How I Save Bookmarks

Ton asks “What do you use for bookmarking? How do you use bookmarks?”

I have three systems I’ve settled into.

Email myself a link

When I’m reading an article on my mobile that I want to return to in the very near future to read more completely, I email the URL to myself using the built-in Android share-by-email feature. This isn’t elegant, but it puts the URL in my email inbox, where there’s no question that I’ll see it.

FreshRSS Favourites

When I’m scanning my RSS feeds, on either desktop or mobile, using FreshRSS, and I come across something I want to make a point of returning to, but not necessarily immediately, I use the built-in FreshRSS favourites system (tap the star in the header of any item). I make a point of reviewing this section every couple of days. This is the system closest to using Instapaper or Pocket, both of which I’ve tried in the past; the advantage it has for me over those approaches is that because it’s integrated into my feedreader, I don’t have another place to go looking for these items.

Nextcloud Bookmarks

On the desktop, when I encounter something that I want to be able to reference in the medium-to-long term future, rather than read in the near future, I use the Nextcloud Bookmarks app, running on my self-hosted Nextcloud instance, via a bookmarklet in my browser toolbar. This app has been updated recently to include a more visual interface; this is certainly more pleasing to look at, but is overkill for my use (and it’s also rendered the tag editor a little buggy). This is the system closest to what I used to use Pinboard and Delicious for; they were both useful and full-featured, but they weren’t owned-and-operated, which is why I migrated. I only rarely miss the social features of those systems.

To be honest, bookmarking things in this way is most useful in the mechanism it provides for assuaging “I should really bookmark this” feeling, in the moment, rather than for any practical utility it affords in the actual medium-to-long term future. I have found it a useful way to collect links to hotels, restaurants and other places I want to visit (I’ve got a very rich “Berlin” tag in this regards).

My bookmarking hygiene is nowhere near as rich as Ton’s; it seems that it’s “saving a list of things to see in Berlin” is the area of greatest overlap.