Tools That I Use: Instapaper | IT THOUGHT OF THE DAY

So let me ask you if this is a common scenario for you:

Someone sends you a link to a long web article, or
Your RSS Reader only gives you a synopsis or an article with a link to the full version, or
You start reading a long web story, but you won’t hold your online connection long enough to finish it, or
You wish there was some way to save a great web article that did not depend on the source to stay static, or
You just wish that you could save some great, long web content for later reading on your laptop, smart phone, or Kindle

Well now you can! And, best of all, the service is free!

The service, that I use dozens of times a day, is called Instapaper. It is designed by By Marco Arment. They self describe themselves as, “A simple tool to save web pages for reading later.” But, I have to say that I believe they are being overly modest. You can read their own description via their Frequently Asked Questions page, here.

In a nutshell, you:

Open a free account with them.
Install a bookmark in your browser and/or a bookmarklet app on your tool bar. This works with all the major browsers including mobile safari on the iPhone.
You surf to a page that you like or copy a link. You then go to their bookmark or hit their bookmarklet and Bam! It gets saved. You can also go to your Instapaper Account page and manually paste the link.
To access the saved pages you can use their website, download an iPhone/Android/Blackberry application, or tie it to your Amazon Kindle Account.

That is it! What is really cool is that:

It is smart enough to grab the story and not the page on a blog or news site.
It is smart enough to grab the “for print view” rather than the web view, meaning that you get the whole article and not the first page!
On the very very very few pages that don’t work, it is smart enough to self-detect the error and give you a clean link to go back to it.

I tell you, this is the way to read web pages, blog articles, and news stories later when you have time. Plus, the saved links last forever, giving you a clean way to reference them in the future.

I have to say, Bravo, to the developer. This is master level work that I whole heartedly recommend to my readers. If you are an Information Technology Professional, then you have to be using this service. It is a game changer!

That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for March 29, 2010 by Scott Coughlin.

Image Credit: instapaper.com