Bookmarking tools help track, mark, download, or otherwise set pages or articles aside in a convenient, easy-to-read way that’s more intuitive than simply bookmarking sites in your browser. This is sometimes referred to as social bookmarking, though your bookmarks don’t have to be shared with others. Here’s a list of some of the best bookmarking tools available.
Instapaper
Instapaper is one of the most popular bookmarking tools on the web. It saves and formats articles to be more readable, eliminating the clutter that often accompanies web page articles.
Text-to-speech feature overcomes visual and reading impairments.
The web version is ad free.
Limited multimedia support.
No desktop app versions.
Apps are available for Kindle, iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, and Android. Everything you save can be called up later on any of these devices that link to your Instapaper account. Likewise you can access your saved content through any desktop or mobile browser.
A browser extension makes saving articles easy: Simply hit the Instapaper button Then, visit your Instapaper account to read the material when you have more time.
Visit Instapaper
Formerly known as Read It Later, Pocket allows you to save almost anything from your browser and other web apps such as Twitter, email, Flipboard, and Pulse. You can tag what you save to help you organize, sort, and find content.
Comprehensive multimedia support.
Social network for sharing articles.
Offline viewing capability.
No text highlighting.
No support for comments.
Pocket is easy to use, even for beginners. You don’t need an internet connection to read stuff stored in Pocket, and you can view items you’ve saved from a wide range of devices including tablets and smartphones.
Visit Pocket
If you’re more into collecting visual content and sharing it in a social medium, you need to be on Pinterest. Pinterest allows you to create as many organized pinboards composed of images and content you “pin.”
Powerful search features.
Easy to share pins on other social media platforms.
Pinning articles takes a few more steps than it should.
Easy to get distracted and lose hours browsing the website.
Download the Pinterest toolbar button so you can pin anything you stumble across while web browsing. Just click Pin It, and the tool pulls all the images from the web page, from which you choose one to pin with your link. You can organize your pins into boards for easy retrieval and viewing.
Visit Pinterest
Evernote Web Clipper
If you have not yet discovered the amazing organizational possibilities of the cloud-based tool Evernote, you’re in for a revelation.
Nice selection of annotation tools.
Very lightweight and user-friendly.
Sometimes has compatibility issues with browser updates.
No Gmail integration.
Evernote is great for so much more than bookmarking, but its Web Clipper tool is essential for saving and tagging pages in whole or in part. Clips can be stored in notebooks to keep them organized.
Visit Evernote Web Clipper
Trello
Trello is a personal or team-based collaboration tool for sharing information and performing tasks, functioning like a mix between Pinterest and Evernote. You use it to build lists of other lists containing cards of information.
Many uses beyond bookmarking.
Terrific mobile support with an outstanding visual layout.
More features than needed if you just want a bookmark tool.
There are more robust tools for professional collaboration.
Trello also has a convenient browser add-on that you can drag to your bookmarks bar and then use whenever you’re visiting a web page that you’d like to save as a card.
Visit Trello
Bitly
Bitly is mainly known as a link shortener and marketing tool, but you can use it as a bookmarking tool as well. Install the Bitly extension to Chrome or Firefox and use the Android or iOS app to easily save any web page as a bitlink to your account. Your links will be viewable under Your Bitlinks. Tag and search functions help you keep them organized.
Highly useful for social media marketing.
Bundles feature organizes links to share.
Everything is shared publicly by default.
Multitude of features can be overwhelming.
Visit Bitly
Flipboard is a personal magazine app that you’ll appreciate if you like the layout of a classic magazine.
Offers good deals on magazine subscriptions.
Attractive interface for reading offline.
Web version lacks features found in the mobile app.
Trending content is often repetitive.
You don’t need to save your own links to start using Flipboard; it shows you articles and posts based on what’s being shared by people in your social networks. You can curate your own magazines with links that you collect for custom content. The easiest way to do this is to install the bookmarklet or extension.
Visit Flipboard
Digg
Once a popular social bookmarking site, Digg is now primarily a news aggregator that you can use to discover and save interesting articles. There’s still a bit of a social twist to the platform with its Digg feature, which is like a thumbs-up to vote the story up.
Access to new editions every weekday at 9 a.m.
Access to the latest handpicked articles and products.
Clean interface on both web and app.
Website isn’t secured with an SSL certificate.
No way to search your own saves.
Digg specializes in bringing its audience content in topics such as tech, science, politics, and entertainment. Whenever you see an article you like, you can select the bookmark icon on it to add it to the Saved section of your Digg account.
Visit Digg
Mix
StumbleUpon was discontinued as a service in 2018 and rolled into Mix, which is a platform you can use to discover and curate interesting things you find online. In addition to letting you follow topics of interest, you also can follow individual users (which might be suggested to you, depending on who in your current social networks is also on Mix).
Social bookmarking with ability to follow users and be followed.
Ability to organize saved content into collections.
Ability to choose interests and have content curated for you.
Som unique features of StumbleUpon didn’t make it into Mix.
Clicks on stories take you to the original site so you don’t get to stay on a clean, streamlined layout.
When you find a story you like, add it to an existing or new collection, like categories for your bookmarks. Other users can follow and subscribe to your collections.
Visit Mix
You can use Reddit, the popular social news site, as a personal bookmarking tool. The site is largely known for its upvote/downvote features that push the good content to the top, and you can use the Save button on any post to add it to your Saved tab in your profile.
One of the best sources of news and popular content on the web.
Commenting provides a strong community aspect.
Lots of extra features including messages, separate activity tabs, awards, and more.
Not built to be a content reader, so you have to click off the site to view content.
Overwhelming number of subreddits, many of which are inactive or rarely updated.
Reddit is the only bookmarking tool on this list that has a real community engagement component. Unlike the rest, which might allow you to connect with friends in your social network and follow them/be followed, Reddit allows you to read comments from other users and post your own.
Visit Reddit
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