This is a conclusion I came to some time ago. Around the time Delicious were rumoured to be closing down, I began looking for another bookmark solution. Browsers offer syncing between devices now which is very convenient, but it relies on you using the same browser all the time. I’m far from loyal on the browser front and switch between Chrome, Safari and Firefox from update to update. In addition to this, I find the inbuilt bookmarking facilities on browsers to be too basic. With the sheer amount of information available online and the numerous topics under which it falls, folders and line breaks don’t really cut it anymore.

My hunt for a new bookmarking solution was fruitless, so I’ve been making do with different sets of bookmarks in different browsers. It hasn’t made any difference to me, because in all honesty with the exception of a few links here and there, after they are bookmarked they disappear. They gather dust in a meaningless folder of links, never to be bothered with again. Bookmarks are an outdated feature, a way to save brochure sites you like the look of, in case you want to visit again. Gone are those days, obviously we now have RSS to keep up with our favourite blogs and functionality within those RSS clients / services to bookmark individual posts we want to keep around for longer, but what about everything else? There are great services that help us to bookmark various things and functionality within apps which help us bookmark posts there internally, but it all feels a bit fragmented. I’ve got screenshots saved on my phone and desktop, notes in Evernote / Notes, a ‘pictures’ folder on my HDD containing things which don’t really belong anywhere else, favourites saved on my apps and an extensive yet useless bookmarks folder. Unless used at the time, they tend to lose all meaning. I often find myself saving things to send to my friends, which I then email to them and visa versa, only to be lost in our inboxes. This issue I think is one shared by many, with so much juicy content out there and so little time, a good all in one solution to save it for later is vital.

When I saw @owltastic‘s Tweet about a new service she had been using called Gimmie Bar, I thought my bookmarking prayers had been answered. I received my invite last night and have to say, they really have. Gimmie Bar is a new web app which allows the user to ‘bookmark’ just about anything from within the browser. The beauty of this is that no longer will you have a big list of irrelevant stuff, in addition to bookmarking links you can save a specific part of that site such as a video, image, text extract or screengrab. This caters for the varying types of content you might want to look at, but then makes a proper interface to browse them with even more important. Gimmie Bar recognised that and have built the app around organisation, allowing the user to curate their own collections. Collections can be public or private and shared with friends. In addition to this you can follow collections of interest to you.

In addition to being a great little app, it’s got a really lovely UI which makes using it a pleasure. It connects seamlessly with your Twitter and automatically suggests followers and their collections to you. You can view a stream of your followers latest collection additions and a searchable library page which contains all items posted.

It’s exactly what I’ve been looking for and I’ve really been enjoying creating my collections, I’ve got various web ones, ones for my hedgehog stuff and ones just to share with specific people. Obviously it’s web based too which gets around any syncing / browser issues. As I write this I’m starting to dust the cobwebs off my bookmarks and see if any are worth salvaging for my collections. It’s in private beta at the moment, so visit the site and sign up for an invite. My profile / collections are here.