Google Save

I am satisfied with my present systems of archiving bookmarks and images, but Google has just announced a new service that may interest others.

Google Save makes use of a Chrome extension to bookmark sites and has included a Save to Google Save button in the Google images site.

The extension for bookmarking is available at https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/save-to-google/meoeeoaohbmgbocpdpnjklmfmjjagkkf. The install adds an icon to the tool bar.

Clicking this icon will add a representation of the page being viewed to Google Save (see below).

Entries can be tagged for more efficient search. Selecting the saved representation of a site produces a larger display with additional information. Selecting the site URL takes you to that site.

Saving images a little differently. Images are available from https://images.google.com. Searching this site brings up images associated with the search term and selecting one image produces the following display. This display now includes a button that will save the image to Google Save (beware copyright issues in using the images).

I do not consider the present version of Google Save to be equal to the features of my present tools, but the service is free and would seem helpful when collecting resources for a project. Improvements would be required for me to consider the service as a way to collect resources long term.

Shaarli

While I recognize the quality of the free or inexpensive social services I can access, I prefer when possible to host services from a server that I control. If you want to develop insights into how technology and specific services work, doing it yourself really gives you a closer look.

Some time ago, I operated a social bookmarking service using open source software called Scuttle. I modified the php code of Scuttle to provide some additional services - allowing users to promote sites they found useful, listing sites by total value to users. Hacking open code is certainly part of the way I learn.

I began to have difficulties with Scuttle and I never figured out if it was because of the code I added or limitations in the original code. There is a problem with MySQL called sql injection. Code included with invited input can cause problems that coder does not intend. This seems to be what happened and while I investigated how to clean up the problem I failed to prevent it completely. It seemed my site was on a list of vulnerable sites somewhere and problems became more frequent. I eventually removed Scuttle from the server.

I am trying it again. This time I am using open source bookmarking software named Shaarli (share links). The software does not use a database backend so this will eliminate the problem I encountered with Scuttle.



My intent is to develop an online source of educational resources. I "seeded" the site using the links I have stored in my Diigo account and plan to add mostly content-specific links as I find them. Take a look at Grabe Bookmarks.