/
  - paradite 10y ago
    $ ping www.steve.org.uk PING www.steve.org.uk (80.68.84.111): 56 data bytes Request timeout for icmp_seq 0 Request timeout for icmp_seq 1 Request timeout for icmp_seq 2 $ nslookup www.steve.org.uk Server: 8.8.8.8 Address: 8.8.8.8#53 Non-authoritative answer: Name: www.steve.org.uk Address: 80.68.84.111 $ traceroute www.steve.org.uk traceroute to www.steve.org.uk (80.68.84.111), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets 1 192.168.0.254 (192.168.0.254) 1.155 ms 14.610 ms 2.999 ms 2 * * * 3 * * * 4 * * * Looks like something wrong with my network but other sites working fine.
- diimdeep 10y ago
  It is broken when external jQuery blocked by uMatrix
AstroJetson 10y ago
I run a personal wiki (that gets me version control) that I've written a bookmarklet for. It asks for the page to place the entry on (default is Bookmark), location on the page (top is default for Bookmark, bottom is default for others) and the entry (default is the title of the page I'm on). It then makes an entry on the page as a bullet entry so I can tell that it's a bookmark. This allows me to quickly bookmark items and have some level of order to them as I'm saving them away.
- patrickdavey 10y ago
  I must look into bookmarklets. They can write to disk then? I also use a wiki synced in dropbox. I wrote a hacky Android app that links into all the sharing dialogs so I can share a link into my wiki super easily. But I like the idea of both the shell command talked about in a different comment, and your bookmarklet. One wiki to rule them all, and in the darkness find them ;)
  - ChoGGi 10y ago
    A bookmarklet is just javascript running under the website instance (pretty sure they can't write to disk). They are useful for manipulating websites. kinda like tampermonkey, but they only run when you click them. Add a bookmark with javascript:alert('hello'); Though it's usually best to keep an expanded version elsewhere and copy it over when you update it (else it'll be stored as a one liner).
    - patrickdavey 10y ago
      Right, that's what I thought.. I'd just misunderstood that the bookmarklet was writing somewhere. I might just write a bookmarklet that does a POST to somewhere that'll write to a Dropbox backed wiki page... I'd just like to have everything in one place..
  - AstroJetson 10y ago
    The bookmarklet does a post to the wiki in the same way that a user would edit the page. The new info is either at the beginning (top) or at the end (bottom) of the page text. javascript:%20void(ppage=prompt("Page%20?","Bookmark"));%20void(t=prompt("comment%20?",document.title));if%20(ppage=="Bookmark"){pp="top"}%20else%20{pp="bottom"};%20void(w=prompt("top,bottom?",pp));%20void(x="http://mywkiki.com/updater?page="+ppage+"&text="+escape("*%20["%20+%20t%20+%20"|"%20+%20location.href%20+%20"]")%20+"&action="+w);%20void(window.open(x,"Bookmark","height=400,width=640,scrollbars,resizable"));
amelius 10y ago
I'd like to store the content of the webpages as well, in case they are taken offline.
diimdeep 10y ago
Anyone else think that current browsers using NETSCAPE-Bookmark-file-1 for exporting bookmarks is really archaic https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa753582(v=vs.85).aspx https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa753582(v=vs.85).a...
diimdeep 10y ago
It reminded me TiddlyWiki with exception that external data file being used.
jflowers45 10y ago
I've never heard it referred to as revision control - I always hear "version control" or even "source control". Any difference? Is that a common phrase?
- stevekemp 10y ago
  It's common, or at least understandable, just a little dated. Mostly the people who use say/write it do so because they were exposed to RCS ("Revision Control System"), before they moved on to CVS.
pasbesoin 10y ago
The better part of 20 years ago, Kaylon sold their shareware / try-it-and-buy-it bookmark manager Powermarks. I've yet to come across anything as useful as it was. Cross-browser, automated keyword extraction and indexing that could be supplemented by the user, lightning fast search against spaced plain text and fragment entries. Other features, as well, to aid in link management and maintenance. By contrast, browsers' built-in bookmark management still sucks.
dbg31415 10y ago
* Xmarks | Bookmark Sync and Search || https://www.xmarks.com/ https://www.xmarks.com/ Little dated, but still works great across browsers and devices.
Warp__ 10y ago
Looks very interesting. Just IMHO, a little bit of CSS setting a max page width and a sans-serif font would be worth it.
arvind_devaraj 10y ago
Very interesting. Bookmarks solve a particular problem of finding information that was already visited. A more general problem is a designing a personal knowledge base. There are lot of hints in this page about PKB and some of them can be applied to bookmarking as well http://www.acuriousmix.com/2014/09/03/designing-a-personal-knowledgebase/ http://www.acuriousmix.com/2014/09/03/designing-a-personal-k... I created a personal curation system - Hyperbook, http://getbook.co http://getbook.co . It arose out of the need to store reference materials while writing my thesis. There seems to be lot of people working on similar ideas, which shows the market need and lack of existing products which address them. I sense there is a great startup/product coming in this space soon.

181 points by stevekemp 10y ago

Seems like you could just put the files that already exist under version control? Chrome just uses a JSON file it seems, as an example. On mac: ~/Library/Application\ Support/Google/Chrome/Default/Bookmarks.bak Separate, re-writeable interface for search is cool though :)

dotancohen 10y ago
The Firefox files are SQLite files, and I believe but haven't checked recently that the Chrome files have no newlines (0x0A) in the files. The whole JSON string is on one line, so Git will rewrite the whole file on each change.
- slim 10y ago
  Git always rewrites the whole file
  - EvilTerran 10y ago
    Sure, technically - but if a file's sensibly broken up into lines on semantic boundaries, "git diff" will at least let you think of it like it only rewrites the bits that actually changed. If you're versioning a file with no linebreaks, the diffs would be meaningless ("minus everything, plus everything"), which is an unfortunate loss of functionality.
    - dom0 10y ago
      I guess you could just smudge/clean it through a JSON linter. You probably don't even need smudge, since Chrome likely has no problems parsing indented JSON.
- bpicolo 10y ago
  Looked to be pretty printed on my computer.

viach 10y ago

Similar: https://github.com/hmason/gitmarks https://github.com/hmason/gitmarks A web bookmark manager built on git and designed for github. It's searchable and social.

codethief 10y ago

I'm using a similar solution, namely a file I edit in org-mode. Here are the advantages I've found so far: - org-mode or text files in general make it easy to add contextual information, additional notes etc. Bookmarks can finally tell a story. - in org-mode (or Markdown), the bookmark file is well-readable as is in the editor - bookmarks can be rearranged and regrouped quickly if need be - (org-mode at least makes) links to different sections of bookmarks within the same file possible. For this reason, I personally don't use tags but follow a hierarchical structure with intra-document references if need be (e.g. if a group of bookmarks can be considered to be part of two different higher-level groups) - searching is only one grep or one Ctrl+F away. In case of imprecise search terms, the additional hierarchical structure helps. - Easy and privacy-preserving synchronization among devices using git And here are the disadvantages: - No browser integration; bookmarks always have to be added and looked up manually which is particularly cumbersome on a phone.

EvilTerran 10y ago
> No browser integration Depending on the conventions you use in the file, you might be able to fix that with a browser extension that can parse it. Alternatively, if one of the places you're replicating it to happens to be a web-accessible machine, you could throw together a basic web interface (behind a login) for it - that'd get you pseudo-browser-integration on any device.
groks 10y ago
Use a bookmarklet and org-protocol to trigger an org-capture template: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7464951/how-to-make-org-protocol-work https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7464951/how-to-make-org-... You can make the bookmarklet pass along extra info on certain pages, eg. gmail and have a capture template match it - handy for TODOs with deadlines that link back to emails.

MrQuincle 10y ago

I recently created two shell scripts. 1) site It just adds sites to a list and has basic parameters like "list", "edit", etc. I really like the fact that I can do it from the shell and vim. I often get requests for online information, so cb (clipboard) saves another mouse movement. For me, the quicker I can respond, the higher the chance I'm not out of my flow. 2) note And yes, I'm getting difficulties with flow at times. For example, I'm working on something and need to reorganize a certain datastructure. Something like note "make logmvnpdf.m row-friendly" serves as a todo list, but most importantly does help me continue my flow on starting next day again. Everything I can move from the browser (time sink) to my shell (productivity) I get really happy about!

ThomPete 10y ago
I would be interested in hearing if something like https://www.ghostnoteapp.com https://www.ghostnoteapp.com could work for you. Its also made to maximize flow by keeping the notes contextual.
- MrQuincle 10y ago
  # Shell I applaud any effort for maximizing flow. However, in my particular case I run Linux and I'm not spending any time in a file explorer application for example. Issues like a screen "popping up" as described in the FAQ of https://www.ghostnoteapp.com/ https://www.ghostnoteapp.com/ are just not there because I prefer to run things from the shell. # Syncing I'm the kind of person who happily pays for services like https://www.insynchq.com/ https://www.insynchq.com/ (not affiliated) to be able to get something like Dropbox or Google Drive to my shell without loosing collaboration options. # Text-level access to collaborative documents If there would be cloud service that combines (1) online editing and collaboration with others, and (2) offline editing in a text-editor for myself, for spreadsheets, presentations, documents, etc. I would buy it in a heartbeat. An example is https://www.sharelatex.com/ https://www.sharelatex.com/ (not affiliated) where people can edit online, but behind the screens there is Dropbox/Github integration. # Window manager Another way I organize my "dashboard" for a particular purpose is by using tmuxp. # Browser In the browser I use vimium (https://vimium.github.io/ https://vimium.github.io/) and I've several profiles depending on the task at hand. Probably you can summarize a lot of it as "not needing a mouse". If it requires a mouse it's difficult to let my muscle memory do the work for me.

pka 10y ago

I made something similar [0] for Pentadactyl [1], a vim-like extension for Firefox. By pressing Cmd-D the user is prompted to enter a tag, and after that a .webloc (essentialy a link) file is created in a subfolder determined by the tag name. The location to store the files in can be configured (i.e. some Dropbox folder, so that bookmarks are automatically shared). This has the advantage that it's: * instantly searchable using the same search interface like everything else (Spotlight) * forwards compatible - no need to import/export bookmarks when switching browsers * distributed - bookmarks are instantly and automatically distributed (Dropbox) * automatically backed up forever (Dropbox) I'm not using Firefox right now, so the extension might be out of date. Maybe time to port it to Chrome/Safari :) [0] https://github.com/pkamenarsky/fbookmark https://github.com/pkamenarsky/fbookmark [1] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/pentadactyl https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/pentadactyl

mrmondo 10y ago
Very interesting! Keen to try it out, very sick of bookmark syncing and exporting etc... thanks

MichaelMoser123 10y ago

The fun stops if you start to review the bookmark changes via gerrit.

schappim 10y ago

Am I the only one who has started to use the Hacker News "favourite" feature as a make shift bookmarking service? I've found that I now actually submit links I want to save...

stevekemp 10y ago
Many of the things I bookmark wouldn't be interesting to this audience, so it'd feel a bit abusive to try.

paradite 10y ago

Oh no, I am so interested in this but the demo is not loading. Why not host it using GitHub pages instead of your own server to handle more traffic?

stevekemp 10y ago
I'd be interesting in seeing how it is failing for you? Timeout, or something else? As far as I can see the server is up and running on both IPv4 & IPv6. Load is low, and I see no failures logged. Edit added to github pages: * http://skx.github.io/bookmarks.public/ http://skx.github.io/bookmarks.public/
- paradite 10y ago
  $ ping www.steve.org.uk PING www.steve.org.uk (80.68.84.111): 56 data bytes Request timeout for icmp_seq 0 Request timeout for icmp_seq 1 Request timeout for icmp_seq 2 $ nslookup www.steve.org.uk Server: 8.8.8.8 Address: 8.8.8.8#53 Non-authoritative answer: Name: www.steve.org.uk Address: 80.68.84.111 $ traceroute www.steve.org.uk traceroute to www.steve.org.uk (80.68.84.111), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets 1 192.168.0.254 (192.168.0.254) 1.155 ms 14.610 ms 2.999 ms 2 * * * 3 * * * 4 * * * Looks like something wrong with my network but other sites working fine.
diimdeep 10y ago
It is broken when external jQuery blocked by uMatrix

AstroJetson 10y ago

I run a personal wiki (that gets me version control) that I've written a bookmarklet for. It asks for the page to place the entry on (default is Bookmark), location on the page (top is default for Bookmark, bottom is default for others) and the entry (default is the title of the page I'm on). It then makes an entry on the page as a bullet entry so I can tell that it's a bookmark. This allows me to quickly bookmark items and have some level of order to them as I'm saving them away.

patrickdavey 10y ago
I must look into bookmarklets. They can write to disk then? I also use a wiki synced in dropbox. I wrote a hacky Android app that links into all the sharing dialogs so I can share a link into my wiki super easily. But I like the idea of both the shell command talked about in a different comment, and your bookmarklet. One wiki to rule them all, and in the darkness find them ;)
- ChoGGi 10y ago
  A bookmarklet is just javascript running under the website instance (pretty sure they can't write to disk). They are useful for manipulating websites. kinda like tampermonkey, but they only run when you click them. Add a bookmark with javascript:alert('hello'); Though it's usually best to keep an expanded version elsewhere and copy it over when you update it (else it'll be stored as a one liner).
  - patrickdavey 10y ago
    Right, that's what I thought.. I'd just misunderstood that the bookmarklet was writing somewhere. I might just write a bookmarklet that does a POST to somewhere that'll write to a Dropbox backed wiki page... I'd just like to have everything in one place..
- AstroJetson 10y ago
  The bookmarklet does a post to the wiki in the same way that a user would edit the page. The new info is either at the beginning (top) or at the end (bottom) of the page text. javascript:%20void(ppage=prompt("Page%20?","Bookmark"));%20void(t=prompt("comment%20?",document.title));if%20(ppage=="Bookmark"){pp="top"}%20else%20{pp="bottom"};%20void(w=prompt("top,bottom?",pp));%20void(x="http://mywkiki.com/updater?page="+ppage+"&text="+escape("*%20["%20+%20t%20+%20"|"%20+%20location.href%20+%20"]")%20+"&action="+w);%20void(window.open(x,"Bookmark","height=400,width=640,scrollbars,resizable"));

amelius 10y ago

I'd like to store the content of the webpages as well, in case they are taken offline.

diimdeep 10y ago

Anyone else think that current browsers using NETSCAPE-Bookmark-file-1 for exporting bookmarks is really archaic https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa753582(v=vs.85).aspx https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa753582(v=vs.85).a...

diimdeep 10y ago

It reminded me TiddlyWiki with exception that external data file being used.

jflowers45 10y ago

I've never heard it referred to as revision control - I always hear "version control" or even "source control". Any difference? Is that a common phrase?

stevekemp 10y ago
It's common, or at least understandable, just a little dated. Mostly the people who use say/write it do so because they were exposed to RCS ("Revision Control System"), before they moved on to CVS.

pasbesoin 10y ago

The better part of 20 years ago, Kaylon sold their shareware / try-it-and-buy-it bookmark manager Powermarks. I've yet to come across anything as useful as it was. Cross-browser, automated keyword extraction and indexing that could be supplemented by the user, lightning fast search against spaced plain text and fragment entries. Other features, as well, to aid in link management and maintenance. By contrast, browsers' built-in bookmark management still sucks.

dbg31415 10y ago

* Xmarks | Bookmark Sync and Search || https://www.xmarks.com/ https://www.xmarks.com/ Little dated, but still works great across browsers and devices.

Warp__ 10y ago

Looks very interesting. Just IMHO, a little bit of CSS setting a max page width and a sans-serif font would be worth it.

arvind_devaraj 10y ago

Very interesting. Bookmarks solve a particular problem of finding information that was already visited. A more general problem is a designing a personal knowledge base. There are lot of hints in this page about PKB and some of them can be applied to bookmarking as well http://www.acuriousmix.com/2014/09/03/designing-a-personal-knowledgebase/ http://www.acuriousmix.com/2014/09/03/designing-a-personal-k... I created a personal curation system - Hyperbook, http://getbook.co http://getbook.co . It arose out of the need to store reference materials while writing my thesis. There seems to be lot of people working on similar ideas, which shows the market need and lack of existing products which address them. I sense there is a great startup/product coming in this space soon.