Raindrop is a great tool for organizing bookmarks

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Raindrop is a terrific free tool for organizing bookmarks. I exploit it to save lots of hyperlinks for courses I’m instructing and matters I’m researching. I additionally save hyperlink collections to share with associates, colleagues and readers.

These are Raindrop’s finest options:

Straightforward and free on any platform

• Download the Raindrop app for Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, or any browser. When you’ve put in the browser extension, it’s straightforward to save lots of a hyperlink to any Internet web page and optionally add a be aware or tag for future reference. Bookmarks can have as many tags as you’d like for straightforward looking. Hyperlinks can be positioned into a assortment, which is mainly a folder.
• Pricing: I like to recommend the free plan, which permits for limitless hyperlinks, collections, highlights, units, public sharing, collaboration, and integrations. It has the first options most individuals want and there’s no stress to pay.
• Professional: The $3/month choice ($28/annual) provides a few fancy options, together with:
  • Discover duplicate or damaged hyperlinks in your assortment
  • Search the textual content of all websites you save
  • Protect computerized copies of every Internet web page you save in case the unique website goes offline
  • Add 10GB of recordsdata every month to retailer your individual recordsdata, photos, PDFs, movies, and so forth.

Share hyperlinks and collaborate on collections

All of your hyperlink collections are personal, and you may share them at will. Show your hyperlinks in a record, as playing cards in a gallery, or as a visible moodboard.

• Add collaborators to a assortment for a crew or household undertaking.
• Publish collections of hyperlinks that anybody can freely entry while not having to make use of Raindrop or to enroll or register.
• Embed hyperlink collections to host them on a web site.
• Examples: Public hyperlink collections I’ve saved:
  • Revenue streams for niche journalism ventures. A curated assortment of the way to earn money.
  • Pandemic-era online events platforms. A catalog of the flurry of apps that launched to assist folks collect on-line.

Use AI to help with organizing your hyperlinks

A brand new AI group tool helps with organizing your hyperlinks. It is going to recommend a assortment or tag for unsorted bookmarks, or a tag. That’s particularly useful if, like me, you typically overlook to tag or file what you save.

Integrations: Robotically sync hyperlinks throughout platforms

You possibly can join Raindrop to different providers so you’ll be able to entry hyperlinks you’ve saved later wherever and nevertheless you want them.

• Raindrop can log hyperlinks robotically to a Google spreadsheet or a Notion web page. You don’t need to manually add them.
• Sync hyperlinks you save in Raindrop to Readwise, Instapaper or Pocket for studying later. You may also import hyperlinks from these providers to Raindrop.
• Raindrop works properly with IFTTT and Make, providers that hyperlink collectively a number of apps. [Here’s my take on IFTTT’s usefulness]. Pairing a type of apps with Raindrop lets it robotically acquire hyperlinks to the songs you favourite on Spotify, Tweets you want, or movies you want on YouTube. There are greater than 2600 complete potential integrations. That makes Raindrop a helpful hub for gathering and organizing all of your favourite hyperlinks from no matter providers you utilize.

Export and import

It’s straightforward to import and export hyperlinks with Raindrop.

• Export: As an alternative of dumping out your complete treasury of hyperlinks, you’ll be able to export simply a related batch of hyperlinks with a specific tag. Or export a hyperlink assortment (folder). You possibly can export the hyperlinks as a CSV file for a spreadsheet, as an HTML file, or as textual content.
• Import: Import links you’ve saved simply from different providers. Herald hyperlinks you’ve saved to browser, Evernote, or apps like Diigo, Dropmark, Goodlinks, and so forth.

Steered methods to make use of Raindrop

• Manage undertaking analysis: Park undertaking supplies in a Raindrop assortment as you conduct analysis on-line. Save hyperlinks into a neat Raindrop assortment quite than printing out piles of paper or stuffing hyperlinks into Phrase or GDocs. You possibly can even annotate hyperlinks as you go. It’s a easy, free, quick strategy to create a personal or shared digital undertaking file field.
• Collect and collaborate on hobbies: Use it to assemble hyperlinks with associates. If you happen to’re a part of a membership, crew, pastime or fan group, you’ll be able to collectively drop in your favourite hyperlinks, with or with out annotations.
• Share assets for a presentation or workshop: If you happen to educate or give talks, Raindrop is helpful for sharing presentation hyperlinks or assets. Share one hyperlink to a assortment and attendees can see all of your supplies in a single spot, together with all of your hyperlinks, movies, and a PDF of your slides or handouts.
  • Notice: I normally want Craft for useful resource sharing after displays as a result of it permits me to create a full visible doc, quite than a useful resource record, however Raindrop works properly if you’re primarily sharing hyperlinks.
• Create a temper board: For planning an occasion, social gathering, or a renovation, Raindrop will be helpful for saving inspiring photos or hyperlinks. The moodboard format choice offers you a good visible view of your hyperlinks with cowl photos. It additionally robotically pulls within the description from any hyperlink you save.

Caveats

• Cell app visuals. Photos in articles saved to Raindrop—significantly in paywall publications like The New York Instances—might not present all present if you learn on the cellular app. I want to learn saved articles in Readwise Reader (see alternate options beneath).
• Packrats beware. As somebody who saves greater than I discover time to devour, I confess to a digital packrat tendency. Including one more storage hub like this may lead you to overwhelm your self with an avalanche of saved stuff that you simply lack time to assessment.
• Keep away from duplicate hubs. No want so as to add one other digital sock drawer in case your group system already works properly. When you have a well-established system in Notion, Coda, Airtable, Obsidian or someplace else, stick with what’s working. These platforms will let you create your individual customized organizational construction with superior filtering.
• Tiny crew. Raindrop was envisioned, constructed, and managed by one particular person – Rustem Mussabekov, a Kazakhstan-based designer/developer. It’s been round for greater than a decade, however its progress depends closely on Rustem.

Notable Raindrop Alternate options

• Readwise Reader is my most popular app for catching up with on-line studying on the subway or airplane. (Why I like it). If you happen to’re largely saving studying materials, Readwise is well-designed for each on-line & offline studying & highlighting. 
  • Tip: It’s additionally good for watching + highlighting YouTube movies.
• Instapaper, Pocket and Matter are additionally good choices particularly designed for saving articles to learn later, although none are supreme in the event you’re saving other forms of hyperlinks, like product pages or photos.
• MyMind is a rather more visually interesting visible storage hub for saving supplies on-line. Right here’s why I find it useful.
• Fabric is a new tool I’ve been testing for clipping notable materials I discover on-line. It’s aiming to create an AI-powered strategy to search all of your supplies.
• Eagle simply launched model 4.0. It’s finest for saving and organizing photos and screenshots you discover on-line. Right here’s what I like about Eagle.
• Dropbox has a new characteristic to save lots of hyperlinks and screenshots. That’s helpful for streamlined group if all of your recordsdata are already saved in Dropbox.

This text is republished with permission from Surprise Instruments, a publication that helps you uncover probably the most helpful websites and apps. Subscribe here.