Yesterday Clipmarks added a new feature called ClipCasting. Like the name would suggest, it's a way to syndicate whatever content you've bookmarked using the proprietary Clipmarks toolbar. In this case, Clipmarks has opened up its service beyond just letting users link to bits of bookmarked Web material, and putting everything in a small widgetized container that can be added to blogs and social networking profiles. Readers can quickly jump back and forth through stories and note individual clips they like, or favorite the entire thing. Incidentally, the previous iteration of the site, which created a separate page for each piece of bookmarked content, is now called "classic view," with the ClipCast pages taking the spotlight.
ClipCasts are basically the content you'd find on a usual Clipmarks page wrapped up into a tiny widget that changes with whatever content you're bookmarking.
(Credit: CNET Networks)To supplement the embeddable version of the widget, there's a new Facebook app that accomplishes the same thing, albeit with less installation work on the part of the user. It'll denote any new piece of content that's been added to the ClipCast in the user's new minifeed for others to see. Likewise, if your friends have the app installed, you'll be able to keep track of whatever bits of content they've bookmarked. Compared with Facebook's standard sharing feature, ClipCast is better in that you can view the content right in the widget without having to venture off the site. It's also nice because your friends don't need to install the app to see the items you've shared.
As a content creator, services like Clipmarks are a mixed blessing. It's a super simple way to share stories with other people, but at the same time it takes potential visitors away from the original article, and moves the power to pick out what bits of content are published away from the original author. I still think Clipmarks has done a great job with ClipCasting. On the surface, it's a lot more approachable than some other bookmarking services that rely on text links alone.
We originally checked out Clipmarks back in late February. Since then, it got snatched up by Forbes Media, which noted that many of its editors had been using the service internally as a way to track and share Web content. Also worth looking at is eSnips, which has a toolbar that lets you grab and share page clippings, along with Yoono (review) and Diigo (review).
I've embedded a ClipCast:
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Forbes Media announced Wednesday that it has officially acquired Clipmarks.com, a social news site that operates by enabling members to "clip" and share parts of Web sites rather than simply bookmarking them. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Clipmarks CEO Eric Goldstein will stay in his post.
The acquisition will serve primarily to enhance Forbes' online news content, apparently. "Forbes.com editors use Clipmarks technology across the Forbes.com site, clipping and posting content from other Web sites that they think site users might be interested in reading," a release from the site explained.
The Clipmarks-Forbes rumor first surfaced way back in August but dissipated quickly when Clipmarks execs hastily denied that the deal was far from certain. It was never stated explicitly, but the undercurrents of Clipmarks' representatives responses suggested that the premature leak of the acquisition talks may actually have delayed or even halted the deal.
VentureBeat reported this evening that "an inside source" had informed them that Forbes Magazine--home publication of the now-outed Fake Steve Jobs--has acquired Clipmarks, a New York-based start-up that allows users to share snippets and bits of Web pages rather than simply a hyperlink or an entire article. This is done through a downloadable browser plug-in that enables "highlighting" up to a certain amount of text on a site.
A look at Clipmarks' downloadable 'highlighting' features.
(Credit: Clipmarks)No financial details were provided, but VentureBeat's Eric Eldon wrote that "Forbes finds the service useful for helping their reporters collect and share information about articles they are reading--and you may soon be seeing Clipmarks used in their stories and blogposts. They'll clip something, and then blog something quickly around it."
Clipmarks representatives were quick to respond to the rumors, and they were strikingly candid. Founder Eric Goldstein addressed the matter (how else?) by "clipping" it and then commenting on the shared text to clarify: "This article is a bit premature," Goldstein wrote. "We have not been acquired by Forbes. However, for the past few months we have been meeting with people at all levels of Forbes and the excitement and support they have shown for what we're creating has been very meaningful to us."
But don't count an acquisition out just yet, Goldstein hinted: "In the coming weeks i hope/expect to have a more definitive announcement about our relationship." Meanwhile, Clipmarks evangelist Eric Skiff had this to say in his Twitter feed: "Wow! I go away on vacation for a few days, and our big news leaks!...Clipmarks + Forbes = <3."
Keep an eye on this one.
- MyPunchBowl adds themes, public events. The invitation service we've been keeping an eye on since its January launch has updated with several user-requested features (75, according to its blog). One of the new additions is themed invitations, a feature we asked for in our original hands-on MyPunchBowl review. Also new is the option to create public events, so people can share a party's URL instead of requiring the host to manually go in and send out invites. Our favorite theme? Pretzel Day.
- Clipmarks gets searchy with ClipSearch. Clipmarks, the Web bookmarking service, has added a search engine to its service called ClipSearch. The new tool searches through user-submitted Clipmarks content to pull up results. Users can also add tags to their bookmarked items to help the engine out. Read our Clipmarks hands-on review for more information.
- PBwiki integrates Yackpack. PBwiki, The popular wiki service, is adding Yackpack's walkie-talkie widget to user wiki pages. The goal is to make it easier to communicate with wiki contributors and visitors. We covered the widget last month, and it's a really simple solution for adding instant voice chat to a blog or social networking profile. Related: Wetpaint adds private messaging to Wiki service.
- Quintura adds results from Blinkx. Quintura, the cloud-tag enabled search engine, has partnered with Blinkx, the video search service, to bring Blinkx results to all Quintura searches. Interestingly enough, Quintura hasn't chosen to replace its own video search tool with Blinkx's, as there's still a video search option next to the new Blinkx tab.
(Credit:
CNET Networks)
Clipmarks, a Web bookmarking service, launches its 2.0 version today. Previously, the service made it possible to snip paragraphs and pictures from Web pages and save them. Today, the service launches its new, supergranular version, which lets you clip out sentences or phrases--or, if you want to be silly about it, single words or letters.
Clipmarks' on-demand browser toolbar
The service is based on a Firefox or IE plug-in, and the new version's UI is improved: It replaces the four buttons the last version had with one. It's very easy to use. Clipmarks also makes it easy to e-mail a clipping to a friend, or to blog a passage--or several--from a page. All Clipmarks passages are linked to their online sources, which is an improvement from simply copying and pasting text into an e-mail or blog.
Clipping sentences and paragraphs.
(Credit: CNET Networks)Clipmarks could be very useful for anyone researching a topic. Bookmarking a collection of passages and pictures from a variety of Web pages, as opposed the pages themselves, could be just what you need when you're working on a report or trying to collect information before making a big purchase. Clipmarks gives you a nice Web page where it saves your clippings.
In many ways, Clipmarks competes with other clipping services such as Jeteye (which I like a lot) and Diigo (which is capable, but complex). The new version also lets you grab YouTube videos, although not in a Clipmark-y way. You can't bookmark or save a portion of a video.
There's a Digg-like element to Clipmarks, as well: You can flag passages as public, and they'll show up on Clipmarks.com. Visitors to the site can "pop" marks they like, which is similar to Digg voting: Popped items stay on the front page longer. There are a lot of social bookmarking sites on the Web, and Clipmark's granular clipping feature is not different enough to make the site fundamentally more useful or relevant than others. It is, however, just as good a time-waster as Digg, Reddit, or StumbleUpon.
There is one thing about Clipmarks that really bugs me, though: You can easily clip and save content to Clipmarks and then e-mail or blog it, as I said above. But once you leave the page you've highlighted clippings on, they vanish. To me, that's like having a highlighter with disappearing ink, which is not really what one expects: You highlight some text, turn the page, turn it back, and presto! your highlights are gone. I'd like the option to make Clipmark highlights persistent. Annotation services such as Stickis and Trailfire do this, but they're designed for a different purpose.
Update (per Talkback): The Scoble Show has a video interview and demo with Clipmarks co-founder Eric Goldstein.
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