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Gimmebar is a unique entrant into the world of bookmarking, of which there is no shortage. Pioneered by Delicious, social bookmarking has not evolved in any significant way since its inception. Gimmebar would like to change that by inviting you not to bookmark your web, but to save it.

Most sites offer to save a link to whatever web page you’d like to bookmark, serving all of your links up as a list, or a “stack,” or thumbnails, perhaps. Delicious, Pinboard (of which I am a huge fan, mind you), Diigo- all of these do things in much the same way. They present you with this list of your personal links, allowing you to click on them to take you to the original web page. Gimmebar presents your web to you in a different way. Instead of saving links, users save whatever item interests them on a particular page, be it a link, image, text- almost anything- and Gimmebar allows you to view it without leaving their page. Of course, you can still easily get to the original item, but by allowing you to save items in this manner, Gimmebar updates the concept of bookmarking for the modern web.

Presentation

The first page you’ll see is your Library. This is simply all of your saved items, presented in their entirety. If you’ve saved an image, you’ll see the image. The same goes for text, links, etc, so that instead of a simple list of links, you’re greeted with a collage of your personal web- a snapshot of your online consciousness. There are two dropdown menus, allowing you to filter your items by collection or type. Collections are simply subsets of links that you create to organize your items in whatever manner you wish. I have collections set up for mobile screenshots, a product wishlist, writing quotes, generic inspiration, and a few more. You choose your collection when you save an item to Gimmebar (more on that later). Types refer to what type of data you’ve saved. Currently supported types include text, images, full pages, recipes, tweets, and videos. The menu bar to filter or search your library is persistent, so you have quick access to it even when scrolling through collection.

Clicking on the Discovery tab allows you to explore new and interesting items from other Gimmebar users, giving you the option to save each item to your own library without leaving the page. This can be a great way to inspire yourself, or it can serve as a simple and fun timewaster.

The Collections page shows you, first, your own collections, with nested tabs for items you’ve marked as favorites, notable collections selected (I’d imagine) by Gimmebar’s curators, and new collections from your Gimmebar friends- which brings me to the social aspect.

Discovering More Goodness

Arguably the most magical effect of the social revolution is the ability to connect with fascinating people who share your interests. Gimmebar brings this mindset to social bookmarking, allowing you to find and follow other members. Some bookmarking sites have some sort of social feature, but by and large they feel like an afterthought. Using Gimmebar gives the impression that discovery was a very integral part of the original concept, and it shows in the delivery. There’s also a baked-in option to share any worthy collections you come across via Twitter, which is simply one of the ways in which the Gimmebar team has integrated the service with the social networking behemoth.

The fourth tab in the main bar is People. As you might have guessed, this is a way to discover people to follow in Gimmebar. The first tab lists people you “know,” mostly from your Twitter feed, while the second tab lists “Stellar People” selected by the Gimmebar staff.

To save an item to Gimmebar, you’re given two options via the extensions page. There is a Google Chrome extension and a bookmarklet for all non-Chrome users. When you come across an item, simply click the extension button (or the bookmarklet), and across the bottom of your screen will appear the Gimmebar:

If you’ve selected an item that Gimmebar recognizes (ie text or video), you can simply click the resulting “Gimme” button that will pop up next to the item. You can also drag items into the bar to save them. You can choose to make the selection public or private. Once you’ve initiated the process, Gimmebar will auto-fill a title for the bookmark, give it a unique url to share via Twitter, ask you what collection it should go into and whether you’d like to fill in a short description or add tags for easier retrieval.

Other Items of Note

• By connecting to your Instapaper, Pinboard, Twitter, or Delicous accounts, you can even backup items from your existing services.
• Gimmebar has released an API, which means other developers can now create applications that integrate with Gimmebar. This can potentially be huge, since modern web successes are usually based on creating not just an app, but an ecosystem 
• Pro accounts are available at $2/ month, giving you a Pro badge, a first look at new features, and “mystery love.”

In Sum

Gimmebar is a fantastic new take on bookmarking, with a wonderful crew of developers and designers behind it who obviously care about this product a great deal. It’s easy to use, has a stunning interface, and has all the markings of a truly great modern web application. Ironically, if they served up a speedier way to access the full pages (links) I bookmark- the one thing traditional bookmarking services do well- it would likely be the only bookmarking service I use.

Gimmebar | Blog | @gimmebar |  My Gimmebar Profile

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There are distinct advantages to opening a customized start page in every new tab you open in your web browser. Most modern browsers come with a tiled list of thumbnails to give you access to your most frequently visited sites. The potential problem with this approach is that these personalized pages can often lead to random web browsing. If you visit, say, Facebook often, you may open a new tab with the intent of going to a specific page, only to be reminded that you haven't visited Facebook in the past hour... and now Facebook (and all its distractions) is only one click away. 

To streamline your web browsing, try setting your new tabs to redirect to a page that forces you to make a conscious decision as to where in the world wide web you'd like to go. If you use Chrome, you can use this extension to specify exactly which page will open in new tabs. This Firefox extension will do the same thing. (Note: by default, Firefox opens a blank new tab, which is perfect for our purpose, but a bit too bleak). Although I'm not extremely familiar with Safari, I'm sure a bit of Googling will help you find a similar extension. I'm unaware of any such capability for Internet Explorer (which you shouldn't be using, anyway).

Here are a couple of my favorite pages to use in a new tab:

Minimal Start Page: 

It doesn't get any more minimal than this. You are presented with one search box (powered by yubnub) and nothing else.

Helvetictoc:

 Helvetictoc is my new tab page of choice. It's a simple clock, presented in real language, that pays homage to the most popular and timeless of fonts: Helvetica. During daytime hours, it's presented as black text on a white background. During nighttime hours, the colors are inverted. There are no search boxes, so again you must make a conscious decision as to what website is worthy of your attention at a given moment. By subtly reminding you of the time, you can also be aware of how much time was spent doing whatever task you were previously attending to in your last tab.

By eliminating the visual reminder of your most-visited or favorite sites with the opening of every new tab, you eliminate the possibility of random web browsing, which means your online journey becomes a much more deliberate and conscious one. Try it for a few days, if just to remind yourself how unconscious your web browsing habits have become.

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The fragmentation of your personal data is one of the more frustrating aspects of experiencing life on the web. Photos, documents, notes, status updates- anything and everything is spread out across a plethora of services, giving the sense of a disconnect between you and your data. Greplin would like to remedy that.

Greplin is a simple search tool that allows you to connect your current web services (Gmail, Dropbox, Evernote, and a whole lot more), and then use its simple search feature to search for anything across all of those services. It presents the results in a clean, minimal interface, organizing results by service. You can also filter results to restrict your search to notes, mail, events, etc. 

Greplin offers free and premium plans. Currently supported services on the free plan include:

- Gmail

- Facebook

- Twitter

- Dropbox

- LinkedIn

- Google Calendar

- Google Docs

- Google Contacts

- Yahoo Mail

Premium features can be added for $4.99 per month (or $49.00 yearly) and include the following services:

- Evernote

- Basecamp

- Salesforce

- Yammer

- Highrise

- Campfire

Some services listed include a mysterious “unlockable” ribbon, though it’s unclear what constitutes an unlockable service. I was able to add my Reddit, Google Reader, Delicious, and Pinboard accounts, all of which are listed as “unlockable.”

Other than the fact that Greplin is available on your phone, there’s not much more to say about the service, and therein lies the beauty: it’s a simple, no-frills service that allows you to search across virtually all of your data on the web. What would’ve taken you hours to find without this product now, literally, takes seconds.

Greplin / @greplin

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One of the more frustrating aspects of life on the web is the scattering of your property across various services. This is especially true of photos- easily one of the more personal aspects of your digital self. The granddaddy of photo sharing sites is Flickr, but since its inception many other services have competed for the right to host your pictures, chief among them being Facebook. Google has its own web app, Picasa, which it has integrated into its new social network, Google+, and within Twitter there are numerous apps fighting for your attention, not to mention the various services integrated into your mobile experience. The result is an labyrinth of personal pixels and memories difficult to navigate. This is the problem Pictarine attempts to solve.

The first and perhaps most valuable feature of Pictarine is the ability to connect all of your photo-hosting accounts, then back them up locally by downloading a single file to your hard drive. This feature in and of itself makes Pictarine worth the time to sign up. They also give you the option of downloading all of your friends*** photos across services.

 

After logging in and connecting your various accounts, you’ll be presented with the default Pictarine view, an attractive interface that presents your photos in collage format. To the left, you’ll see the sidebar, with your accounts at the top. Simply click an account to see your photos, consolidated into one page and organized by date. There’s even an option to search all of the photos available, from all of your friends, across all services.

Below your albums are all of your contacts from each service, listed alphabetically. Simply find a contact whose photos you’d like to browse, click their name, and Pictarine presents their photos in the same beautiful interface, again organized by date. Clicking on an album presents you with that album’s photos, and the option to download it to your hard drive. You can also click on a specific picture to bring up the picture viewer, in which you can browse single photos or play a slideshow of all of them:

Here's a snapshot of all supported services:

Pictarine seems to have a very simple mission: simplifying your photo experience on the web, and they seem to do it quite well. If you have pictures scattered across the web, it’s hard to deny the allure of this app.

Pictarine/ @pictarine

 

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Many of the leading websites are blacked out today. Wondering what all this SOPA/ PIPA business is about? It's a direct threat against the freedom of the Internet currently being debated in Congress. Google explains it well, and tells you what you can do about it.

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If there is one underlying secret in simplifying the web, it must be to make the web work for you. The vast majority of web users will jump from website to website, browsing until they find an item of interest, then moving on to the next. Power users, however, make the content they want come to them, rather than actively seeking it out.

This is a valuable web philosophy in and of its own right, but I’d like to concentrate on how it applies to your morning routine. There is no more opportune time to get your most important work done- but getting lost in the maze of the web is particularly harmful to your productivity in the wee hours. That being the case, here are my recommendations for creating your morning web.

Some say email is dead. I beg to differ. On the contrary, it can be a very valuable tool, especially to your morning routine. Newsletters are going strong, and are a wonderful way to bring the web to you. The following is a list of newsletters I find valuable enough to warrant my attention on a daily basis:

New York Times

There is still no more valuable source of information than the Times. Every morning, their newsletter arrives in my inbox with the headlines I need to know. Once logged in, you can also subscribe to individual sections of headlines from their digital paper. The Huffington Post is a great alternative (or complement).

Summify

Summify is an indispensable tool to my morning arsenal. Every morning, it scours your Twitter and Facebook feed for the top five most-recommended stories among your friends, and sends them to your inbox. Whether it’s been five minutes or five days since you last checked in with your stream, the cream of the crop is never farther away than your inbox.

NextDraft

NextDraft is a beautifully curated list of articles from Dave Pell, who chooses ten pieces from around the web that he deems worthy of your interest, adding his own commentary and insights to each piece. I’ve subscribed for a few months now, and I eagerly anticipate each new edition.

Using these simple tools, I never have to leave my inbox to satisfy my web hunger- I’m up-to-date on what matters to me, and I’ve completely eliminated random browsing. Once my email is read, I’m ready to move onto the tasks at hand. It’s an easy way to remove friction from your morning web experience, and removing friction is at the heart of simplifying your web.

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