This is simply a private read-it-later list and aside from saving a link, nothing like del.icio.us. Crappy title on the post announcing it but not a bad service for some.
I wish more web developers took a moment to state what their site needs up front. I tried to log in a few times with no success, then decided to try different browser settings. Enabling cookies fixed things. The "login failed" page should clearly tell you to enable cookies.
Sigh. This thing clearly only works for a limited set of browsers. Trying the Read Later thing gives this on Opera:
You tried to access the address javascript:var d=document,w=window,e=w.getSelection,k=d.getSelection,x=d.selection,s=(e?e():(k)?k():(x?x.createRange().text:0)),f='http://www.instapaper.com/b',l=d.location,e=encodeURICompone...(l.href) +'&t='+e(d.title) +'&s='+e(s),u=f+p;try{if(!/^(.\.)?instapaper([^.])?$/.test(l.host))throw(0);iptstbt();}catch(z){a =function(){if(!w.open(u,'t','toolbar=0,resizable=0,status=1,width=250,height=150'))l.href=u;};if(/Firefox/.test(navigator.userAgent))setTimeout(a,0);else a();}void(0), which is currently unavailable. Please make sure that the Web address (URL) is correctly spelled and punctuated, then try reloading the page.
Would it be too much trouble to say it only works on Firefox on the front page?
Pretty slick, but everytime I click the bookmarklet it freezes up my browser for a while.
Suggestion: pop up the window immediately, then use setTimeout to have it perform the action. That'll actually make it seem more responsive, because people can switch back to the main window and continue doing what they were doing.
(Assuming I diagnosed the javascript problem right..)
But if it is that easy I suggest you move the register field to the front page. Just seeing a link that says register will lose you a lot of potential customers because a link that says "register" is normally associated with a form field that goes on for pages and people will not bother clicking. I know I didn't until I read you comment.
I think you will up your conversion ratio about 25% by doing this.
I built a very similar site a few months back as a way to learn Rails and make a few bucks. It's called http://toreadlist.com/ , and one of the features was not requiring registration. It also had RSS feeds.
Jeez. Sometimes it feels like I'm a subletter. Every few months I "pack up" and move to a different service online. Wouldn't it make more sense to leverage delicious and use a common tag like "toread"? I've been doing that for a while and it works pretty well.
Right. It would be killer if you used the bookmarklet as normal, but it would save to your delicious account with toread. And then when you've read it, you could write a summary and tag it as normal.
