Nate Weiner

This is an old archived post from my former blog The Idea Shower. It's where I cataloged my product explorations and releases, one of which ultimately became Pocket.

This post was published back in 2007. It may not function as originally intended or may be missing images.

Read it Later Extension Updated

November 14, 2007

It's been a busy week!. After my Facebook Beacon post got dugg, I had a flurry of traffic here. People started noticing this plugin and since Thursday, the plugin has been downloaded over 8,000 times!

The previous version was the definition of BETA, so people had lots of suggestions and problems. I've tried to accommodate a lot of your suggestions for this new version.

Mind you this extension is still considered Beta. I am trying my best to make updates and take care of issues that come up.

You can download the new version on the Read it Later page.

**UPDATE: Apparently many users are having some issues with the 'read it later' button not appearing, I've made a fix that I believe should solve it, please let me know if you still have issues (make sure you have version 0.521 or higher) **

So here's what's new:

  • Most importantly you can now sync your reading list with other computers! You can do this by using the Foxmarks plugin, Google Browser Sync, or any browser syncing tool in conjunction with the Read it Later plugin. And the reason you can now do this brings me to the next biggest update.
  • Your reading list is now stored in a 'Read-It-Later' folder in your standard Firefox bookmarks. This allows you to have greater control over the items in your list and in addition it allows you to export/sync them however you wish.
  • Smaller Buttons (sorry about before, I have no idea what I was thinking with those beasts.) Also, support for 'use small icons' mode.
  • User Options:
    • Choose whether clicking the reading list button grabs an item randomly or goes in order
    • Choose whether selected items open in the same tab or a new tab.
    • Choose whether or not clicking 'mark as read' grabs the next page from your list
  • The extension will now look for updates so that it can keep up with new updates and fixes on its own.
  • General bug fixes to make it more stable. (It's still beta!)

My To-Do List:

Note: If anyone has experience with building plugins and knows how to handle these, give me a shout. I want to pick your brain.
  • More control over icons. Want to offer a smaller/consolidated mode and the ability to move the icons to different toolbars aside from the nav bar.
  • Ability to add sub-folders in the Read It Later folder (without the plugin going psycho)
  • Issue with sites that redirect, need a way to update an existing bookmark.
  • Extra Language Support
  • Keystrokes (Can you guys clarify, give some examples?)
  • What else do you want from me?? (leave in the comments)