Comments on: Survey: How do You Process Online Information?

By: Mohan Arun L

Mohan Arun L — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 21:42:40 +0000

One of the most worthwhile questions ever asked. I would be interested to know others answers. I just bookmark with rememberable/recallable tags but I think the bookmarking functionality needs to be extended to actually index the page content also, if you add tag 'jquery' and page content is about 10 different jquery techniques you dont want to go through each of the items and add the tag as a searchable keyword, getting the bookmark functionality to also index the entire page content frees you from the task of remembering too much. You only need to remember popular concept words and use search & retrieve functions of the non-living organism to get the other parts done. (Thats what it is there for and is good at).

By: ArpitNext

ArpitNext — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 17:59:19 +0000

After reading few comments above, I have realized that I am using the oldest tool of Internet communication to process online stuff — the email.
Gmail has so many features for importing and exporting information, which makes it the most powerful web 2.0 tool. I save my bookmarks, critical data (read financial data), my documents, chat records, favorite blog posts/articles and almost everything else. I can retrieve the information w/o any problem or special effort — just type something related and hit the return key.

By: Shoham Israel-OpenU

Shoham Israel-OpenU — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 15:04:14 +0000

I agree with Ian Fenwick (above) that there's a difference between info processing and info management (storing,classifying and retrieval): To process information I need to put it in context, actually read/watch/hear the item and integrate it with other info items in my head (create new insight or knowledge) and often in some sort of info product – team meeting, lecture, article, presentation etc.

Information management in my workplace is either team-centered (relying heavily on organizational mail & internal websites for sharing links, project documentation & notes etc.) or personal. Personally, I mainly store needed info as links in delicious, tagged according to subject and relevant work issue/project. For info discovery I use Google Reader & Twitter, star & tag items but hardly go back… If it's important enough to go back to, I add it as a tab in my browser homepage and try to finish processing and move to storage (delicious) within a short period of time. I wish delicious integrated with Yahoo Bookmarks/MyWeb because that service automatically saved a copy of the page.
Lately I started experimenting with Diigo and Posterous – love the concept, but it has not become “second nature” yet. Generally I've noticed that being methodical & consistent in the tools I use saves a lot of time and search efforts. Also, I prefer web-based apps since I work on different computers and have no patience to sync…

By: RonnyO

RonnyO — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 07:02:19 +0000

When finding a really comprehensive resource I usually add its RSS feed to Netvibes. If it's a single article which is worth remembering for years to come, I add it to delicious; And if I just stumble on something I would like to dig into later I use the “LaterThis” quick bookmarklet.

I do notice that storing, tagging and writing notes about all these might turn into a huge time-sucker. Let's just hope future use will justify my current efforts.

By: eyalsela

eyalsela — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 19:52:37 +0000

“I indeed trust my mind's API to index the information” – Nice

By: dibau_naum_h

dibau_naum_h — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 19:24:13 +0000

I indeed trust my mind's API to index the information – so I read a few lines & grasp the main idea.
I then also bookmark it in delicious for backup reference. I've got a tag: must_read, to mark to myself that it's important, but I almost never get to read it.
If it's of real value to others, I twit it too.

Although I don't have a good solution – I'm not leaving it like that! I started working with a friend of mine on an engine that generates a daily summary of all the information stream that arrived that day, using smart textual & semantic analysis. Currently it fails to handle the load even of my twitter stream, but if we'll succeed to make it work well, I'll post a link to it here.

By: Karine Barzilai-Nahon

Karine Barzilai-Nahon — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 16:08:40 +0000

It depends. Regarding – Interesting stuff but not important to my work as a researcher – I upload the links in Twitter and Facebook, sometimes keep in bookmarks, or in a special folder in my email. The chances to really find or remember where it is are small after a while. But the feeling that it is there makes me think and believe that if I really need this material again, I can find it with some effort.

Regarding important stuff for my work as a researcher – e.g. – reports, research, papers – I keep in a more consistent why on my computer in a special folder with categories of subjects. Here I rely on my intellectual mapping of subjects, and usually I remember where I put things.

Finally, I don't use google desktop or XXX or any software that can search my computer, because I am afraid of privacy breach.

By: eyalsela

eyalsela — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 02:54:39 +0000

Didn't they close down Google Bookmarks? How doe's the syncing with Chrome works?

By: Saggi Malachi

Saggi Malachi — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 23:29:08 +0000

Google Bookmarks with as many tags as possible. makes it available in both FF and Chrome.

By: Chema B

Chema B — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 15:25:05 +0000

I use Windows at work and a Mac at home so I prefer to use web/online tools rather than clients:

-Gathering: I use Google Reader as the main source of information and try to find a RSS feed for any topic/blog/company that I'm interested in. I used to use Twitter but the amount of tweets was unmanageable (even with a desktop client) so I'm only keeping real people there who I know read the tweets and reply to them. I'm also subscribed to few email digests using Gmail.

-Processing/Storing: Apart from starring things on Google Reader or Gmail, if I find anything interesting somewhere else I email it to my Gmail account using labels directly from the email address. This is a feature that it's not well known but if you append a keyword to your Gmail address, you can then send a quick labelled email and filter it quickly in Gmail. For instance, if your address is jdoe@gmail.com, you can send yourself an email to jdoe+todo@gmail.com. The email will still be delivered to your address but you can set up filters and tags in Gmail to process it right away.
If I find a good url, I use Del.icio.us

-Sharing: depends very much on the item I'm sharing and who could be interested. I'm on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIN, and each of those networks have specific audiences (general, personal and professional). I filter the topic depending on who can be interested and then post it there using whatever method is quicker: from a "share this" link on the page to send it via Google Reader