Clipping via bookmarklet service Snipd launches
Snip things with nothing more than a bookmarklet using Snipd. It works on photos, videos, and text and goes into a stream other people can follow.
Snipd, a Web clippings service we profiled in September, has just opened up to everyone. Its claim to fame is that it lets you clip bits of the Web including text, images, and videos, all without having to download any software or register for an account. The first time you use it via its tiny bookmarklet, it simply creates an account for you, which can be claimed later on.
One of the things that separates it from something like Evernote, is that your snippings can be found in a public directory--at least by default. It fully supports keeping items private, which you can change later on. However, you're encouraged to publicly share things for the social element. Just like FriendFeed people can follow you and track your latest additions in a chronological flow, complete with comments and favorites.
Besides its utility as a social-clipping tool, Snipd lets you mark whatever page you're on for reading later. This emulates some of the versatility of the popular Firefox Extension Read It Later (which updated this morning). However, in Snipd's case, you get e-mailed the entire page.
Snipd co-founder Alex Schliker tells me the amount of adult content Snipd has brought in has been so substantial that he and his partner Emil Gilliam are working on a separate site called Stripd that will house it all and keep it out of Snipd's public feed. This could end up getting the pair more traffic than Snipd, considering no-one has really filled that market niche.
Snipd's real threat still comes from Evernote and FriendFeed. Evernote has a product that lets you clip standard bits of the Web while offering a viable alternative to paid word processing applications. Meanwhile, FriendFeed brings a large team of developers (including ex-Googlers), which results in a rapid release cycle. It also offers a stream of content that flows even when users are not implicitly using it. To get past these two the best thing Snipd can do is offer better tools to make Web clippings that more engaging to make and read.
See also: Yoono, Clipmarks, JetEye, and Diigo
Snipd lets you clip bits and pieces of a site to share the parts you want.
(Credit: CNET Networks)
