4 ms·

I completely disagree. If the built-in bookmark systems in browsers could support tags, then I would say yes. However, it currently only supports a basic tree

I completely disagree. If the built-in bookmark systems in browsers could support tags, then I would say yes. However, it currently only supports a basic tree concept, with "folders" for links. This is very one dimensional. I read loads of articles that talks about multiple topics. Especially Hacker News type articles :). An article can talk about, say geo-politics. As an example, perhaps an article on the recent pagers that exploded in Lebenon. This article may also be discussing some cybersecurity topics too. In this case I may want to tag it with 1->n tags. I currently use Raindrop.io. It kinda works, but it doesn't really have what I have in mind. It also has more features than I think I need from a bookmarking app. I kinda feel that Digg (wayback, it was one of the first 'Web 2.0' sites had a model that could work. If I had enough motivation, I think I could probably produce a simple app that does tagging, and only tagging, with bookmarks.

budafish 2y ago
I use Linking. It's quite good and actually being developed. https://linkding.link/ https://linkding.link/
- CRConrad 2y ago
  You might be missing a German pun there. Dunno if the thing was built by Germans, but the d you missed in the name makes it look like it might be: LinkDing means LinkTHing in English, not "Linking".
- rantingdemon 2y ago
  This looks very interesting. Thank you for the link. It doesn't support Safari as far as I can see. An extension for Safari (especially on IOS), is quite important. This is perhaps only for me, because my general workflow tends to be quickly scanning a couple of articles that I would want to read later, and I would like to easily bookmark them from Safari. Secondly, its self-hosted only. This is perhaps not so bad - it just means I have to put some thought into where I would host it. But again, thank you so much for linking linkding :). I am definately quite interested in trying it out.
MatthiasPortzel 2y ago
On paper, tagging is objectively better for the reasons you describe. But in my experience, the human brain has an intuition for location and object-permanence which is confused by having the same thing in multiple places.
- tconfrey 2y ago
  ^This!^ With my app, BrainTool ( https://braintool.org https://braintool.org ), I emphasize a visual hierarchy, but also allow notes and full text incremental searching across all saved content. Along with comprehensive keyboard commands, this enables a workflow where you can start typing what you are looking for, iterate through matches and then hit enter when you find it to open in a new tab, tabgroup or window.
Liquid_Fire 2y ago
Not sure about other browsers, but Firefox's built-in bookmarks support tags - no need for external apps.
- rantingdemon 2y ago
  I would like to give Firefox a try. I currently use only Chrome/Edge/Safari. Let me check if it works in IOS.
- westurner 2y ago
  Firefox can store bookmark tags, but they don't save with the bookmark export without reading the SQLite database with a different tool: "Allow reading and writing bookmark tags" (9 years ago) https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1225916 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1225916 With bookmarks as JSONLD Linked Data, it's simple to JOIN with additional data about a given URI. The WebExtensions Bookmark API does not yet support tags.
  - discardedrefuse 2y ago
    Not only that...but Firefox Mobile doesn't support tags either!
  - cxr 2y ago
    Firefox's bookmarks manager exports tags just fine (whether to JSON or the bookmarks.html format). WebExtension APIs are a completely separate issue.
    - westurner 2y ago
      Ah my mistake
josephernest 2y ago
But this file-based bookmarking system totally support tags :) Example: - Let's say you bookmark my article https://afewthingz.com/browserbookmark - drag and drop => it creates a file "The best browser bookmarking system is already built-in.url" - you rename this file into "The best browser bookmarking system is already built-in #tag1 #tag2 #productivity.url" in 2 seconds - later when searching, you search with query="bookmarking #productivity", bam, you find it with tag "productivity" :) You can put all .url files in a single folder with "#tags" in the filename. It works exactly like a tagging system, no more, no less.
- CRConrad 2y ago
  Sounds clunky as all fuck.
discardedrefuse 2y ago
Every once in a while I go down this bookmark rabbit hole. Tags is the correct solution (for all the reasons your mentioned). I hate the standard folder / tree based bookmark system that browsers and most 3rd party bookmark managers use. Firefox supports tags, but Firefox Mobile doesn't. Raindrop is clunky as hell. And...for along time, that was it. Luckily, a few years ago I discovered xBrowserSync, which turned out to be exactly what I'd been looking for. It's a stupidly simple tag only based system that syncs across devices. The browser extension makes bookmarking easy. Your data is locally encrypted then synced. It has a phone app. It's open source. And I can self host a server if I want to. There is no "organizing" or sorting of anything. Bookmarks live almost ethereally in the plugin (tho they actually live in your browser's built-in bookmark manager too...but we never need to visit that place). My only concern is that it hasn't been updated in forever (not that it's ever been broken for me). But I fear the day it does break and wonder if anyone will be around to fix it. Someone in the comments below mentioned Linkding, which looks like it could work (if the browser extension or bookmarklet turn out to be mobile friendly). I'm definitely going to give that a run and see how it fits. Anyways, enough shilling for xBS (I swear I'm not affiliated with them). Good luck in your search.

budafish 2y ago

I use Linking. It's quite good and actually being developed. https://linkding.link/ https://linkding.link/

CRConrad 2y ago
You might be missing a German pun there. Dunno if the thing was built by Germans, but the d you missed in the name makes it look like it might be: LinkDing means LinkTHing in English, not "Linking".
rantingdemon 2y ago
This looks very interesting. Thank you for the link. It doesn't support Safari as far as I can see. An extension for Safari (especially on IOS), is quite important. This is perhaps only for me, because my general workflow tends to be quickly scanning a couple of articles that I would want to read later, and I would like to easily bookmark them from Safari. Secondly, its self-hosted only. This is perhaps not so bad - it just means I have to put some thought into where I would host it. But again, thank you so much for linking linkding :). I am definately quite interested in trying it out.

MatthiasPortzel 2y ago

On paper, tagging is objectively better for the reasons you describe. But in my experience, the human brain has an intuition for location and object-permanence which is confused by having the same thing in multiple places.

tconfrey 2y ago
^This!^ With my app, BrainTool ( https://braintool.org https://braintool.org ), I emphasize a visual hierarchy, but also allow notes and full text incremental searching across all saved content. Along with comprehensive keyboard commands, this enables a workflow where you can start typing what you are looking for, iterate through matches and then hit enter when you find it to open in a new tab, tabgroup or window.

Liquid_Fire 2y ago

Not sure about other browsers, but Firefox's built-in bookmarks support tags - no need for external apps.

rantingdemon 2y ago
I would like to give Firefox a try. I currently use only Chrome/Edge/Safari. Let me check if it works in IOS.
westurner 2y ago
Firefox can store bookmark tags, but they don't save with the bookmark export without reading the SQLite database with a different tool: "Allow reading and writing bookmark tags" (9 years ago) https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1225916 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1225916 With bookmarks as JSONLD Linked Data, it's simple to JOIN with additional data about a given URI. The WebExtensions Bookmark API does not yet support tags.
- discardedrefuse 2y ago
  Not only that...but Firefox Mobile doesn't support tags either!
- cxr 2y ago
  Firefox's bookmarks manager exports tags just fine (whether to JSON or the bookmarks.html format). WebExtension APIs are a completely separate issue.
  - westurner 2y ago
    Ah my mistake

josephernest 2y ago

But this file-based bookmarking system totally support tags :) Example: - Let's say you bookmark my article https://afewthingz.com/browserbookmark - drag and drop => it creates a file "The best browser bookmarking system is already built-in.url" - you rename this file into "The best browser bookmarking system is already built-in #tag1 #tag2 #productivity.url" in 2 seconds - later when searching, you search with query="bookmarking #productivity", bam, you find it with tag "productivity" :) You can put all .url files in a single folder with "#tags" in the filename. It works exactly like a tagging system, no more, no less.

CRConrad 2y ago
Sounds clunky as all fuck.

discardedrefuse 2y ago

Every once in a while I go down this bookmark rabbit hole. Tags is the correct solution (for all the reasons your mentioned). I hate the standard folder / tree based bookmark system that browsers and most 3rd party bookmark managers use. Firefox supports tags, but Firefox Mobile doesn't. Raindrop is clunky as hell. And...for along time, that was it. Luckily, a few years ago I discovered xBrowserSync, which turned out to be exactly what I'd been looking for. It's a stupidly simple tag only based system that syncs across devices. The browser extension makes bookmarking easy. Your data is locally encrypted then synced. It has a phone app. It's open source. And I can self host a server if I want to. There is no "organizing" or sorting of anything. Bookmarks live almost ethereally in the plugin (tho they actually live in your browser's built-in bookmark manager too...but we never need to visit that place). My only concern is that it hasn't been updated in forever (not that it's ever been broken for me). But I fear the day it does break and wonder if anyone will be around to fix it. Someone in the comments below mentioned Linkding, which looks like it could work (if the browser extension or bookmarklet turn out to be mobile friendly). I'm definitely going to give that a run and see how it fits. Anyways, enough shilling for xBS (I swear I'm not affiliated with them). Good luck in your search.