Bogleheads: Does anyone organise the things they read online?

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Tellurius
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Bogleheads: Does anyone organise the things they read online?

Post by Tellurius »

Hi,

I read a lot of interesting things online but then “lose” them forever because I don’t record the address or the content.

Does anyone record what they read somehow? And what would be some ways/programs/add-ons/apps to do so without taking a lot of time?

Thank you
“And how shall I think of you?' He considered a moment and then laughed. 'Think of me with my nose in a book!” | ― Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
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squirrel1963
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Re: Bogleheads: Does anyone organise the things they read online?

Post by squirrel1963 »

I bookmark like crazy and save bookmarks in my account.
The nice thing of saving bookmarks into an online account is that they are backed up automatically and they will sync on all the devices you have.

If you are using Windows the easiest ways are:
* Edge will sync all bookmarks into Microsoft live account.
* Chrome will sync all bookmarks into Google account.
The account sync needs to be setup once in your browser on all the devices you use, for instance desktop and laptop.

I have and use both since they are my favorite browsers.

You can do the same with Firefox, but I haven't used it in a long time.

Edit : for BH, I also use BH bookmarks.
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jebmke
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Re: Bogleheads: Does anyone organise the things they read online?

Post by jebmke »

The browser history will show all the sites you visited chronologically.
Don't trust me, look it up. https://www.irs.gov/forms-instructions-and-publications
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AnnetteLouisan
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Re: Bogleheads: Does anyone organise the things they read online?

Post by AnnetteLouisan »

You can add sites to favorites with the bookmark feature. You can also send the page link to yourself in an email.
Point
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Re: Bogleheads: Does anyone organise the things they read online?

Post by Point »

Evernote is a good tool for cataloging articles and other items for later recall
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life in slices
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Re: Bogleheads: Does anyone organise the things they read online?

Post by life in slices »

I have been using Pocket for many years - it will bring most content (except PDFs) into an offline reader (computer or phone/ipad) where you can archive it or add tags for future searching. You can also add an extension to your browser for a one click process.

I probably have 1-2K articles archived across many interests
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Re: Bogleheads: Does anyone organise the things they read online?

Post by jebmke »

Point wrote: Tue Aug 16, 2022 7:22 am Evernote is a good tool for cataloging articles and other items for later recall
I used to use Evernote - mainly for travel info to access on the road. But I ran into very bad replication processes (errors) so I shifted to OneNote (which is free, even offline). But I rarely travel now so I don't use it for web cataloging much.
Don't trust me, look it up. https://www.irs.gov/forms-instructions-and-publications
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Re: Bogleheads: Does anyone organise the things they read online?

Post by runner3081 »

I use Todoist and have a "Read and Discard", "Financial - Keep" and "Health - Keep" list of articles.

If it is very important and I am afraid it may disappear, I save the entire article in Google Drive, i.e., Mad Fientist withdrawal article!
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Bogle7
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3 methods for me

Post by Bogle7 »

1. Bookmarks in browser.
2. https://raindrop.io/ Bookmark manager
3. Print PDF and save in appropriate folder.

I have not tried readwise.io , but looks interesting.
Last edited by Bogle7 on Thu Aug 18, 2022 3:46 am, edited 1 time in total.
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mrb09
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Re: Bogleheads: Does anyone organise the things they read online?

Post by mrb09 »

If you have a Mac, Safari has a "save to notes" function that will create a new note or append to an existing one with the URL link and preview. You can jot notes for the link that are also searchable. I use that over bookmark managers for the search feature.
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Drew31
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Re: Bogleheads: Does anyone organise the things they read online?

Post by Drew31 »

I also rely heavily on bookmarks. For interesting articles, forum posts or other sites, I put those all in one specific folder so it does not clutter up other folders which I rely on heavily. So it's more of a "I'll come back to this later at some point to re-read."
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Re: Bogleheads: Does anyone organise the things they read online?

Post by ScubaHogg »

Pocket seems like a good solution for this
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Re: Bogleheads: Does anyone organise the things they read online?

Post by stoptothink »

I do research for a living. I have a Word document open all the time where I add new publications I come across (usually when not working) that I may want to share with my staff or write a blog article about. This document is now over a dozen pages.

Other than that, no.
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Elsebet
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Re: Bogleheads: Does anyone organise the things they read online?

Post by Elsebet »

I usually save things like this to google drive in an appropriate folder for the content.
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Freefun
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Re: Bogleheads: Does anyone organise the things they read online?

Post by Freefun »

Instapaper.
Remember when you wanted what you currently have?
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Taylor Larimore
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Re: Bogleheads: Does anyone organise the things they read online?

Post by Taylor Larimore »

Tellurius wrote: Tue Aug 16, 2022 3:14 am Hi,

I read a lot of interesting things online but then “lose” them forever because I don’t record the address or the content.

Does anyone record what they read somehow? And what would be some ways/programs/add-ons/apps to do so without taking a lot of time?

Thank you
Tellurius:

I have a portion of our library reserved for investment history and research. In addition to many books about investing, it contains 26 loose-leaf binders filled with investment articles I've used for my own education, books I've written, and forum postings.

Best wishes.
Taylor
Jack Bogle's Words of Wisdom: "Better to know about the past than to remain ignorant of the lessons it may hold.”
"Simplicity is the master key to financial success." -- Jack Bogle
Caduceus
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Re: Bogleheads: Does anyone organise the things they read online?

Post by Caduceus »

My stuff is only partially organized. I used to take screenshots and that was a horrible way of organizing anything. Now I just use the "Save Page as" function. I like that because it opens up the page in the exact format and is easy to read.

I have a zero-inbox habit for work/financial/personal stuff so my emails are very organized. They're archived the right way and there's very little "to-do" day to day reflected in the inbox. But for the book I'm writing ... I'm a little overwhelmed because I have 8,000 bookmarks/articles/references and I don't even know how to get started.
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billthecat
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Re: Bogleheads: Does anyone organise the things they read online?

Post by billthecat »

It depends on whether or not you know in advance that you'll want to refer back to the page. If you do, then there are any number of methods:
  • You could bookmark it, of course (Bookmarks>Add Bookmark...)
  • You could drag the URL to your desktop, or any other folder
  • You could add the page to your Reading List (bring your pointer over the URL and click the plus sign next to it, or Bookmarks>Add to reading list)
  • You could print to PDF and save it in any folder (File>Export as PDF...), or add it to Books (Share>Save to Books)
  • You could save as a web page (File>Save as)
  • You could add it to Notes (File>Share>Notes)
    You could add it to a Quick Note
and so on.

If you don't know in advance, years ago there used to be browser extensions that would save every web page visited. That has fallen out of favor, though, because most sites are not static html now. Of course, as others have mentioned, you can view and search your browser history (but not content, unfortunately) (History>Show all history)
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SheReadsHere719
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Re: Bogleheads: Does anyone organise the things they read online?

Post by SheReadsHere719 »

Freefun wrote: Tue Aug 16, 2022 1:14 pm Instapaper.
+1 to Instapaper - I often email articles to my unique Instapaper email so I can download them in the Instapaper app and read them later / offline.
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PicassoSparks
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Re: Bogleheads: Does anyone organise the things they read online?

Post by PicassoSparks »

I use a mix of Instapaper and tabs to manage the queue of reading, Pinboard to capture things I want to remember (it takes a snapshot of the page to archive and I can tag it with terms to search) and Zotero for managing academic papers and other longer form documents.

Pinboard in particular has become great over time since having a full archive of stuff I liked means that when I dimly remember an article, I can search in a much smaller haystack. It takes time to build the archive but it becomes more and more valuable as it accumulates things.
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theRoCK
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Re: Bogleheads: Does anyone organise the things they read online?

Post by theRoCK »

I use chrome browser, with Google Keep extension installed. I do a combination of bookmarks and "Save to Keep" option to keep track of things I want to. You can also select a portion of the webpage and "right-click->save selection to keep" to save just that part.
TightButAggressive
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Re: Bogleheads: Does anyone organise the things they read online?

Post by TightButAggressive »

As data privacy laws continue to grow, websites are less reliable at keeping content available online. For things that are important or valuable that I've read, I "print to pdf" on the article or visualization and will summarize what I learned in a personal "prospectus" I keep in Word. For sites I want to reference but not save forever, I just keep bookmarks.
PoppyA
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Re: Bogleheads: Does anyone organise the things they read online?

Post by PoppyA »

I save them to notes or reminders on my iPad
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Tellurius
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Re: Bogleheads: Does anyone organise the things they read online?

Post by Tellurius »

Thank you for all the responses, it's been useful!
“And how shall I think of you?' He considered a moment and then laughed. 'Think of me with my nose in a book!” | ― Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Pugs1351
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Re: Bogleheads: Does anyone organise the things they read online?

Post by Pugs1351 »

I use pocket but sometimes I can’t read a whole thread at one time and I like the idea of creating a pdf and saving.
chillpenguin
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Re: Bogleheads: Does anyone organise the things they read online?

Post by chillpenguin »

I've been using BrowserParrot (https://www.browserparrot.com/) which extends your browser's history and allows you to do a text search on the content you've seen. I like it because most browsers only save history for ~3 months. I would often find myself searching my history only to realize that what I was looking for wasn't there anymore. So BrowserParrot works well in that regard.

The text search feature isn't as good as I would want it to be, but it does work ok.

For pages I will come back to again and again, I use bookmarks.

For pages that I want to write notes about, I create a note about it in my personal wiki, and link to it from there.
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Re: Bogleheads: Does anyone organise the things they read online?

Post by Beensabu »

You don't want to know how long it takes me to scroll through my bookmarks dropdown to get to near the end to get to the thing I recently bookmarked that I'm trying to find. I should really clean that out. I hate cleaning, though.
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Re: Bogleheads: Does anyone organise the things they read online?

Post by M6WIQ »

I tend to bookmark articles into a set of folders in the bookmark structure. Anything that I am concerned will disappear from the web at some point will be "Printed to PDF" so to speak. That way I have a copy in a format I can print out.

For news/blog articles, I use an RSS reader for various sites and Protopage (protopage.com) as a homepage dashboard for things like weather forecasts, breaking news etc.
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Mr. Rumples
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Re: Bogleheads: Does anyone organise the things they read online?

Post by Mr. Rumples »

I just bookmark in folders as noted above. It is getting a bit unwieldy. Since I mostly bookmark historical things, so far I haven't had one disappear.
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Taylor Larimore
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Re: Bogleheads: Does anyone organise the things they read online?

Post by Taylor Larimore »

Tellurius wrote: Tue Aug 16, 2022 3:14 am Hi,

I read a lot of interesting things online but then “lose” them forever because I don’t record the address or the content.

Does anyone record what they read somehow? And what would be some ways/programs/add-ons/apps to do so without taking a lot of time?

Thank you
Tellurius:

Several decades ago (before the internet) I began saving articles about investments and putting them in loose-leaf binders (26) titled by subject. I still do this but now it is usually printed copies from the internet.

I also save articles and personal messages I have received. Good friends are hard to find, difficult to leave, and impossible to forget.

Best wishes
Taylor
Jack Bogle's Words of Wisdom: “Learn every day, but especially from the experiences of others. It's cheaper!”.
"Simplicity is the master key to financial success." -- Jack Bogle
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Re: Bogleheads: Does anyone organise the things they read online?

Post by abuss368 »

Taylor Larimore wrote: Tue Nov 01, 2022 10:08 am Tellurius:

Several decades ago (before the internet) I began saving articles about investments and putting them in loose-leaf binders (26) titled by subject. I still do this but now it is usually printed copies from the internet.

I also save articles and personal messages I have received. Good friends are hard to find, difficult to leave, and impossible to forget.

Best wishes
Taylor
Jack Bogle's Words of Wisdom: “Learn every day, but especially from the experiences of others. It's cheaper!”.
Hi Taylor -

Impressive sir! I went the other way, based on your advice, and cleaned out our financial and also non-financial life!

Decluttering has been enjoyable and paid for itself many times over.

Hope you are well.

Best.
Tony
John C. Bogle: “Simplicity is the master key to financial success."
hudson
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Re: Bogleheads: Does anyone organise the things they read online?

Post by hudson »

Tellurius wrote: Tue Aug 16, 2022 3:14 am Hi,

I read a lot of interesting things online but then “lose” them forever because I don’t record the address or the content.

Does anyone record what they read somehow? And what would be some ways/programs/add-ons/apps to do so without taking a lot of time?

Thank you
First, I bookmark "Bookmark Manager" in Google Chrome.
I make folders for bookmarks using the bookmark manager. I have a newer Bogleheads folder and an older one.
I also make a new folder every 2d or 3d month and make it a top folder. I bookmark interesting stuff and put it in the newest folder. I give all bookmarks a descriptive name so that I can use the Bookmark Manager search feature to find it.

I just pulled up the Bookmark Manager and did a search for "Bernstein." 40 entries popped up, each with a few words that give away why I saved it.
Parkinglotracer
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Re: Bogleheads: Does anyone organise the things they read online?

Post by Parkinglotracer »

I use google. When I want to find an article I google it. Age 61 it has worked pretty well so far. I have emailed myself a link on rare occasion.
mega317
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Re: Bogleheads: Does anyone organise the things they read online?

Post by mega317 »

hudson wrote: Wed Nov 02, 2022 6:08 pm First, I bookmark "Bookmark Manager" in Google Chrome.
Love your whole post, especially this. Brilliant.
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tooluser
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Re: Bogleheads: Does anyone organise the things they read online?

Post by tooluser »

I bookmark things regularly. A few times a year I go back through them and delete 90% of the links without ever having read them. Not worth the time.

Of the ones I have read, I usually delete the bookmark after reading them, or have never bookmarked them in the first place. My theory is that I remember almost everything important and rarely forget the best.

I hope that will continue. At worst I can almost always find the facts in a search engine later, though that strategy is getting ever more suspect with time.
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hudson
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Re: Bogleheads: Does anyone organise the things they read online?

Post by hudson »

mega317 wrote: Wed Nov 02, 2022 10:03 pm
hudson wrote: Wed Nov 02, 2022 6:08 pm First, I bookmark "Bookmark Manager" in Google Chrome.
Love your whole post, especially this. Brilliant.
Thanks mega317!
Here's the location of the bookmark manager: chrome://bookmarks/

I drag it to the top of my bookmarks
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