Microsoft’s latest release from its Live Labs, Thumbtack, aims at some of the same bookmarking territory covered by Delicious, Google Bookmarks, and other store-and-check-later services. It’s not quite as fleshed out as those services in terms of functionality (or bug testing), but its JavaScript-heavy interface makes for easier, mouse-driven organisation and relatively useful page storage. Select text and hit Thumbtack’s bookmarklet, and everything seems to work fine. Hit the bookmarklet on a fresh web page, however, and any JavaScript or coding on the page seems to confuse the pop-up box, though the page stores in stripped-down text form. The box/”gadget” view of your bookmarks is a nice change from the standard vertical list of links, but dragging and dropping between collections can be a bit problematic. Thumbtacks looks like it will be worth checking out later when it’s had a bit more time in the oven. The service is free to use, requires just a username to get started (so, fair warning, your bookmarks may be public).
Thumbtack [Microsoft Live Labs via ReadWriteWeb]Windows/Mac/Linux (Firefox): Previously featured bookmarking extension Read It Later has added a host of new features in a recent update, including a couple that open up the service to non-Firefox browsers. The most obvious features are a check-to-save tool that adds the add-on’s signature checkmarks to Google Reader items, as well as an option to use the pageview-counting PostRank service to rank your to-read items. Those using non-Firefox browsers can now get an account and bookmarklets from the Read It Later List site, and enable an option in the Firefox add-on to have everything you mark for later reading saved as an offline copy. Wondering what all the fuss is about a seemingly simple bookmark tool? Check out Gina’s screenshot tour of the award-winning add-on. Read It Later is a free download and works wherever Firefox does. Read It Later [Mozilla Add-Ons]
Windows/Internet Explorer only: Yahoo has released a beta version of their browser plug-in for social bookmarking tool del.icio.us for Internet Explorer. It’ll look pretty familiar to anyone who’s used their del.icio.us Bookmarks Firefox add-on (original post), with toolbar buttons for quick bookmarking and tag browsing, and complete integration and syncing with local bookmarks. It’s still faster and more convenient than heading to del.icio.us or utilising tag-required bookmarklets, however. The del.icio.us add-on runs on Internet Explorer 6, 7, and even the IE8 beta on Windows XP and Vista.
Writing your blog should be a fun way to stretch your mind and stay connected to trends, friends, and the greater world, not another computer task that takes far too long to get done. But that’s exactly what it can feel like if it takes you more time to find your post ideas, tweak your markup, and make everything look right than to actually get your thoughts down. Being somewhat experienced at this blogging thing, your Lifehacker editors have pinpointed a few tools and tricks that make our posts go faster and smoother. After the jump, we round up 10 of them.
Having an easily-accessible wish list means not having to be unpleasantly surprised at your friends and relatives’ … creativity when a birthday, holiday, or plain old surprise rolls around. Rather than creating separate, often hard-to-find wish lists on sites like Amazon or Newegg, del.isili.st can pull any sites you’ve tagged on social bookmarking site de.icio.us with the phrase “wishlist” and display them on a clean, white page of links. The main drawback is that you have to keep the del.icio.us links public, so anyone could potentially see your material goods fixations, but most wish lists are public on other sites anyway. Del.isihli.st is a free site and requires no sign-up. del.ishli.st [via etc.]
Mac OS X only: Freeware Safari plug-in Keywurl brings the time-saving convenience of keyword searches to Safari, allowing users to type something like imdb Semi-Pro into the address bar to search IMDB rather than first going to the home page. Granted, this functionality comes built in to Firefox, and with a few tweaks to Firefox you can really supercharge your address bar with keyword bookmarks and searches, but for anyone who sticks with Safari for its raw speed and Mac-ness, Keywurl is a must-have. Keywurl is freeware, Mac OS X only. Keywurl [via TUAW]
Windows only: Freeware application Netlicious is a desktop Del.icio.us client from which you can view and manage all of your Del.cio.us bookmarks. The application is set up very much like a traditional desktop newsreader or email application, with all your tags in the left sidebar, individual bookmarks in a top pane, and a browser preview for bookmarks below that. Netlicious makes viewing or editing your bookmarks a breeze, with a quick search integration and everything else you’d want from a desktop Del.icio.us tool. Netlicious is freeware beta application, Windows only, requires .NET 2.0. Netlicious [via FreewareGenius]
If you like the idea of online bookmarking but don’t necessarily care about the “social” or tagging aspects of sites like del.icio.us or Digg, Instapaper is the site for you. Rather than adding browser buttons or relying on specialised icons to add web pages to your story queue, you simply click a bookmarklet to add pages, and hit “Skip” if you want to delegate a link for later reading. All your links are sorted into three categories (Unread, Recently Read, and Recently Skipped) for quick browsing, and the super-clean interface would make even del.icio.us jealous. Better still, the site has an iPhone/iPod touch friendly version. For compiling reading lists or even using as a secondary bookmarking site for projects, Instapaper might be right up your back-to-basics alley. Instapaper is a free service that requires a sign-up. Instapaper [via TechCrunch]
Windows/Mac/Linux (Firefox): Keep track of your daily to-read list with the Read it Later Firefox extension. Similar to previously mentioned Readeroo—which integrates directly with Del.icio.us—Read it Later takes a slightly different approach, keeping your reading list local until you read it and decide whether or not you want to bookmark it. If you do, you have the option to bookmark on any number of popular bookmarking sites, from Del.icio.us to Digg. The drawback is that Read it Later doesn’t currently sync across browsers, which would be a nice touch. Read it Later is free, works wherever Firefox does.
Read it Later [via the How-To Geek]Windows/Mac/Linux (Firefox): Simplify your morning coffee-and-web routine with the Morning Coffee Firefox extension. Morning Coffee bookmarks your regular reads by day (or by combinations of days) and opens up the appropriate set of bookmarks for each day with the click of a button. So let’s say you check an infrequently updating site every Tuesday and Thursday, but you want to get your fix of Lifehacker every day. You can set up Morning Coffee to open specific sites only on specific days so that each morning you’re ready to do your routine reading, you’ll get exactly the sites you want. Granted, you could do something similar by creating bookmark folders for each day, but getting the same feature set out of that method wouldn’t be nearly as simple. Morning Coffee is free, works wherever Firefox does.
AU – I’m pretty sure we’ve already written up Morning Coffee – apologies for the duplication.
Morning Coffee [Firefox Add-ons via Web Worker Daily]
