23 ms·

Mozilla to shut down Pocket and Fakespot

• smcleod 1y ago
  I think this is good, I'd like to see more side projects that don't directly relate to the core web browser shutdown in favour of browser performance, compliance and feature parity.
• saos 1y ago
  Damn, I'm a user and sad about this. Whats alternative?
• manav 1y ago
  What is a good alternative?
  • VoxPelli 1y ago
    Readwise Reader, paid service from a bootstrapped company, kind of ensures it won’t randomly kill the product Also: They are users of their own product
• nubinetwork 1y ago
  Just in time for them to shove more crypto and ai into a bloody web browser...
• pavel_lishin 1y ago
  I'm strangely sad about this, even though this became yet another place for my bookmarks to go to die.
  • dylan604 1y ago
    did anyone ever offer a method of detecting link rot in bookmarks automagically? i gave up on using bookmarks a very long time ago after finding so many links no longer working.
    • amlib 1y ago
      Not automatically but when you open a dead link you can ease the pain by using an extension such as "page archive" [1] to quickly search an archive such as the wayback machine and perhaps get something useful out of it. I've always wished a browser such Firefox would extend bookmarks as an offline archive of all links you add to it. Your own personal wayback machine perhaps. [1] https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/view-page-archive/ https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/view-page-archive/
• deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
• mouse_ 1y ago
  One less thing to disable and hide on every new installation is a win.
  • serf 1y ago
    that's what I thought. I was against the integration and had to make efforts ever since that inappropriate cash-grab. Glad to see it's dead. I wish Mozilla would find the funding to stick to being a good browser rather than this current phenomena of waiting to see what the next shitty thing they do to the software is.
    • hooverd 1y ago
      There's no money in being a good browser and a minority will scream at any attempt for Mozilla to make money other than donations.
  • dripton 1y ago
    Check out LibreWolf and see if its defaults come closer to what you want. For me, it's better. I still have to modify a few settings, but not nearly as many as with vanilla Firefox.
• deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
• candiddevmike 1y ago
  They bought pocket for at least 5 million, what a waste of money.
  • dralley 1y ago
    Pocket was revenue positive for a while, they probably still made money on it.
  • rwmj 1y ago
    Compared to the other ways Mozilla has set money on fire while taking its eye off the ball, $5 million is immaterial really.
    • onli 1y ago
      It's significantly less than the ceo salary, albeit the yearly one.
  • kristofferR 1y ago
    $5 million is pocket change.
    • jujube3 1y ago
      No, it's Pocket change. Which could be better spent on the CEO's salary! https://www.reddit.com/r/browsers/comments/18b6tdp/mozilla_ceo_received_69m_salary_in_2022_a_2m/ https://www.reddit.com/r/browsers/comments/18b6tdp/mozilla_c...
• toomuchtodo 1y ago
  https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/building-whats-next/ https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/building-whats-next/
  • JaggedJax 1y ago
    Thank you for the link. I didn't realize Fakespot is also getting shut down. I guess these acquisitions didn't work out so well profit-wise, but it's good to see more focus on their core browser.
  • icpmoles 1y ago
    The "Save to Pocket" button at the bottom is a nice touch.
• acjohnson55 1y ago
  Damn, this one really hurts. I've been a massive user since Read It Later. I used to get year-in-review emails telling me I was in the top 1% of users. For a period of several years, I read an astounding amount via Pocket. It is very tightly intertwined with my time on HN, as most headlines I'm interested in get immediately saved to Pocket. My usage dropped a lot when I stopped commuting via the subway (where offline was critical), and a lot of my media consumption switched to podcasts, over time. I always thought Pocket could have gone multimedia, and in a world in which they supported podcasts, I would have loved to have everything in one spot. Newsletters, too. But, I'm not surprised that the end has come, considering they stayed in their lane. Also, if the Google default search gravy train is about to disappear, this is one of the consequences. The idea that Tab Groups are a replacement is laughable. I wonder if this is the sort of thing that could live on as a community project?
  • huhkerrf 1y ago
    Your experience and mine is almost exactly the same, down to the subway being the place where I used Pocket the most.
  • dzonga 1y ago
    given mozilla makes a fantastic email client - thunderbird - you would think they would have made pocket multimedia but alas
• foray1010 1y ago
  Seems Obsidian Web Clipper is a good alternative, it can save as markdown so you own the data offline. Anyone tried it? What is your experience?
  • acjohnson55 1y ago
    I haven't tried it, but I have used Notion Web Clipper. It works, but the experience is nowhere near the same.
  • packetlost 1y ago
    I use it pretty extensively. Aside from being a pretty poor experience on mobile (it straight up can't be used on iOS at all, works ok on Android), it's the best web clipper I've used. I really wish they would integrate the functionality into Obsidian itself, though I think there are technical limitations with it.
    • gareim 1y ago
      I literally just used Obsidian Web Clipper on iOS+Safari.
  • linusrg 1y ago
    I do use it, on Desktop only. On mobile I still use Pocket only. Actually I use an Obsidian plugin to sync my Pocket saves into Obsidian. That plugin might be a great backup/way-out strategy for Pocket users.
  • MogwaiAllOnYou 1y ago
    It isn't available on mobile AFAIK, which is like my primary use for pocket etc., saving links to later read on my laptop
    • theyinwhy 1y ago
      https://apps.apple.com/app/obsidian-web-clipper/id6720708363?l=en-GB https://apps.apple.com/app/obsidian-web-clipper/id6720708363... Alternative is using iOS share with Obsidian.
• vinayan3 1y ago
  I'm very sad about this. The one feature that I really like is that you could read articles offline. Any good alternatives? (saves this HN post to Pocket to come back to it later to see replies)
  • frereubu 1y ago
    I've been using Instapaper for years and have always been very happy with it.
    • bthdonohue 1y ago
      Glad to hear :-)
    • subpixel 1y ago
      I’m so happy with Instapaper I have no idea what other apps have to offer. See, save, read later - I’m sorted.
  • podgietaru 1y ago
    If you like Self-Hosting - Omnivore is still a fantastic product. And the iOS app has been recently fixed to work with Self-Hosting! https://github.com/omnivore-app/omnivore https://github.com/omnivore-app/omnivore
• deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
• brycewray 1y ago
  I had submitted the Mozilla blog post about this and Fakespot (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44063930 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44063930) but this submission seems to have received the traction. I added a comment to my submission pointing here.
  • altairprime 1y ago
    Email the mods about this and they can cleanup and merge the dupes.
    • brycewray 1y ago
      Well, there aren't any dupes. :-) But thanks.
      • ImPostingOnHN 1y ago
        Weren't you saying you had a submission that was a dupe (a different post about the same news) of this one?
        • brycewray 1y ago
          Yes. I guess what I meant to say was that my submission was almost totally ignored and, thus, really wasn't worth any effort on the part of the HN mods.
• hrnnnnnn 1y ago
  I use pocket all the time to save articles to read on my kobo, which has a pretty good first-party integration in the OS. I wonder what Rakuten are going to do.
  • linusrg 1y ago
    Oh yeah forgot about the kobo integration, I use that so much! That is going to be missed
  • gobblegobble2 1y ago
    Same and it's my favourite Kobo feature. I hope Mozilla releases Pocket source code for people willing to self-host it. Kobos are highly hackable and I'm sure the community will find a way to change getpocket.com domain in the built-in Pocket app, even if Rakuten chooses not to provide this option.
  • ghishadow 1y ago
    I wonder if Rakuten can buy pocket from mozilla, their integration is so good
  • OliveMate 1y ago
    I'm not one for external services piggybacked onto other software, but the ability to quickly send something to my Kobo has been a godsend. edit: I had no idea Mozilla actually bought Pocket. Mental that they're willing to shut it down
• _tqr3 1y ago
  I used Pocket until they remove the ability to save page as offline (moved to premium tier afak) and also shoving sponsored content here and there. I switched to Raindrop, and the free-tier is more than ~~useless~~ useful to me. [1]Raindrop.io
  • NAHWheatCracker 1y ago
    > I switched to Raindrop, and the free-tier is more than useless to me. Low bar to hit.
    • _tqr3 1y ago
      Oops a typo. Adding to that, all i want is a download current page to read offline, sort of like pdf (embedded image and styles) but on reading mode.
      • pablomalo 1y ago
        If that's all you need, you could try the SingleFile browser extension. Works great on mobile, too. https://github.com/gildas-lormeau/SingleFile https://github.com/gildas-lormeau/SingleFile
  • rmwaite 1y ago
    I’ve been using Raindrop and have used the Permanent Copy (offline) feature enough that I wouldn’t consider doing without it. It’s worth every penny if you ask me. And you can host it yourself AFAIK, I just haven’t looked into it much.
  • teddyh 1y ago
    > I switched to Raindrop, and the free-tier is more than ~~useless~~ useful to me. HN does not support whatever markup you are trying to use. You have to use Unicode: “I switched to Raindrop, and the free-tier is more than u̶s̶e̶l̶e̶s̶s̶ useful to me.”
• _def 1y ago
  > Your export file will include links (URLs) of your saved items. The export does not extract the text of saved links. Additionally, the export does not contain tags or highlights. boo! without the tags, the links will be mostly useless for me. Every now and then I thought aboyt switching to some self-hosted solution. Should've done it sooner... and I will never trust Mozilla with any service again.
  • chimeracoder 1y ago
    > and I will never trust Mozilla with any service again. Who will you trust? Google? Apple? Microsoft? It's not like any of the other behemoths have a better track record when it comes to long-term maintenance and availability of hosted consumer products. If anything, Mozilla actually has the best track record out of them all when it comes to long-term offerings.
    • walterbell 1y ago
      > Who will you trust? Your-self-hosted?
      • reaperducer 1y ago
        Your-self-hosted? Only if you're among the .0001% of people who can code it yourself. Otherwise, nothing is different; you're always relying on someone else for their software, feature, security, and compatibility updates.
        • walterbell 1y ago
          Are we on Hacker News?
          • 4ndrewl 1y ago
            Yeah, bit weird - surely the population of HN is either going to be - people who _can_ code it themselves, or - people who believe they can get AI to code it for them
• testfrequency 1y ago
  Super bummed about this. I know a surprising number of high profile CEOs and founders who live by Pocket, really has just been quietly reliable and simple way to reserve content for later. Despite there being so many other $apps that can fill the gap here, none of them seem to be as clean and straightforward as Pocket has been for me. Anyone here paying for Matter or Readwise? I know Instapaper may seem to be the obvious migration path, but since my landlord is kicking me out, maybe it’s time I move to a more robust solution.
  • dlojudice 1y ago
    > Anyone here paying for Matter or Readwise? I know Instapaper may seem to be the obvious migration path, but since my landlord is kicking me out, maybe it’s time I move to a more robust solution. I'd love to know where to migrate my Pocket data. The funny thing is that I had "Migrate Pocket" on my calendar for June 30th. And are you serious that the exported data doesn't have the tags? Really? I wonder how a database like this has no value, especially with the customization power brought by AI. Didn't Mozilla think about selling the product?
    • dustincoates 1y ago
      I exported my data, and tags were there.
    • deleted 1y ago
      [deleted]
  • 0_____0 1y ago
    I have been using Obsidian Web Clipper to save stuff to read later. If you already use Obsidian it's worth a shot. It's not perfect but it does a reasonable job of translating articles etc. into markdown. I don't actually know if it saves images locally, I suspect not (which is probably a pretty big weakness)
    • jrks11o 1y ago
      it saves images locally in your vault edit: sorry, the clipper links them
• saadatq 1y ago
  switched from Pocket to Readwise Reader last year, haven’t looked back. It’s a paid app ($10/month) but totally worth it IMO
• wenbin 1y ago
  One issue I've had with read-it-later apps is that I end up accumulating far too many articles and never actually reading them. Now my approach is simple: if I see something I want to read, I either read it immediately or never.
  • wenbin 1y ago
    There could be a better system (for me): a read-it-later app with a strict limit—say, 3 or 5 slots. If it's full and you add a new article, the oldest one gets automatically deleted to make room. That way, you always have something to read, but never feel overwhelmed by an endless backlog.
  • lastofthemojito 1y ago
    For me, this is just browser tabs. Modern browsers seem to do a good enough job with both persisting tab state between sessions and not expending tons of resources on idle tabs. So I just pop the article of interest up in a new tab and leave it there until I get back to it.
  • rs186 1y ago
    If you ever take a train (those where everyone has a seat) or flight, those are long hours perfect for reading.
• poisonborz 1y ago
  Saving links and offline reading is dime a dozen nowadays, but the one BIG feature was recommended articles, which basically opened the reading list of the world and you could read extremely interesting longform articles based on your list. It was the best magazine you could imagine. But I guess it required maintenance and moderation so they axed it - in the typical fashion of an acquired product I might say. I still wish for something like this with privacy in mind and community maintained.
  • aspenmayer 1y ago
    You might be able to scrape archive sites or create search queries that you use to determine fresh or trending archives or domains?
    • poisonborz 1y ago
      I think it's really hard to replicate the "people save this article for later" pedigree without actually having this information.
      • aspenmayer 1y ago
        True, there are a lot of bots that use Internet Archive, which is probably the easiest to scrape. Maybe ask Jason Scott of Archive Team if he has any ideas for how to use IA and other archives for this purpose, and for ideas about how else to get this data? I think Instapaper was another solution in this space that may have the info you want. Maybe ask on some data hoarder subreddits about how to find new content that’s relevant to your interests with existing social proof? I can see how the data from Pocket would have made that a lot easier for you, but finding a quick solution may be difficult. I think Apple News has a bit of social components around surfacing popular content, but that is not the same as user generated content indicating interest in a specific site, which is your goal. Are you familiar with MetaFilter? There a community that might have some insight into your question, as they’re like HN but somewhat more crunchy and broadly less technical, but very human. Asking around other communities, you might find some suggestions. Please let me know if you find a solution because this is an interesting problem, and I would probably be just as interested in the solution.
• sureste 1y ago
  Everytime people talked about Mozilla or Firefox the main complaint was Pocket. Everytime. Yet most people here are sad to see it go. What gives?
  • kstrauser 1y ago
    There are lots of people with different opinions on the same subject, and not all of them speak up in the same conversations.
  • advisedwang 1y ago
    Some people hated pocket, and would complain about it. Different people liked pocket and are commenting here. The community has people with different viewpoints, and you are seeing different people's comments on different stories (either because different people are commenting or because different comments are getting voted to be visible).
    • interestica 1y ago
      Nicely articulated. I think their comment encapsulates the disbelief people have about public opinions that differ from their own political viewpoints (and the aspects that had been amplified within their own media/algorithmic bubble).
    • frollogaston 1y ago
      I hated pocket being enabled by default, that's all. I also think a lot of people saw it as adware/spyware even if it technically didn't work that way, which tbh I'm unsure of. That doesn't mean I wanted it dead. I was happy for the feature to exist and for others to use it. Maybe some people were angry that they even wasted a few KB downloading the extra code for a feature they won't use, but I'd be ok with it.
  • Y_Y 1y ago
    I think it's consistent to be annoyed that they went and bought something and shoved it into everyone's browser, but also that they're taking away a service that people have come to depend on.
• kstrauser 1y ago
  Crap. My Kobo Libra supports Pocket as its only built-in way to get articles onto the device. I use GoodLinks to store links I like, and have a Shortcut that copies new articles from GoodLinks to Pocket. If I’m reading something interesting but long, I bookmark it, and that evening it’s on my ereader waiting for me. It’s a nice setup. I’ll miss it. There’s not a great replacement, either. Even if I create a GoodLinks-to-epub pipe or something, now all those articles will be mixed in with my books and magazines. I don’t want to have to pick through a hundred random articles to find the next book I want to read. Mozilla, hear me out: what if, just what it, you drop some of the AI stuff you’re blowing cash on that people who use Firefox often actively dislike? Could you shave a percent off that and use it to fund Pocket instead?
• aspenmayer 1y ago
  Replying to deleted comment by jsheard: > Mozilla never did reveal how much they paid for Pocket, did they? They raised a series B for $5M if that helps ballpark it for you.
• _def 1y ago
  Related: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43856801 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43856801
  • _def 1y ago
    oh, this wasn't actually what I wanted to link to. I had this one in mind: https://www.linkace.org/ https://www.linkace.org/
• AdmiralAsshat 1y ago
  Well, crap. I've had a Pocket account for more than ten years. It's a key feature on my Kobo devices, to boot. I hope Kobo manages to find some alternative provider for similar functionality, rather than just dropping it altogether. EDIT: Oh, and worth noting that this product will officially die before Mozilla fulfills its promise to open source it, back when they acquired Pocket. Thanks, guys.
  • cosmic_cheese 1y ago
    Pocket has pretty much exclusively been a, “send article to Kobo” button for me thanks to the integration. I doubt my now-ancient Aura One will be getting a firmware update to replace Pocket, unfortunately. Might be time to either look at alternative firmwares or see if Rakuten does trade-ins on newer models.
  • goku12 1y ago
    I use KOReader [1] on my Kobo. It supports Wallabag [2]. Wallabag offers both hosted [3] and self-hosted options. There's also a standalone kobo client for Wallabag [4]. In addition, Wallabag also supports direct import from Pocket. [1] https://koreader.rocks/ https://koreader.rocks/ [2] https://wallabag.org/ https://wallabag.org/ [3] https://www.wallabag.it/en https://www.wallabag.it/en [4] https://gitlab.com/anarcat/wallabako https://gitlab.com/anarcat/wallabako
    • gobblegobble2 1y ago
      This is amazing. Thank you!
    • hiq 1y ago
      Thanks, just set it up via koreader that I already had installed. Any opinion on using wallabako vs koreader? koreader might involve some more steps to sync it looks like?
      • goku12 1y ago
        It has been a while since I used Wallabag on KOReader and I have no experience using wallabako (that project wasn't around when I tried Wallabag). But seeing that you're already using KOReader, I don't expect either of them to present a challenge to you. As far as I remember, using Wallabag on KOReader, including sync was simple enough. The only issue I have with Wallabag is that it reduces the battery supported time significantly. This isn't a big issue in my case, but a longer backup would be nice. However, others have reported that they don't suffer the problem to the same magnitude. Perhaps wallabako can reduce that power usage when KOReader can be exited.
• waschl 1y ago
  Any good alternatives which can import my pocket data?
  • VoxPelli 1y ago
    Readwise Reader should be a great option
• kirubakaran 1y ago
  I'd love for everyone to move to https://histre.com/ https://histre.com/ :-) (which I built)
• ortusdux 1y ago
  I really enjoyed https://waldenpond.press/ https://waldenpond.press/ when it was up and running. They selected articles from your pocket once a month and then printed, bound, and mailed them to you. When I discovered the service I had a 500 hour reading backlog, and for $14/mo I was getting 100+ page books of self-curated content. They were perfect for flights, trips, and lending out. I was able to force it to include recipes as well, and I still find myself referencing them frequently.
  • kstrauser 1y ago
    If I’d have known about them sooner, they’d have all my money.
    • aftergibson 1y ago
      I had the same thought! I've been attempted to cobble together a solution to do essentially this over the years!
  • huhkerrf 1y ago
    I would have absolutely loved this. I would love for someone to do this with Substack or podcast transcripts.
    • ruibiks 1y ago
      [dead]
  • Mistletoe 1y ago
    Wow this is so neat.
  • cavejay 1y ago
    Also a previous user of waldenpress - it was amazing to have the pocket backlog made so tangible. Now that pocket is packing up, it'll make it even more difficult for WP to re-start.
    • 1y ago
• uxcolumbo 1y ago
  They should at least allow to download their copy of the saved articles, PDF or HTML or whatever format they save it in. This is such a betrayal. Some old links might not exist anymore, so it's useless to only get the links. EDIT: Betrayal, because the main reason I paid for Pocket was the archiving of articles and now I can't actually export the archived copies. Their decision of not enabling export of the archived copies now makes it very unlikely that I'll ever pay for any of their paid services in the future. A shame really because I like supporting Firefox as a browser.
  • gxqoz 1y ago
    I think doing this would expose how poorly they've actually saved their copies of articles. Pocket has always had a very funny definition of "permanent copy" which doesn't mean what you think it does! I'm a little saddened by their demise but the service has been so terrible for so long that I've long since moved to the much superior Readwise.
  • cuillevel3 1y ago
    I totally agree. A forever home for your collection. Pocket becomes your permanent library—so even if a page you've saved is taken down, you'll still have a copy of it in Pocket That's what I paid for. I trusted in Mozilla being open and allowing me to take my data with me. This is worse than Google?
• dankobgd 1y ago
  I guess good that i never used it and it was the first thing to disable from policies.json
• asadotzler 1y ago
  ~90% of HN commenters who mentioned Pocket in the last decade or so have been complaining about Mozilla's wasted effort on Pocket and how no one asked for it and how it was just another Mozilla "scam" and now that it's being removed, ~90% of the comments are "sad" and "I used it a lot."
  • cosmic_cheese 1y ago
    The two opinions aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive. I used and enjoyed Pocket, but never paid a dime for it so I can’t imagine that Mozilla made much if any money off of me. That’s probably true for most users, and as such it’s not difficult to imagine that Pocket ended up being a bad purchase for Mozilla in terms of diversifying income.
    • zimpenfish 1y ago
      > I used and enjoyed Pocket, but never paid a dime for it I did subscribe to Pocket Premium for a while but it wasn't really worth the money (plus they were being arseholes when I was asked for API support.)
  • jonas21 1y ago
    This is a perfectly reasonable distribution once you consider that only a small fraction of people who really care about something are motivated enough to comment about it. There's a small group who complain loudly about Pocket, a small group who are really sad to see it go, and probably a much larger group that either doesn't know what Pocket is or doesn't care enough to write a comment. It's important to keep this in mind when reading online discussions in general.
    • JohnFen 1y ago
      This. I'm in the "didn't really care either way" camp. Pocket was not something interesting or useful to me, but I could remove it from the UI so its existence also wasn't annoying to me.
  • hobs 1y ago
• ishanjain28 1y ago
  I was a premium user of pocket for almost a decade before mozilla bought it and I remained a user for another few years after the acquisition. Mozilla turned it into garbage that didn't even do it's job properly and it is a bit sad to see it shut down.
• xnx 1y ago
  Might save someone a few clicks: https://getpocket.com/export https://getpocket.com/export
• ghishadow 1y ago
  I am worried about Firefox Sync now, hope it survives
• fuomag9 1y ago
  Finally, it was so annoying in my browser
• temp0826 1y ago
  A little surprised to see the sadness regarding something that seemed to be universally scorned whenever it was brought up. I never tried it and don't really have an opinion, but why couldn't this functionality be created as an extension (possibly connecting to a 3rd party service? I don't know why that would be necessary. Can extensions throw stuff into firefox sync?)?
  • huhkerrf 1y ago
    An extension is what it was, before Firefox bought it. It's what it still is, on other browsers.
  • podgietaru 1y ago
    I used it to save things, and read it on multiple devices. The readability view was never my chief concern. There was also a period in the history of Pocket where they had influential people share their stories, and shared the top stories on the Web. It was these things that I loved about Pocket. It was a fairly easy way to get a view on the most interesting stories that other people were talking about. I have had such a hard time finding replacements for this workflow. I built an RSS Reader into Omnivore (Separate from their implementation) to try to emulate it, but it obviously wasn't the same. Pocket had a lot of potential, and in an era of fragmented media companies - and the paywalling of everything I really think there was an interesting business model around unifying things or acting as a quasi-publisher. It could have been so much, and in the end it just died. Mismanaged. It's a sad story.
  • yoavm 1y ago
    Yes, extensions can save into Firefox Sync.
• segphault 1y ago
  I was a user for so long that I was on it before it even rebranded as Pocket. I finally gave up on it last year, mostly due to frustration with the terrible 2023 redesign of the mobile app. When Mozilla made the unfathomable decision to become an internet advertising company, I figured it was just a matter of time before they had to put Pocket out to pasture. A product that's designed to strip ads from content for readability doesn't align with their new direction. I'd probably be applauding the decision to shut this down if I thought they were doing it to free up resources to increase their focus on the browser, but Mozilla seems to be institutionally committed to chasing its own demise, so I'm sure they will instead focus on AI integration and other stuff that nobody asked for. Meanwhile, Firefox is still missing proper support for a bunch of modern web features like view transitions and CSS anchor points that are available in every other browser.
  • 1oooqooq 1y ago
    missing features at this point is laudable. most features are useless design clutter (view transition being the poster child) or privacy nightmares pushed by google for their ad business (all the way back to full url referr to floc)
  • somethingor 1y ago
    > every other browser You can just say Chromium
    • zymhan 1y ago
      Safari exists, and is quite popular.
      • thayne 1y ago
        Safari only exist on Apple devices, and generally had even less features than Firefox.
        • skrtskrt 1y ago
          Kagi is starting to build their Orion browser which is WebKit-based for Linux as of this year. I never do anything close enough to the browser engine to know, but apparently devs like WebKit a lot?
• uxcolumbo 1y ago
  Are they going to refund money to Premium users who recently subscribed or renewed? EDIT: As pointed out below, it's covered in the link. "On July 8, 2025, Annual subscriptions will be cancelled and Annual users will receive a prorated refund automatically to the original payment method."
  • daveoc64 1y ago
    That is covered in the link.
• usernamed7 1y ago
  wow, i did not see this coming! /s But i think (hope) this is a good thing. Mozilla has been too distracted and needs to get their head in the game.
• huhkerrf 1y ago
  Truth be told, my relationship with Pocket has dipped significantly over the years. According to my email, I signed up for Read It Later in March of 2011, which coincided with the release of their Android beta. It was the first thing I installed on every new browser or phone, and for many years, my end of the year recap had me at the top 1% of readers. I'm not sure if I changed, the web did, or what, but I'm not sure I've saved anything to Pocket in 2025, and probably just a handful in 2024. But still, to Nate and the Read it Later/Pocket team. Thank you.
• xz18r 1y ago
  I have used Wallabag[0] for read-later articles for many years. Very happy about it. I host it on a VPS but they offer a paid instance[1] themselves for $9/y. And otherwise you can use something like Pikapods[2] which is also dirt cheap. [0] https://github.com/wallabag/wallabag https://github.com/wallabag/wallabag [1] https://www.wallabag.it/en https://www.wallabag.it/en [2] https://www.pikapods.com/apps https://www.pikapods.com/apps
  • benjaminoakes 1y ago
    Related bit from my other comment: > If you don't want to bother with self-hosting, there are some hosted options available: https://github.com/wallabag/wallabag/wiki/wallabag-ecosystem#hosted-servers https://github.com/wallabag/wallabag/wiki/wallabag-ecosystem...
• wslh 1y ago
  This hurts. I used pocket as a "read later" or "will not read now" tool. I think a smarter move in this context is to pass the product (even much simplified) to a company that can maintain it.
• frereubu 1y ago
  I've never used Pocket, so I can't comment on feature parity, but for people looking for an alternative I've been using Instapaper for years and have been very happy with it. The founders recently bought it back from Pinterest and have been making steady improvements.
  • jeromegv 1y ago
    Pinterest sold it in 2018. The founder is Marco Arment, he's not the one who bought it back. But yes, instapaper is still alive. https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/16/instapaper-is-leaving-pinterest-two-years-after-being-acquired/ https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/16/instapaper-is-leaving-pint...
    • frereubu 1y ago
      Ah, OK - I must have misread the bit about who bought it from Pinterest.
      • bthdonohue 1y ago
        It's me. For what it's worth I was involved with Instapaper at betaworks (after Marco sold it to betaworks), and Pinterest sold it back to me. Been 12 years with it now!
• marconey 1y ago
  I was a very heavy pocket user and loved it, but around 2019 they changed their Discover tab, so you could no longer see the source of the article. The pages were listed as ‘Pocket’ source, and they windowed the original article in a pocket page with ads
• gadrev 1y ago
  Pocket was very convenient to send random articles to my Kobo, which comes with a Pocket integration. Great for reading long blog posts and such, easier on the eyes. Will miss it.
• jamespo 1y ago
  Annoying, I used this. It seems self-hosted wallabag might be the way to go.
  • benjaminoakes 1y ago
    Perhaps cheaper? https://github.com/wallabag/wallabag/wiki/wallabag-ecosystem#hosted-servers https://github.com/wallabag/wallabag/wiki/wallabag-ecosystem...
• wilted-iris 1y ago
  I wonder if they’d be willing to sell it to the right group of folks. I’d love to have a community owned read it later service. Otherwise, we’re all on a never ending treadmill from one service to the next.
• littlestymaar 1y ago
  [flagged]
• jsbisviewtiful 1y ago
  Another day, yet another service that I used shut down. It does make one want to get better at programming and build one's own solutions since these multi-million and billion dollar companies are more concerned with shareholder value than their users.
• interestica 1y ago
  Kobo (ereader) + Pocket was always just an amazing and low friction combo. This blows.
  • sswatson 1y ago
    My first thought as well. I wonder what Kobo will do in response to this announcement.
    • timvdalen 1y ago
      Me too, I hope there will be a replacement with the same low friction. I've been using IFTTT with RSS feeds to add serialized stories to my Kobo as they release.
      • podgietaru 1y ago
        They should be able to change it with fairly minimal changes. I managed to modify some things to proxy articles from Omnivore to it, and the functionality remained largely the same across the two services. They'd have to implement some kind of login, but they they should just be able to build some kind of converter between whatever format and the format that is expected by the Kobo device.
      • xandrius 1y ago
        Could you share the flow if someone wanted to replicate it for their own Kobo?
        • timvdalen 1y ago
          Yes, but it currently depends on Pocket working. I have an RSS feed from RoyalRoad that new episodes come in on. Using IFTTT, I have an action set up to, whenever a new item comes in on that feed, add the _URL_ of it to my Pocket account. Then, Kobo just syncs the Pocket articles automatically, and the new episode is added.
  • marapuru 1y ago
• renegat0x0 1y ago
  There are a ton of bookmarking software, and good, and self-hosted. - karakeep - grimoire - omnivore - wallabag - linkwarden I myself use RSS reader / bookmark manager that I wrote [1]. Everything is open source. Even data [2] [3]. Links [1] https://github.com/rumca-js/Django-link-archive https://github.com/rumca-js/Django-link-archive [2] https://github.com/rumca-js/Internet-Places-Database https://github.com/rumca-js/Internet-Places-Database [3] https://github.com/rumca-js/RSS-Link-Database https://github.com/rumca-js/RSS-Link-Database
  • ravenical 1y ago
    omnivore got acquired, they shut down: https://web.archive.org/web/20250503155629/https://blog.omnivore.app/p/omnivore-is-joining-elevenlabs https://web.archive.org/web/20250503155629/https://blog.omni...
    • podgietaru 1y ago
      It is Self-Hostable. I worked on the self-hosting stuff. Follow the guide here if you're interested: https://github.com/omnivore-app/omnivore/blob/main/self-hosting/GUIDE.md https://github.com/omnivore-app/omnivore/blob/main/self-host...
  • burnte 1y ago
    I've been wanting a tool that does exactly one thing, keep the bookmarks of Firefox and Chrome synced on my local PC. I don't want collaboration, distributed, cloud first, SaaS, friends, notifications, tags, AI, or anything else. Any suggestions for a tool like that?
  • flkiwi 1y ago
    Don't forget Readeck. I've been super pleased with it. (Omnivore is dead btw.)
    • anonzzzies 1y ago
      Omnivore is open source, bit weird people insist on open source because 'future proof' and then when the commercial entity disappears, it's 'dead'. Why do people make their own instead of making an entity around what is already there if it was liked and open? Very much a validation for not open sourcing anyway. But then again, I cannot possibly use Obsidian or so because when they sell the place (not if, when), sure I have the open format, but not the nice tooling. I rather struggle with inferior open source products and contribute on those than having to go through these 'Google bought us, you have 2 months to export your data' kind of thing.
• 9283409232 1y ago
  They are also shuttering Fakespot which they acquired for an untold amount of money in 2023. Sounds like this little attempt at being "AI guardrails" is over.
• jbverschoor 1y ago
  Is there anything (preferabbly local-first, and sync with dropbox or any other service) that simply snips the article (preferably using simlar tech as "reader mode"), and something that supports other media? (youtube videos, instagram reels, etc)
• jlarocco 1y ago
  I feel bad saying I'm happy that they're shutting it down, but it should never have been built into the browser and forced on people. Focus on making a decent browser and let extensions be extensions.
• mattrighetti 1y ago
  (shameless plug) I didn’t like Pocket, so I worked on my own link archiver years ago [0]. UI inspired by HN, a list of links you saved + tags filtering. Plain and simple, less features but does the job for me. I’m actually looking for users to try it out as I have not yet publicized it that much. [0]: https://ulry.app https://ulry.app
  • deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
• hugocbp 1y ago
  So disappointed. I had such high hopes when Mozilla acquired them, specifically for the integration with Firefox. However, for years the design has been going the completely opposite direction of what I expected. The focus on more random content instead of my own articles is not what I wanted to see. Pocket is probably one of my oldest online accounts. I'll be sad to see it go but I guess it was already kind of dead for a few years now. Amazing opportunity here for a really simple and focused read later app to take the reigns.
• drooopy 1y ago
  Pocket and other similar services always ended up becoming a virtual junk drawer for me, as I was just hoarding content to consume when I have free time, but time never realyl freed itself up and content just kept pilling in. In the end, it just became one of those annoying things that I have to disable on a new installation of Firefox.
  • fdsjgfklsfd 1y ago
    I used the mediocre TTS to listen to text articles while driving.
• ndegruchy 1y ago
  I remember requesting the source code after they bought it[1]. They kept kicking the can down the road. It looks like they dumped everything in a monorepo on Github[2] which does nothing good for anyone. Seems like Mozilla is dead-set on grinding up any good will they get from users. [1]: https://discourse.mozilla.org/t/pocket-source-code/43686/11 https://discourse.mozilla.org/t/pocket-source-code/43686/11 [2]: https://github.com/Pocket/pocket-monorepo https://github.com/Pocket/pocket-monorepo
  • monocasa 1y ago
    What's wrong with a monorepo?
• lxgr 1y ago
  Ugh, and that only months after Omnivore (a really great FOSS "read it later" app) shut down. The one constant of "save your favorite articles and websites offline, forever" apps seems to be that they're... very much not forever. In my view, this not being a native, interoperable feature of web browsers is a failure of the web. I'll be able to listen to a podcast episode I've downloaded as an MP3 forever, and the same goes for ePub books (if they don't have DRM in any case) – so why is the same so hard for blog posts and articles?
  • eviks 1y ago
    You'll be able to read an article you save locally forever as well, that's the easy part
    • lxgr 1y ago
      Yes, but saving it locally is the hard/unergonomic part. There's the great SingleFile extension, but it doesn't always work, and it's a bit of a pain to do on mobile compared to just sending a page off to a reading app via the share sheet on iOS.
      • eviks 1y ago
        "unergonomic" exactly! But that's the same for an mp3 podcast episode! You can't easily save one on a mobile to auto-sync with your other computers and also allow highighting/tagging/syncing playback position/favorites. Ergonomic is precisely the core value proposition of all these services, "dumb" save has been possible for any such content since forever.
  • gnulinux 1y ago
    I just Ctrl+P print the reader mode output to PDF. Takes 1 second. I've been doing it for years and it works perfectly. I have articles I saved from a decade ago in Dropbox. I'm honestly surprised people use a whole app for such a trivial feature, but yeah it's fair to have special needs. For me, Firefox reader mode is all I need, and you can just save it as PDF.
• hiatus 1y ago
  How can we export the backups from premium version? Let me guess—we can only export the URLs.
  • cuillevel3 1y ago
    Indeed: title,url,time_added,tags,status I guess I'll have to write a scraper to download the permanent copies?
    • hiatus 1y ago
      I'm screwed because many of the articles in my pocket no longer exist.
• saeedesmaili 1y ago
  This really hurts. All my content consumption workflow depends on Pocket, I shortlist from my rss reader (inoreader) directly into pocket, then ot gets synced with readwise reader automatically where I listen to the chosen articles [1]. I also use my pocket account's archive as a collection of the articles and writings I have liked (planning to build a personal and simple content recommendation system for myself). [1] https://saeedesmaili.com/posts/my-content-consumption-workflow/ https://saeedesmaili.com/posts/my-content-consumption-workfl...
  • subarctic 1y ago
    What are you going to replace it with?
    • saeedesmaili 1y ago
      Not sure yet. Since I'm already paying for readwise, I might use that, but then sharing from inoreader to readwise will be multiple steps instead of the current built in pocket integration I use. I should also make sure I'm keeping a local archive of read and unread stuff just in case. I'll also contact inoreader to see if they will replace their built-in pocket integration with anything else.
• mayankkaizen 1y ago
  This made me sad because I served my need so well. Now I will have to think about alternatives. I wish they could open-source it.
• timetraveller26 1y ago
  So much wasted potential, I was a top 1% reader for a couple years (mostly because I saved a lot of things probably); it was a convenient way to save articles and references in multiple devices but at the end I was frustated it was so cumberstone to keep links organized. I stopped paying premium and migrated to a self-hosted Wallabag, which doesn't have all the features I want but hey, in hindsight it was the right decision. It would be cool if they open sourced the code, but one can only dream.
  • benjaminoakes 1y ago
    Pocket has 85 public repositotories. If it's possible to host the entire thing, I bet it isn't simple. https://github.com/Pocket/ https://github.com/Pocket/
• Vinnl 1y ago
  One thing that unfortunately never got properly announced, is that over time Pocket was slowly open sourced piece-by-piece, mostly as it got rewritten/modernised, as I understand it: https://github.com/Pocket/ https://github.com/Pocket/ I guess the fact that it wasn't a big bang source code dump made it hard to make a moment of it. (Note: open-source does not necessarily mean that it was optimised for self-hosting, which would've been a lot more work, of course.)
  • mort96 1y ago
    Kind of a bit "too little too late" when they're still open-sourcing it but by bit in 2025 after promising to open-source it during the acquisition in 2017. I'm not very impressed.
    • Vinnl 1y ago
      It wasn't started in 2025, it's a process that's been going on for years. (Presumably, but I don't actually have more information here, the pre-acquisition codebase couldn't easily be open sourced without rewriting for legal reasons, e.g. copyright residing with someone else.)
      • mort96 1y ago
        Nothing about the communication at the time indicated that publishing the source code would happen gradually over a decade. For all intents and purposes, what was promised was that it would be open source within some reasonably short time frame.
        • cosmojg 1y ago
          Having worked on a similar endeavor, I doubt they intentionally dragged their feet on it. They likely had a smorgasbord of legal bullshit and technical challenges resulting from code omissions mandated by said legal bullshit that they had to muddle through.
          • 1y ago
• KingOfCoders 1y ago
  I use it to collect articles for my newsletter. Any alternatives? (Free, Browser extension, API)
  • bibinou 1y ago
    Raindrop: https://raindrop.io/ https://raindrop.io/
    • KingOfCoders 1y ago
      Thanks!
• Animats 1y ago
  Good. Less dependence on external servers. Now for better local bookmarks.
• rchaud 1y ago
  The writing was on the wall for Pocket when paywalls started to go up everywhere a few years ago. By that point, it could no longer scrape articles reliably. Before that, it's Discovery feature was great for surfacing long form writing on the Net, but even then there were issues because they'd pull a lot of content mill slop from Inc.com, Entrepreneur.com and there was no real way to block domains. Finally, when the good "new media" outlets started shutting down, Pocket's content library went down with it.
• Cherian 1y ago
  Can someone suggest a good bookmarking app that can be used offline, as well as great typography and neat bookmarking of social media videos? Absolutely. At least embed and show it correctly.
• burnte 1y ago
  They were told it was a mistake to buy it, they didn't listen, like they never listen. I used to love the organization but it's so resistant to outside input that I had to leave the community about 12 years ago.
• johnklos 1y ago
  Mozilla continues to appear to not get the philosophies behind open source. If they really wanted to help people and not simply try to get market share and make money, they'd examine ways to make Pocket itself open source, including the server end of things. "We're handing this over to a non-profit" would be nice.
  • therealdrag0 1y ago
    Looks like much of it is. https://github.com/Pocket https://github.com/Pocket Not sure how complete it is. But appears to have a typescript backend included.
• podgietaru 1y ago
  I loved Pocket. I used it nearly daily. I was often in their top n% of users. I paid for it. Then one day they changed the way their rendering worked on iOS. And it destroyed my workflow. I also bought a Kobo E-Reader specifically to use Pocket with it. In short order I found an open-source alternative - Omnivore - and spent my time hacking away at my Kobo to get it to pull from there instead. https://github.com/Podginator/KoboOmnivoreConverter https://github.com/Podginator/KoboOmnivoreConverter I think Pocket was amazing. I think the idea worked amazingly for someone like me, who is an enjoyer of reading, but had a hard time finding a moment to sit down and do it. I am upset that Pocket is going. I am upset that Omnivore shut down. I am upset that my Kobo will probably remove that integration and thus ruin my Self-Hosted Omnivore's integration with it. I think it could have been a lot, lot more.
  • fifteen1506 1y ago
    Check the barebones but functional Wallabag. Hosted version available for a fee.
    • puzzlingcaptcha 1y ago
      Just to add that you can also self-host it, and it supports Kobo as well. I once stumbled upon but didn't investigate further since Pocket just worked so well. I guess now I will have to.
    • SSLy 1y ago
      It’s the lack of nice sync to an articles directory that’ll be missed. I’m also bitten by this shutdown.
    • cloudfudge 1y ago
      Wallabag looks great, if a little homebrew. I signed up and had to laugh that the default "Welcome to wallabag" article could not be retrieved. Regardless, I decided to give 'em 12 bucks and see how it goes.
    • benjaminoakes 1y ago
      Related bit from my other comment: > If you don't want to bother with self-hosting, there are some hosted options available: https://github.com/wallabag/wallabag/wiki/wallabag-ecosystem#hosted-servers https://github.com/wallabag/wallabag/wiki/wallabag-ecosystem...
• runjake 1y ago
  I moved off Pocket a couple years ago and moved to Readwise which is great (paid was a desired feature). Anyone else have a favorite alternative?
• geordieboozer 1y ago
  The think I liked about pocket was the integration with my Kobo ebook reader. I could browse the web on my phone or laptop and "add to pocket" for later, then could fire up my ereader and read the articles formatted nicely on my epaper screen. Would be nice if Kobo supported some other service, but a bit of a stretch to imagine they'd support something self hosted or an open standard for such things
  • criddell 1y ago
    Kobo supports ReadWise I think.
• PaulHoule 1y ago
  Yay!
• noncoml 1y ago
  Self-hosted alternatives: Karakeep and Linkwarden
• randomor 1y ago
  Wow, after Instapaper went back to indie from Pinterest[1] and Omnivore closing last year this is no longer surprising. This is also proof that read-it-later app as a category is not sustainable as a venture / company backed service. This is also a category of app that I believe could be better served by local-first native apps. As there is no reason why a server has to be requirement to enjoy the full service. Your computer is fully capable of interacting with these webpages directly.... On Apple ecosystem, there are few alternatives one can migrate to. I also created an app that target this category (and more) called DoubleMemory: https://doublememory.com https://doublememory.com that has a few different takes as well: - no registration needed (icloud sync) - no extension required (just double command + c) - launches from menu bar as a launcher, in a stunning Pinterest-style waterfall grid It's all free to use with no limits, as i'm still working on paid features. I'll work on a pocket importer for these who are interested in migrating. ^[1]: https://blog.instapaper.com/post/175953870856 https://blog.instapaper.com/post/175953870856
  • podgietaru 1y ago
    I actually don't necessarily think that's true - As someone that has a bit of a background with the codebase of Omnivore I think the thing that killed that wasn't necessarily the business model (let's be real, they didn't even offer a premium tier.) I think it was the introduction of features that required an unnecessary amount of processing power. Namely, RSS feeds. Their RSS implementation parsed every new webpage - a large percentage of which would never actually be read. They hosted on Google Cloud using things like Cloud Functions. A good proportion of articles were parsed using Puppeteer, when a cheaper shorter running HTTP Request would have sufficed. The PDF viewer they used cost an arm and a leg. None of this is to shit on the legacy of Omnivore, because I think with the team they had they built an incredible product. But I think there was a lot that could have been done to reduce monthly costs, and that there could have been more effort to monetise. I paid for Pocket (without using premium features), and I donated to Omnivore, but the thing is ... I happened across their community whilst doing / building something else. I wouldn't have known donating / subscribing were even an option if I didn't. I'm sure I'm not the only kind of person who subscribes purely based on the fact I get value from the software. I'd like to believe there's a viable business model around these sort of things. And honestly, a much less ethical version of me says that there absolutely is when it comes to Data. I don't think it'll ever be mega profitable, but sustainable? Sure. The Omnivore team was like 2 devs and open source contributors. I believe you could get to a point where it'd be able to sustain that team.
• purplejacket 1y ago
  A read-it-later app. Pocket, you had one job. Just one job. And for a while that was my killer app on mobile. But, as we see, the enshitification of the web continues. "What began as a read-it-later app evolved into something much bigger. After Mozilla acquired Pocket in 2017, we invested in building our content curation and recommendation capabilities so people everywhere can discover and access high quality web content. While Pocket is shutting down, we will continue to invest in this promise—through the New Tab experience, our email newsletter, and more."
• djhworld 1y ago
  I would say I was sad to see it go, but I moved to karakeep (formerly known as Hoarder) a few months ago and it's been a perfect replacement. Most importantly, you can self-host it - which is great. One thing that stood out to me in the article was this this to justify the shutdown > But the way people use the web has evolved, so we’re channeling our resources into projects that better match their browsing habits and online needs. I'd be really interested to hear what exactly they mean by this, are people visiting fewer websites? Walled gardens like facebook etc make it useless for bookmarking so I can see how pocket would be a bad fit there
• UncleOxidant 1y ago
  Upon reading this at first I was like "Oh, crap!", but then after a minute I realized that I wasn't bother to export my saved articles... it was basically digital hoarding, for me, I think. While I did use it, I likely won't miss it.
• podgietaru 1y ago
  While the Kobo app is still available an alternative might be: Self-Host Omnivore: https://github.com/omnivore-app/omnivore/blob/main/self-hosting/GUIDE.md https://github.com/omnivore-app/omnivore/blob/main/self-host... Use this proxy to point to the Self-Hosted instance to pull from Omnivore Instead. https://github.com/Podginator/KoboOmnivoreConverter https://github.com/Podginator/KoboOmnivoreConverter This is what I've been doing for a year or so now. I hope they don't remove the Kobo integration code from my Kobo.
  • aspenmayer 1y ago
    Isn’t Omnivore discontinued? I didn’t hear what happened when they joined ElevenLabs. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41985118 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41985118 Apparently the community is trying to shape the project into a workable self-hosted state. Ironic post from two months ago about a user trying to migrate away from Pocket to Omnivore: https://github.com/omnivore-app/omnivore/issues/4550 https://github.com/omnivore-app/omnivore/issues/4550 Same community users provide crowdsourced list of open source alternatives to Omnivore: https://github.com/omnivore-app/omnivore/issues/4462 https://github.com/omnivore-app/omnivore/issues/4462
• beepbopboopp 1y ago
  Can we get a list going of the best substitutes and the pros/cons? Thanks.
• fullsortcom 1y ago
  We have been working on Full Sort for a while now. Lots of features to be a contender but not bloated either. Take a look at https://fullsort.com https://fullsort.com. Demo without signup. Upon signup the service is free. Not mining your data either.
• nicbou 1y ago
  I abandoned Pocket a while ago. I believe the offline mode was unreliable. Instapaper has been a really good replacement for me. My use case is to queue up articles to read on my iPad without distractions.
• lxgr 1y ago
  Pocket was always completely incompatible with Mozilla/Firefox, and is at this point hopelessly outdated compared to all competitors. I really don't understand what they were thinking. Just running a hosted version of the excellent and open source (both server and client) Omnivore would be an amazing service to the open web and for data archiving/portability, but I'm not holding my breath.
• kepano 1y ago
  I built Obsidian Web Clipper (open source, MIT) to replace my read-it-later app and save everything to local markdown files. Now that Obsidian Bases is available, it makes for a very nice web archival tool and reading experience. Here's a video: https://mastodon.social/@kepano/114553164915046938 https://mastodon.social/@kepano/114553164915046938 You can use Web Clipper with any app that supports Markdown, not just Obsidian. Defuddle is the underlying HTML-to-Markdown library I made for Web Clipper, and can also be used as a CLI: https://github.com/kepano/defuddle https://github.com/kepano/defuddle https://github.com/kepano/defuddle-cli https://github.com/kepano/defuddle-cli
  • jonahx 1y ago
    This is very cool. The thing I really want is this, combined with some automated local background LLM training / rag (not sure what the right approach is) process. So that, at the end of the day, everything I bookmark get saved locally, can be read in a nice format like you have the video, and be semantically queried, and it's all local: "What was that article I saw read 1-3 months ago some new type of LLM training?" "Find that really nice explanation of determinants article" etc... Have you investigated anything like that?
    • kepano 1y ago
      Since the content is saved to Markdown you can use it with pretty much any tool that will ingest that content. There's also Obsidian Web Clipper's Interpreter feature, which lets you run prompts on a web page before saving: https://help.obsidian.md/web-clipper/interpreter https://help.obsidian.md/web-clipper/interpreter
  • gausswho 1y ago
    Thank you for your work on this! It's become my go-to since leaving Pocket. I do have a bug report: even when explicitly specifying which vault to send clippings to, what I experience is that it sends to my last opened one. On Android w Firefox Nightly and the extension.
  • dorian-graph 1y ago
    Do you have a trick for getting the images as well, as opposed to them being links to the remotely hosted?
• lemoncookiechip 1y ago
  I've used Pocket in combination with the In My Pocket add-on for a very long time on a daily basis. I don't particularly care about the online specific features, I don't care about syncing, or any of that. I've used Pocket specifically as a better and quicker Bookmarking tool than the browser's default to save pages I want to read later, simple as that and it worked flawlessly. Now I'm forced to find something similar, and I found Save-to-Read which does mostly what I need, although it feels a bit jankier. I understand why people have hated this app for a very long time and blamed Mozilla for investing into it, but to me it has always had value by doing what tools were meant to do, make my life easier, even if that's just about saving a few clicks every time I wanted to save a page or dismiss it.
• rs186 1y ago
  I have been using Pocket + p2k for long articles that I prefer to read on Kindle. There are several issues with the setup, but this works well enough for most articles that I have sticked to it over the years. Looks like I have to find an alternative now.
  • koichirose 1y ago
    I've been using wallabag for a while, switched to Pocket for this exact reason. Maybe switching back is the answer to this? Looked around a bit, someone seems to have thought about this already.
• BonoboIO 1y ago
  So Mozilla is shutting down Pocket completely by July, and this is under their new CEO Laura Chambers who took over in February 2024. Meanwhile Mitchell Baker - who was pulling in $6.9M by 2022 - just bailed out entirely this February after "focusing on AI and internet safety" for exactly one year. Let me get this straight: Baker's salary went from $2.4M in 2018 to nearly $7M in 2022, while browser share collapsed to 3.45%. During that time she laid off 320 employees (70 in Jan 2020, 250 in Aug 2020), claiming COVID despite record revenues in 2019. Then she steps down as CEO to "focus on AI," only to quit Mozilla entirely a year later. Now the new CEO's brilliant strategy is to kill off Pocket - one of the few products people actually used that they acquired in 2017. Eight years of "investment" down the drain. This is exactly what I mean when I say Mozilla has no fucking clue what they're doing. They're completely dependent on Google's search money, executives are getting rich while laying off workers, and their response to irrelevance is to shut down working products. The whole organization feels like it exists just so Google can point to it and say "we're not a monopoly."
• domysee 1y ago
  A bunch of alternatives were already mentioned. If you’re looking for an rss feed reader that can also save links directly, Lighthouse[1] may be an option. [1]: https://lighthouseapp.io/ https://lighthouseapp.io/
• deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
• daniel31x13 1y ago
  Sad to see Pocket shutting down. For anyone seeking alternatives, I've been working on Linkwarden[1], an open-source bookmark manager that hit HN's front page twice[2][3]. Plenty of other great alternatives out there too, such as Raindrop (not fully open-source), Karakeep, and Wallabag. Also, there's an official Linkwarden mobile app in development, aiming to support most (if not all) of Pocket's key features :) [1]: https://linkwarden.app https://linkwarden.app [2]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36942308 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36942308 [3]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43856801 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43856801
• SoftTalker 1y ago
  I have never relied on a browser for "favorites" or "bookmarks" I keep these links in a separate org-mode file, but honestly a spreadsheet or even a text file would be fine for that too. Why does everything have to be complicated?
• karlicoss 1y ago
  Seems like official export [0] has tags and annotations along with timestamps. However in case you'd like more structured full data from the API (instead of a mess with csv + json?), you can use my tool [1] to export it. Here's example of its output [2] [0] https://getpocket.com/export https://getpocket.com/export [1] https://github.com/karlicoss/pockexport?tab=readme-ov-file#setting-up https://github.com/karlicoss/pockexport?tab=readme-ov-file#s... [2] https://github.com/karlicoss/pockexport/blob/master/example-output.json https://github.com/karlicoss/pockexport/blob/master/example-...
• Pxtl 1y ago
  I've been using FF since it was Mozilla Phoenix and I never once tried Pocket.
• dwayne_dibley 1y ago
  Huh, that’s annoying. Been using pocket since around 2008, mainly for when I was abroad and roaming was costly. Looks like I’ll need to export my library of stuff. Do I have any other similar options?
• BonoboIO 1y ago
  I've got years of saved articles in there and the export situation is pretty bad. It only gives you the URLs, not the actual content. So if a site goes down (which happens all the time), you're basically screwed. I'm thinking about throwing Claude Code at this problem and building a proper exporter that actually saves the content.
• enjikaka 1y ago
  Dang, like many others I use Pocket extensively - especially with my Kobo e-reader. This is very sad! I wrote this Deno script to convert the CSV export to a Netscape Bookmark File Format-compatible HTML-file so that it can be imported to Linkding. Hope it's useful for someone else too! https://github.com/enjikaka/pocket-to-bookmark https://github.com/enjikaka/pocket-to-bookmark
• creatonez 1y ago
  > But the way people use the web has evolved, so we’re channeling our resources into projects that better match their browsing habits and online needs Wasn't Pocket always trying to resist bad web trends? If I recall, they had a tool that would clean up webpages and remove all the junk so you can just focus on the article contents. And they were also trying to save the concept of bookmarking from complete irrelevance. I guess it's understandable that users didn't care, it was an uphill battle for non-power users, and power uses didn't like the sponsored articles and already had their bookmarks saved outside of Pocket.
• idlewords 1y ago
  I'll take it off their hands.
  • psanford 1y ago
    Do not try to compete with pinboard.
• 1832 1y ago
  Pocket users in shambles until they realize Ctrl + D exists
• gorbachev 1y ago
  This sucks :( I've been using Pocket for I don't know how long. I use it every day during my commute to read articles from everywhere. I was planning on using it on my 3-week multi-country summer vacation this August to occupy me during all the country hopping I was about to do. This is a Google Reader killing type event for me. I'm going to go self-hosted next. I'm sick and tired of this crap.
• meindnoch 1y ago
  Good riddance.
• donnachangstein 1y ago
  Another feature no one asked for, meeting its technological grave. For those few users of Pocket this function could have been easily handled as an extension. If Mozilla spent the engineering hours wasted on this toward fixing the ever growing mountain of existing bugs they might have more than 1% market share.
  • readthenotes1 1y ago
    Firefox has the "killer app" for modern browsers--ublock origin. I am dismayed by how much money Mozilla spends on things other than the browser, though.
    • int_19h 1y ago
      Ad blocking should just be an integral browser feature at this point, as in Brave or Vivaldi.
    • Tadpole9181 1y ago
      Except for the vast majority of normal people, uBlock Origin Lite is enough. And Blink alternatives like Brave or Vivaldi have them built-in while using the "preferred" engine, which is even more convient. So, to them, Firefox is a worse performing browser with missing features that sometimes doesn't work for certain websites. There's no "killer app" to be seen.
• charliebwrites 1y ago
  Don’t have time to read this so I saved it in Pocket, I’ll probably get to it in a few months… But in all seriousness I’ve got about 1000 articles I need to store and browse…somewhere when Pocket EoLs
• decide1000 1y ago
  This is sad! I use it daily. Not sure what tool to replace this with.
• TZubiri 1y ago
  It is a time to rejoice and celebrate, for a product that never should have existed has died today. This follows the long history of projects like Google+ and hopefully others like Facebook Watch will follow soon.
• yunesj 1y ago
  I’ve been having trouble with Pocket’s offline mode and TTS feature for a while, and just migrated (yesterday!) to Obsidian via Obsidian Web Clipper (automated using Pupeteer). Obsidian doesn’t have all the features necessary for a read-it-later app, but almost!
  • perdomon 1y ago
    Obsidian is phenomenal. I only wish it were open source so I could self-host it. Sometimes I worry that they'd sell my notes data to advertisers.
    • kepano 1y ago
      Obsidian cannot access your notes even if you use the Sync service (it's end-to-end encrypted)
      • perdomon 1y ago
        Is it open source? Can anyone confirm that? What keeps it from changing in the future? I don’t have anything crazy sensitive, but I’m mindful of getting my info sold to advertisers.
• jameslk 1y ago
  My specific need is I like to reference articles I've read later, quickly. I was using Pocket to track links to articles I've read, keeping them categorized with tags. It's been a mediocre solution for this need (e.g. I'd like to add more metadata, such as notes), but I haven't found too many apps/products that serve this use case. What's nice about Pocket is that I can do this from any browser on any device, since it has integrations and an app for mobile devices. Trying to do this with a note taking app is much more clunky and frictional. Especially when trying to quickly find an article I had saved. Anyway, if anyone knows something that fits this use case better, it looks like I'm in the market for it now
  • kappl 1y ago
    Have you looked at larder.io? Browser integrations, tags and search works fine, but the notes functionality (“Description”) is very limited.
• cadamsdotcom 1y ago
  Products going away is saddening and maddening but if there’s demand surely these good ideas should be fought over. What’s going on for the market not to stably fill this gap? Is there no workable price point?
• rietta 1y ago
  Seems like very short notice!
• rossant 1y ago
  I started using Pocket in 2012 and have used it ever since (though I’ll obviously have to stop now). It was a great way to save interesting articles I didn’t have time to read right away. Naturally, I rarely got around to actually reading them, and the backlog kept growing. I just exported my data and found 13,000 unread articles out of a total of 34,000. I can’t help but picture the Distracted Boyfriend meme, "reading my saved articles" vs "discovering new cool articles online to add to the ever-growing Pocket backlog, never to be read."
• Nemo_bis 1y ago
  I've never understood Pocket. What's wrong with Zotero?
• encom 1y ago
  Oh no, what happened? Oh no, how terrible! That's just awful, how terrible oh no! [1] [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPQFF0oqsto https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPQFF0oqsto
• Poudlardo 1y ago
  Damn, what alternative can we look for ? (free, ideally open source)
• trwhite 1y ago
  I recommend Readwise.
  • kilroy123 1y ago
    Yeah, at first, I was worried, as I have a lot of stuff in Pocket. Then I realized I already had it synced with Readwise Reader. I don't have to do a thing.
• xeromal 1y ago
  Can someone explain what this means? >Focusing on what powers better browsing We acquired Fakespot in 2023 to help people navigate unreliable product reviews using AI and privacy-first tech. While the idea resonated, it didn’t fit a model we could sustain. Pocket has helped millions save articles and discover stories worth reading. But the way people save and consume content on the web has evolved, Did Fakespot own pocket? I still use fakespot as an additional marker in my research of purchases.
  • fckgw 1y ago
    Mozilla owns Fakespot. Fakepost is pretty unreliable and assigning a score to something so difficult to rank isn't a great model.
    • SoftTalker 1y ago
      Online product reviews are all fake. That's close enougth to the truth that you really don't need Fakespot.
• kamaitachi 1y ago
  Have been using FF since early 2000's. Tried using Pocket but never really got the hang of it. Just never felt that it fixed a problem was having. Still a FF fanboi, but fully behind shutting anything down that detracts from core FF. Maybe old school, but would much prefer a focus on a browser focused on privecy.
• microflash 1y ago
  Such a shame and wasted potential. Mozilla could have turned Pocket into a read it later + RSS reader killer combo that would have closed the browsing loop across the web on Firefox. But they slept on it, actively worsening it and finally putting it out of its misery. This is an end of an era and it has such a chime of finality to it.
• flkiwi 1y ago
  Sort of peculiar that a company that is based on and makes open source software wouldn't wind down Pocket as a product but release it to the community. I don't have any particular wish to use it--I moved on years ago--but it's odd at a sort of ethical level that Mozilla, of all companies, would disappear software.
• indus 1y ago
  Backflip to Delicious to Pocket. Why isn’t there a simple bookmarking solution that can survive technology shifts?
• freediver 1y ago
  My little side project has been chugging along for those looking for (harder to use) variation of Pocket. https://tinygem.org https://tinygem.org The main advantage is that content recommendations based on previously saved content are pretty good, especially for tech oriented crowd.
  • akhdanfadh 1y ago
    This is actually promising, kudos! AI tagging feature like those in Pocket and Karakeep, in the first place, seems helpful. But months later, you will get lots of tags to handle. Content recommendation, especially if that only consider what we saved, can replace the tagging things I guess. I wonder how do you do this for free, though. Also your HN/Reddit integration is what I'm looking for. The way I save things from HN so far in Karakeep is that I save the main article and add the HN url manually to the note.
• apparent 1y ago
  IIRC they promised to make Pocket open source, but I'm not sure if the back end ever was. Does anyone know if this is the case? Seems like a big win for Instapaper, who will likely pick up a lot of Pocket's abandoned users.
• Quarondeau 1y ago
  Seems odd that it's not being sold off. Was it truly that worthless? It was also a great way to read paywalled articles for free.
• tlavoie 1y ago
  This might be a more manual solution for Kobo imports, but I've taken to saving pages of interest via Joplin's web clipper extension. Pages can be saved as Markdown, HTML, screenshot, or URL. If I save the Markdown version (typically looks fine), it will have also saved linked images. Exporting that to another folder gives me something that I can convert to epub, using Pandoc. From there, it's trivial to copy over to my Kobo as before. Of course, this already would have been readable on my phone, since my notebooks also sync across devices.
• dcchambers 1y ago
  Lmao. I'm sorry, but lmao. Mozilla just cannot get out of their own way. All we want is a good open fucking browser not dominated by a corporation, and they can't stop distracting themselves with things that don't matter and then eventually shutting them down. Mozilla needs to clean house of their leadership. Burn it all down. Start from scratch. It's a joke right now...and I say that as a daily user of Firefox and someone that desperately wants them to succeed. SOMEONE needs to be held accountable for failures like this...but all we will get is vague half apologies and corporate bullshit.
  • anti-soyboy 1y ago
    A deserved fart down your throat is what you get
• knowitnone 1y ago
  I still use Firefox but if Ladybird and Servo get adblock, video download, dark mode, I am jumping ship.
• nottorp 1y ago
  So what did this do? The comments lead me to believe it was an extension or application for saving web pages in a more readable form for a personal archive type thing. However the obituary mentions curation and an editorial team. Did they select the info for you or it was your own choice?
  • stefan_ 1y ago
    It's not important what it is. Pocket was bought overpriced by Mozillas incompetent officers on a project to diversify their income by playing VC. They then decided to piss all over their Firefox browser users by forcefully integrating it with the browser. It was a terrible decision, a terrible business, and now way past its best by date its finally taken out to pasture. Sadly the incompetent officers continue their tenure and soon we'll write this obituary for Mozilla, as their C-level compensation inevitably outstrips what Google is willing to pay for a 1% market share and declining browser.
    • nottorp 1y ago
      I know that, I want to determine the level of incompetence. A page saving service is one thing, adding a curation/discovery team (paid by the subscriptions or by the sites who want to get on that curated list?) on top of that is another.
• regularjack 1y ago
  It would probably make more sense to link to the blog post: https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/building-whats-next/ https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/building-whats-next/ Also, it's not just Pocket, it's also Fakespot, which I didn't even know existed.
• deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
• hkt 1y ago
  Terrible and predictable. Saw it coming years ago, and have used Wallabag ever since.
• hendi_ 1y ago
  I was an avid Firefox user and supporter pre-1.0, even before it was named "Firefox". I used Pocket a lot, its history is part of my. It's time for Mozilla to die. That'll suck, but it's the only way forward. Way too many bad decisions in the last 10 years. Fuck you, Mozilla.
• fjcero 1y ago
  Mozilla should shut down.
• daemoncoder 1y ago
  First thing I did after getting the csv export was throw together a python script to save all the URLs as PDFs based on the title. Not horribly robust, but a csv list of failed URLs will be ready when I wake up in the morning.
• aucisson_masque 1y ago
  > Why is Pocket shutting down? > Pocket has helped millions save articles and discover stories worth reading. But the way people use the web has evolved, so we’re channeling our resources into projects that better match their browsing habits and online needs. Oh yeah, it explains everything. I wish one day a company pr representative will be bold enough to just say "we don't want to tell you".
  • snafferty 1y ago
    That seems pretty clear to me—many people were using it at one point, but now few are, so it's not worth maintaining.
    • andyjohnson0 1y ago
      But why are few people using it? Critical mass of people using app-based walled gardens? Something else?
      • _Algernon_ 1y ago
        They took a tool that is fundamentally about separating curation and consumption of content, then added back the same type of for-you algorithm driven social media, engagement maximizing stuff that people wanted to escape. Not exactly surprising that people don't want to use it.
  • dncornholio 1y ago
    I read this as: Nobody was using it.
• sohrob 1y ago
  This is disappointing news. The Save to Pocket feature was one of the core features of Firefox that kept me using it. It feels like Mozilla is circling the drain lately.
• snihalani 1y ago
  >Firefox is the only major browser not backed by a billionaire and our independence shapes everything we build This doesn't sound accurate
• sleepybrett 1y ago
  These fucking guys. Open source it.
• remram 1y ago
  So they have been ignoring all feature requests and bug reports to Firefox's "bookmarks", directing users to Pocket. All the while also gutting and eventually shutting down Pocket. Where do I go to have basic bookmarking functionality in my web browser? Tags for example, will those ever work on mobile? Keywords? Can I even search for a bookmark on mobile (not to go there, but to find its location in my bookmark folders, and edit it)?
• dc_rog 1y ago
  Why not try sell Pocket instead of shutting it down? Seems like such a waste
• sylens 1y ago
  I used to use Pocket religiously but fell off sometime after they pushed a redesign that made it more difficult to use. I've been using Inoreader to save articles now.
• bovermyer 1y ago
  I've always just used Instapaper. It feels weird to use a web service for something that feels like it should be local, though. I'm not sure I'm approaching this the right way.
• guybedo 1y ago
  here's the list of alternatives, extracted from this thread: Instapaper is a good alternative. Readwise Reader is a strong paid alternative, especially for heavy users and those wanting integration with tools like Obsidian. Raindrop.io is a useful alternative, including its free tier and permanent copy feature. Matter is another alternative that has been tried. Self-hosted options like Wallabag, Linkding, Linkwarden, Karakeep, Omnivore, and Shiori exist. Obsidian Web Clipper can save articles as markdown locally. Other less common or custom solutions include Feedly, Histre, Walden Pond (defunct print service), Lighthouse, Full Sort, DoubleMemory (Apple ecosystem), Ulry.app, WordPress plugins, simple text files/spreadsheets, or custom scripts. (Full summary here: https://extraakt.com/extraakts/mozilla-pocket-shutdown-discussion https://extraakt.com/extraakts/mozilla-pocket-shutdown-discu...
• open592 1y ago
  I'll always remember finding that Pocket had exposed their Redux dev tools to production and they had a "dev panel" you could open that allowed you to bypass all the payment walls (for example switching fonts, layouts, etc). Never used Pocket though, so it didn't do much for me besides being fun to find.
• ivanmontillam 1y ago
  Pocket's existing featureset kind of overlaps with Pinboard. Maybe can Pinboard jump in and buy it from Mozilla? or build an alternative, perhaps.
  • idlewords 1y ago
    What's the useful part of Pocket's feature set that doesn't overlap with Pinboard?
• chris_wot 1y ago
  I never used it as I knew it would eventually be canned.
• mattatobin 1y ago
  You all thought Mozilla wouldn't take a feature or service away.. Seriously where have you absolute fucks been the past 13 years? -Tobin
• meonkeys 1y ago
  I tried saving named links in a text file, offline reading in Wallabag, full archiving with Archivebox, and fancier bookmarking/tagging with Karakeep. I found each does a bit of what I want so I now use all four. Heh
• levischoen 1y ago
  Let a thousand flowers bloom
• arikrak 1y ago
  I've used Pocket from back when they were called "Read it later" and have saved just shy of 30k articles. They've gotten worse recently, but when I tried other apps (instapaper, getmatter, raindrop, paperspan, omnivore) they all had their own issues. Now I have to give those apps another try...
  • ilt 1y ago
    Try Reader from Readwise. It's a great multi platform app which supports all kinds of reading mediums and can save articles, tweets, YouTube videos etc. It's a paid app, but well worth it. Look for comment from tristanho, the founder, below.
• kinj28 1y ago
  We shut down a service called teamgum about 10 Years ago. Our service was priced 0 initially and had huge number of users. It was meant to share articles amongst a team and later on Google search show articles already discovered by colleagues which can be helpful. I remember Tucker m pocket was around then or was just launched.
• rfonseca 1y ago
  I was using Pocket to save articles to listen to in the car, with their ok TTS feature. Does anyone know of an easy solution that allows me to click to save an article, and then have it automatically on an app on my phone so I can listen while I drive?
• morishin 1y ago
  It's a shame to hear Pocket is shutting down. Adding another option to the mix, I'd like to share my open-source project, "ato de yomu" (which means "read it later" in Japanese). https://atodeyomu.morishin.me/ https://atodeyomu.morishin.me/ You can save web pages to read later, track your reading history, and share your lists—or keep them private. It supports adding pages via the website, iOS Share Sheet, Chrome Extension, API call and etc. It's open-source: https://github.com/morishin/atodeyomu.morishin.me https://github.com/morishin/atodeyomu.morishin.me I previously shared it on HN here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41649998 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41649998 Hope some of you find it a useful alternative!
• def13 1y ago
  There are so many great non-browser read-it-later bookmarking solutions these days. There open-source self hosted solutions as well as many free/paid hosted solutions with generous free plans, with some pretty advanced paid features. Pocket has stagnated for a decade except for a poorly thought through UX redesign. The paid plan has almost nothing to offer except ereader integration, and there is a handful of others that offer that these days.
• hanklazard 1y ago
  I migrated all my pocket saves to a self-hosted Karakeep (previously Hoarder) instance a few months ago. No issues with the import and I’ve been happy with using it thus far. https://github.com/karakeep-app/karakeep https://github.com/karakeep-app/karakeep
• rf15 1y ago
  When Mozilla got Pocket, they advertised it all over Firefox to increase adoption. Back then, I was like "but I already have a bookmark feature". Over all these years I have hidden the Pocket button away because for most people there's no strong incentive to switch from a normal bookmarking solution (and now, with only a hand full of websites in major use, even bookmarks have lost all meaning). Good riddance?
  • demetrius 1y ago
    +1, my only interaction with Pocket is annoyance that I had to remove it from my toolbar every time I've installed Firefox on a new computer. Good riddance.
• wetpaws 1y ago
  [dead]
• imartin2k 1y ago
  Glad back in the days I chose Instapaper and not Readitlater/Pocket. Still using it all the time. It costs money but is worth it.
• masylum 1y ago
  I've been building a pocket alternative that also bundles an RSS editor (RIP google reader) and a light blogging platform. The idea is basically to bundle the saving, discovering and sharing content through the same product. I've been using it for a year and it works beautifully. https://fika.bar https://fika.bar And you can see my bookmarks/posts here: https://fika.bar/blogs/paoramen https://fika.bar/blogs/paoramen
  • RazvanS 1y ago
    By any chance, are you also working on a Firefox extension?
  • Sphax 1y ago
    Love this. Great UI and straight to the point. Thank you for sharing. One thing I'm curious about, is there a way to add a bookmark from a browser on iPhone ? When I'm browsing I often want to save an article in my reading list, right now I'm using Notion with the Share feature. Curious if you had the same need.
• permalac 1y ago
  I'll miss it dearly. I use it to sync articles to kobo, almost daily. I don't even knew they were thinking on pulling the plug. I don't know of any alternatives. I'll be happy to self host if I can sync with kobo.
• toinebeg 1y ago
  I you looking for an alternative, Flus[1] from FreshRss creator Marien Fressinaud is great and FOSS ! [1]https://flus.fr/ https://flus.fr/
• vishnumohandas 1y ago
  > This shift allows us to shape the next era of the internet – with tools like vertical tabs... I wish they had closed this announcement with more optimism.
• 4ndrewl 1y ago
  Why can't Mozilla open source Pocket?
• attendant3446 1y ago
  I used Pocket before Mozilla and in the early days of Mozilla ownership, but it was becoming less reliable by the day. I switched to SingleFile[1] and sync the dir between my tablet and laptop using Syncthing. No SaaS, everything stays on my network - works great. 1. https://www.getsinglefile.com/ https://www.getsinglefile.com/
• danielraffel 1y ago
  I stopped using Pocket a long time ago when they started ruining the experience. When Omnivore shut down, I switched over to Raindrop.io. I now use it for bookmarking and built a simple cloud function to easily post links with a specific tag to a Daring Fireball-style link blog I host on Ghost. While Raindrop isn’t open source, it does offer useful browser extensions with features like highlights, notes, and tags—making it a handy tool for quickly blogging and / or bookmarking things I stumble across. I open sourced the cloud function. https://github.com/danielraffel/raindrop-to-ghost-sync https://github.com/danielraffel/raindrop-to-ghost-sync
• brachkow 1y ago
  Release starts by aggressively stating that > Firefox is the only major browser not backed by a billionaire but they acquired Pocket in 2017 [1] and neither this app was growing (despite market for such apps was in very good shape few years ago) or it was delightful addition to browser experience that said what annoys me about Mozilla, is that while they are position themselves poor and underfunded, they still act like they are backed by billionaire: they buy random apps for no reason or donating tons of money to not tech-related political organizations [2] [1] https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/news/mozilla-acquires-pocket/ https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/news/mozilla-acquires-po... [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37015592 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37015592
• red_admiral 1y ago
  I for one welcome the pocket interface no longer being installed by default. If I want (pocket|AI|news|recommendations|smart .*) in my browser, I'll install it myself, and choose which one I want if there are several options available. (This is not firefox specific but several browsers in my country have a deal with a news site I don't care for, and on Edge mobile it's the only option in a list of news sources to choose from besides turning the thing off. Think "Fox News" and you're pretty close. Thanks but no thanks for reminding me as an immigrant that there's too many of us.)
• crossroadsguy 1y ago
  I stopped[0] using RIL and Firefox almost at the same time - when it was "bundled". Kind of never returned. I wish RIL survived w/o getting bundled into Firefox or rather Firefox kept steadfast at browser work. Later I also realised that for someone like me a RIL is like the IMDb Watchlist - never to be acted upon and just for accumulating even though I save bookmarks as well [1]. Now I add URLs to Reminders app as a TODO, when I have to do it; and I do it rarely but when I do I act on it (sooner). [0] (Firefox use change: stopped as in from the "only browser anywhere" to maybe once in a week or few times a month usage on desktop"). [1] (Is there a bookmarking tool/app that triggers a Internet Archive save or checks whether it's saved upon "save bookmark" request?)
• ZeroGravitas 1y ago
  I used and liked Pocket. The main reason I stopped using it was that I found myself less often in offline spaces, which is when I used the reading part to catch up on interesting long articles. Once planes, trains, countryside, foreign countries etc had good enough and/or cheap enough connectivity it mattered less to have offline reading material. On the other side, competitors for those offline spots arose like Netflix letting you download episodes. My dedicated ebook reader, which I had Pocket installed on, suffered similarly neglect. Phones got bigger and better enough.
• deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
• moontear 1y ago
  It says (https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/exporting-your-pocket-list https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/exporting-your-pocket-l...) there is supposed to be an "Export HTML file" button, I only see export CSV file. Wrong documentation?
• stuaxo 1y ago
  Wait.. all that stuff I put into Pocket to look at later (and never revisited) may be gone forever?
• aspenmayer 1y ago
  Is the shutdown date possibly related to this info I was able to find from the DOJ? https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-implements-critical-national-security-program-protect-americans-sensitive https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-implements... > As explained in NSD’s Data Security Program Implementation and Enforcement Policy Through July 8, 2025, NSD will not prioritize civil enforcement actions against any person for violations of the Data Security Program that occur from April 8 through July 8, 2025, so long as the person is engaging in good faith efforts to comply with or come into compliance with the Data Security Program during that time. These efforts include engaging in compliance activities described in that policy, such as amending or renegotiating existing contracts, conducting internal reviews of data flows, deploying the CISA security requirements, and so on. > At the end of this 90-day period, individuals, and entities should be in full compliance with the DSP. This policy does not limit NSD’s lawful authority and discretion to pursue civil enforcement if entities and individuals did not engage in good faith efforts to comply with, or come into compliance with, the Data Security Program.
• benbristow 1y ago
  Pocket had already been wokified, one of the main categories of trending news right at the top was some diversity category of sorts. Couldn't get rid of it. Seemed like it was on life support anyway.
• pinoy420 1y ago
  [dead]
• robertlagrant 1y ago
  > Firefox is the only major browser not backed by a billionaire What does this mean? Which billionaires back Chrome, Safari, Opera, and Edge?
• footlose_3815 1y ago
  One of many things they introduced that I would put repeated effort in to get out of my interface.
• gitroom 1y ago
  [dead]
• giancarlostoro 1y ago
  I wish I could just buy out Mozilla outright so that they could you know, focus on building a browser. Alas, my wallets nowhere near big enough to do so. Leave all the business ventures to a completely different (named too) org. I grow tired of them starting something great and then stopping because they've wasted funds. Like oxidizing Firefox I was really excited for. Sadly they stopped while they had broken amazing ground.
  • delfinom 1y ago
    It isn't just the business ventures. Mozilla has pissed away funds on feel good activities that have nothing to do with developing a browser. Let's not forget giving their CEO raises and bonuses while holding layoffs the same year. They are cooked.
    • giancarlostoro 1y ago
      Yeah I agree, I'm sure we're not even scratching the surface.
  • Spivak 1y ago
    You would buy them out so they could focus 100% of their time to an endeavor that doesn't bring in any money except from a ludicrously generous gift from Google that might be illegal? Like I get it, I wish they could just be a browser company too but all their other side ventures are desperate attempts to diversify their revenue. They don't have a billion dollar ad business obviate their need to actually be a business.
    • jm4 1y ago
      Vivaldi seems to be doing ok and they only focus on a free browser. Brave seems to be doing well too, even if some of what they're doing is controversial. I admire them for at least taking a shot. I don't necessarily fault Mozilla for trying to diversify revenue. The problem is when they neglect the browser to work on silly projects like Pocket, VPN's, mail relay, etc. and not even do a good job on those either. All of them were bolted on via acquisition or partnership, felt like an afterthought, and didn't provide anything that wasn't already easily accessible. The organization doesn't execute well at any level and hasn't for a long time. They only exist because of Google and the remaining holdout users who feel obligated to use a sub-par, non-Chromium browser. I'm finally off that bandwagon. For the first time in over 20 years, I don't even have Mozilla's browser installed on my system.
• ChoGGi 1y ago
  Hard to say if I cared a wit for pocket, but fakespot was useful.
  • esafak 1y ago
    I had no confidence in fakespot's ratings.
    • slipnslider 1y ago
      I was always suspicious of Fakespot's ratings and had very little ways to properly A/B test. I would see products on Amazon - both with 4.5 stars - but one would have a Fakespot score of 1 star and the other would be 4 stars. After that Honey expose I started to wonder if Fakespot was simply trying to steal the last click referrer and using its "we filter fake reviews" as a cover/lure to get people to use it.
    • registeredcorn 1y ago
      I thought Fakespot was an interesting premise for using LLMs in a vaguely legitimate way, but I did get the sensation that by using it, it would eventually come out years later that it was doing something nefarious, similar to Honey. My assumption was that it would either teach fake reviews to get much better to be harder to identify...or it'd get sold off to some company that had a vested interest in keeping fake reviews around. I suppose this second possibility could still be the case! :)
    • dangus 1y ago
      I can see why it needs to be shut down: I think that Amazon has almost certainly worked to limit the usability and usefulness of such an app. Plus, sellers have more tools than ever at their disposal to generate "real" reviews, including plain and simple bribes to real customers to make them, completely unenforceable by Amazon.
• dgimla20 1y ago
  I remember using Pocket briefly and wondering what the purpose of it was when you could just save bookmarks in any stock web browser.
• micromacrofoot 1y ago
  To be honest I don't think fakespot can work anymore, only the most egregious uses of AI can be detected these days... a couple sentences in a prompt can make it undetectable, especially considering they're a third party with limited access to behavior heuristics of amazon users
• omgmajk 1y ago
  It's a shame, I have been a Pocket user for a long time and I use it daily with my Kobo e-reader now. It was also a little money from me every month for Mozilla, I use Firefox so I felt like it was worth it.
• solarkraft 1y ago
  Pocket is a bit like Pinterest: It’s actually a joy to use, but it has a significant number of haters because it’s forced on people who don’t want it. This is why, as a non-user, I’m celebrating its death for the simple reason that it won’t be integrated in Firefox anymore. Mozilla completely did this to themselves.
• palmotea 1y ago
  Wait what? They own Fakespot and they're shutting it down?
• taylorbuley 1y ago
  There should be a poison pill for these types of services that give the guy from Pinboard the first right of refusal.
• dudeinhawaii 1y ago
  Sad to see Fakespot shutdown after purchase. I rely on Fakespot for a sort of ground-truth when navigating Amazon. When faced with 20 similar items, all having thousands of faked review scores, it was helpful to get the A-F rating. While these tools didn't really need to live in the browser, by purchasing and then killing them, they've done the web a disservice. "Fakespot's analysis of online shopping reviews didn't fit a model we could sustain" I feel like you figure that out before you purchase the largest tool for analyzing and detecting fake product reviews.
  • EA-3167 1y ago
    You know how it goes, embrace, extend, extinguish isn't just for MS anymore. I'm in your shoes here, Fakespot is really useful on Amazon when it warns you about a seller having problems for example.
  • metadat 1y ago
    Yes, losing Fakespot is brutal! Will Mozilla consider open-sourcing it? Then someone who cares can pickup the torch. This New "AdLand" Mozilla is way << worse than << Old Moz. To Amazon's credit, at least now they do surface some junky items as"Frequently Returned", which I've found very useful to differentiate between and avoid the worst trash clones.
• AbstractH24 1y ago
  So you are saying the articles I've been saving to "read later" for nearly a decade are never gonna get read? Who'd have thunk?
• jdlyga 1y ago
  Mozilla fell into the trap of buying services and focusing all their efforts on integrating them without improving them. Mozilla needs to focus on their browser's UI. Nobody is going to buy into their ecosystem unless the browser is good. Arc Browser is the direction they need to go in. Firefox first got popular because its UI was radically better than anything else out there at the time.
• SamuelAdams 1y ago
  I'm actually excited about this - it's one less thing I need to disable in `about:config`. I've always been confused as to why pocket is integrated directly into the browser as opposed to being a browser extension.
• tehlike 1y ago
  I wonder how much ongoing cost this would endure for a solo developer. I would be more than happy to sustain this if it's not too terrible. How do i acquire this?
• krick 1y ago
  Never heard of Fakespot, but Pocket is a loss. I don't use it as much anymore, but it was a very convenient way to keep my reading queue. I mean, honestly, it didn't really solve the problem for me completely, because I saved way more that I read, but at some point I relied on it heavily.
  • ProAm 1y ago
    Fakespot is great. Basically tells you how many customer reviews are real vs bots. Helps with amazon purchases determining what is counterfeit vs real product
    • occamsrazorwit 1y ago
      I've always been suspicious about how many brand-name products that I wouldn't give a second thought about in a store were marked as D or F.
• qwerty456127 1y ago
  Does anybody know a good service providing an API capable of categorizing URLs? I have a big collection of unsorted bookmarks I want to categorize by subject. I was planning to use Pocket for this. Is there any good alternative?
• irrational 1y ago
  So, I have a ton of links in pocket. Any suggestions on where to move them to? This feels like yet another wake up call to only use open source software.
• qwerty456127 1y ago
  I have discovered so many things thanks to the Pocket home page.
• anshumankmr 1y ago
  Very sad to see Pocket. I had briefly been a paid user. Really shocked, not sure what is an easy alternative beyond Pinterest, which itself a nightmare nowadays.
• andrepd 1y ago
  > Pocket has helped millions save articles and discover stories worth reading. But the way people save and consume content on the web has evolved, so we’re channeling our resources into projects that better match browsing habits today. The link to "more info" links to a page with this exact same vague text...
• OG_BME 1y ago
  I recently migrated to Linkwarden [0] from Pocket, and have been happy with the decision. Linkwarden is open source and self-hostable. I wrote a python package [1] to ease the migration of Pocket exports to Linkwarden. [0] https://linkwarden.app/ https://linkwarden.app/ [1] https://github.com/fmhall/pocket2linkwarden https://github.com/fmhall/pocket2linkwarden
• namegulf 1y ago
  It is about time With search and search history so powerful and handy, when did we go back to a bookmark or pocket saved item? Now with AI it's even more irrelevant, those days of FOMO is over Information is at our fingertips and we can get to it in any time, it's the new ERA!
• seec 1y ago
  That's a pretty good display of the nonsense of SaaS. Someone who has paid for premium will find itself with a shitty export that won't be usable without investing a lot of time into importing somewhere else or making some sort of software to exploit it. And there is no way to prolong its useful life by keeping an old system around or make it work in a VM. Subscription software is a travesty and only cares about extracting the most money from customers. It's not even worth much in terms of compute requirements because you still need to invest in decent hardware for other softwares (that most likely won't ever be able to be fully remote). Web software isn't bad but the hostage situation it allows is pretty bad. But then again, even Apple with their pride in native local software has pushed subscription to extract the most money possible, so... Greed is such a destructive sin.
• nzp 1y ago
  I was looking to replace it for quite some time now due to the Safari extension and also the website being very buggy with tags for too long. I didn’t have time to investigate alternatives, so this announcement came as a relief for me — it forced me to finally address the issue. Can’t say I’m surprised with this move, since it felt like abandonware for years now. Switched to Goodlinks and am very pleased with it for now.
• BaldEagle58 1y ago
  I have exported my Pocket data TAKE OUT and I have all my links But how do I make sense of the time_added column? Can I convet 1491409103 to a date / time in Excel?
  • defrost 1y ago
    Reading up on various time formats would be a start. If that number is UNIX seconds after epoch and corresponds to ( Wednesday, April 5, 2017 4:18:23 PM GMT+0 )then this might help: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/46130132/converting-unix-time-into-date-time-via-excel https://stackoverflow.com/questions/46130132/converting-unix...
• BaldEagle58 1y ago
  I have exported all my Pocket data using TAKEOUT. But how do I make sense of the time_added column? For example what does 1491409103 mean in date/time? I am using Excel.
• BuckRogers 1y ago
  I never understood Pocket and it felt like the beginning of the end for me. They also removed RSS toolbar support. Everything just kept going wrong and worse over time until I moved to Edge. 20 years of Firefox use is tough to break, but they did it with adding bad features, and removing great ones.
• hauget 1y ago
  RE: Pocket, I could care less as I've been an Instapaper user for years, but it does give one a hint at the direction Mozilla has been on for a number of years now... RE: Fakespot, this one really really hurts. Even if the ratings weren't accurate sometimes, it helped guide me in the direction of finding and distinguishing bad/fake products from good (or good enough). I always wondered what their business model was... Sad to see that their competitor Reviemeta also died out. Is there no hope for an alternative to these? Any thoughts on making a service like Fakespot and having it be profitable or at least self-sustaining? I can only think of a subscription service for having curated reviews, maybe prioritizing reviews from susbscribers...
• burnt-resistor 1y ago
  Fuck you, Mozilla. Seriously. F U!
• lilerjee 1y ago
  If you want to find the alternatives, you can try metaessen[1], it is a simple, useful, powerful, and concise bookmark manager or simple note-taking app, and it is free the first year and the price is low now. [1] https://metaessen.com/ https://metaessen.com/
• robroyhobbs 1y ago
  I ran across Freemark (freemark.did.life) recently. It's a bookmark site thats decentralized and has an option to migrate my bookmarks over. Planning on trying it.