Instapaper

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Instapaper
Type of site
Online bookmarking, saving articles for later reading
OwnerBetaworks and Marco Arment
Created byMarco Arment
URLwww.instapaper.com
CommercialYes
RegistrationYes

Instapaper is a simple tool for saving web pages to read later on one's Android or iOS device, computer, ereader, or smartphone. The service was founded in 2008 by Marco Arment and had about 2 million users as of late 2011.[1] In 2013, Arment sold a majority stake in Instapaper to Betaworks, where it is now operated.[2]

History

Instapaper started out as a simple web service, in late 2007, with a "Read Later" bookmarklet and stripped-down "Text" view for articles. When it launched publicly on January 28, 2008,[3] its simplicity rapidly earned accolades from the press, including Daring Fireball[4] and TechCrunch.[5]

Instapaper was known for being completely profitable and for taking no outside investment.[1] While most of the website's features are free, the company generates revenue from the $3.99 iOS app, the $2.99 Android app, and a $1/month subscription for full-text search, API access and other advanced features across the Instapaper website and apps.

Product

To use Instapaper on a computer browser, users drag a special “Read Later” bookmarklet to your browser and click it on the web page of anything they want to save for later. That article gets added to a user's personal unread queue on Instapaper, which they can visit on any device. Every article is automatically reformatted (all excess HTML and graphics are stripped out) leaving nothing but a minimal, readable text layout.[6]

Accounts on the web are free, but to access Instapaper queues offline, many users purchase one of Instapaper's native apps.[citation needed]

iOS

Instapaper's free iPhone app (now withdrawn[when?]) with offline reading was one of the first apps in the App Store on July 12, 2008.[7] Instapaper's paid app, then called Instapaper Pro, launched shortly afterward on August 26, 2008 and introduced tilt scrolling, which automatically scrolls a column of text when the iPhone is tilted slightly up or down.[8] The currently available Instapaper app costs $3.99 and works across all iOS devices.

On March 10, 2011, with the launch of the 3.0 app, Instapaper added social sharing and browsing features.[9] Later in 2011, the redesigned 4.0 app added full-text search of all saved articles for customers with the optional $1/month subscription.[10]

The Instapaper iPad app launched with the iPad itself on April 3, 2010 and was received very well.[11][12]

Android

The Instapaper for Android was built by development shop Mobelux in 2012 and supports Android phones and tablets, Google Nexus and Samsung Galaxy tablets, Nook Color and Nook Tablet, and Kindle Fire.

Kindle

An automatic send-to-Kindle feature was added on March 8, 2009.[13] The Kindle feature alone is used by over 60,000 Kindle owners as of late 2011.[14]

The Feature

On June 1, 2008, Instapaper launched Give Me Something to Read, a standalone website that featured a few high-quality, longform, nonfiction articles every day from Instapaper's most frequently saved articles.[15]

Unlike a conventional social news website, which carries stories posted automatically by popularity, Give Me Something to Read is human-edited. Marco Arment was the editor for the site's first year. On July 27, 2009, Arment hired Richard Dunlop-Walters as a part-time contractor to take over as editor.[16] As of March 2011, Dunlop-Walters is Instapaper's only employee besides Arment.[17]

On March 22, 2012, Give Me Something to Read was renamed The Feature.[18] The articles are still hand-picked, and they are featured in Instapaper's website as The Feature, and in the iOS app as the The Feature section.

Reception

Instapaper has been positively reviewed by publications including The New York Times,[19] The Wall Street Journal,[20] PC Magazine,[21] Macworld,[22] and Wired.[23]

Competitors and similar services

Instapaper is one of several "read it later"[24] (also known as "read later"[25] or "saving"[26]) services. In November 2013, Mashable named Instapaper and the following four clients as the "5 Best Read-It-Later Apps";[27] they all support a variety of devices and other apps.

  • Pocket (originally titled "Read It Later"), began as a Firefox extension in late 2007, similar to Readeroo but using local browser storage,[28] before matching Instapaper's core features later in 2008[29] and 2009.[30] As of October 2013, it integrated with more than 300 apps, such as Twitter and Flipboard.[31]
  • Readability, released in 2009, allows one to share to their social media accounts and easily send articles to their Amazon Kindle. Top Reads displays the most popular Readability articles and is fully integrated with Longform, Pulse, Flipboard, and Twitter clients such as Tweetbot.[32]
  • Evernote Clearly, rolled out in 2011, allows users to download articles to the Evernote app as well as to Chrome, Firefox, or Opera; it also works with Evernote Business and in conjunction with the Evernote Web Clipper. Web Clipper works with the aforementioned browsers, as well as Safari and Internet Explorer.[33]
  • ReadKit is an app for iOS devices that supports Instapaper, Pocket, and Readability as well as Delicious, Feed Wrangler, FeedBin, Feedly, Fever, NewsBlur, and Pinboard. The app aggregates all of one's content from the abovementioned sources, so one need not switch from one app to another.[34]

Marco Arment observed about The Feature (formerly known as Give Me Something to Read): "The very similar Longform and Longreads both started significantly later than Give Me Something To Read but always got a lot more attention, with Longreads fueled especially by its active Twitter presence. They’ve both done great things, but I always believed that Give Me Something To Read deserved a similar level of attention that it never seemed to achieve."[35]

References

  1. ^ a b "Instapaper: Press and Media Kit". Retrieved December 20, 2011.
  2. ^ The next generation of Instapaper
  3. ^ Marco Arment (January 28, 2008). "Instapaper". Marco.org. Retrieved December 21, 2011.
  4. ^ John Gruber (January 30, 2008). "Instapaper". Daring Fireball. Retrieved December 21, 2011.
  5. ^ Henry Work (January 30, 2008). "Simple Bookmarking Now Available with Instapaper". TechCrunch. Retrieved December 21, 2011.
  6. ^ Tweney, Dylan (August 28, 2009). "Instapaper: A $5 App That Justifies Your iPhone Purchase". Wired.
  7. ^ "Instapaper: Now available offline". July 12, 2008. Retrieved December 21, 2011.
  8. ^ "Instapaper Pro with tilt scrolling". August 26, 2008. Retrieved December 21, 2011.
  9. ^ "Instapaper 3.0 is here". March 10, 2011. Retrieved December 21, 2011.
  10. ^ "Introducing Instapaper 4.0 for iPad and iPhone". October 17, 2011. Retrieved December 21, 2011.
  11. ^ Brian X. Chen (April 1, 2010). "10 Apps We're Excited to Try on iPad Launch Day". Wired. Retrieved December 21, 2011.
  12. ^ Mitch Wagner (April 13, 2010). "The eight best iPad apps so far". Macworld. Retrieved December 21, 2011.
  13. ^ "Kindle support now available". March 8, 2009. Retrieved December 21, 2011.
  14. ^ "Build and Analyze #56". December 19, 2011. Retrieved December 21, 2011.
  15. ^ "Officially launching Give Me Something To Read". June 1, 2008. Retrieved December 21, 2011.
  16. ^ "About Give Me Something To Read". Retrieved December 21, 2011.
  17. ^ "How many employees does Instapaper have?". March 21, 2011. Retrieved December 21, 2011.
  18. ^ "The Feature". Retrieved March 29, 2012.
  19. ^ Damon Darlin (December 11, 2010). "Feel Free to Read This Later, on Your Phone". The New York Times. Retrieved December 21, 2011.
  20. ^ Emily Glazer (October 21, 2011). "Worth It? Saving Websites to Read Offline". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved December 21, 2011.
  21. ^ Dan Costa (October 8, 2010). "Instapaper Pro v2.2". PC Magazine. Retrieved December 20, 2011.
  22. ^ Dan Frakes (May 14, 2010). "Instapaper". Macworld. Retrieved December 20, 2011.
  23. ^ Charlie Sorrel (March 11, 2011). "Instapaper 3 Adds Sharing, Curated Articles and Plain Old Speed". Wired. Retrieved December 20, 2011.
  24. ^ BY CHRISTINE CHAN (March 10, 2012). "It's The Battle of the Read It Later Apps! Read It Later vs. Instapaper vs. Readability". AppAdvice.
  25. ^ Whitson Gordon (August 27, 2013). ""Read Later" Apps Compared: Pocket vs. Instapaper vs. Readability". LifeHacker.
  26. ^ Emily Glazer (October 21, 2011). "Worth it? Saving Websites to Read Offline". Wall Street Journal.
  27. ^ Sarah Ang (October 10, 2013). "5 Best Read-It-Later Apps". Mashable.
  28. ^ Adam Pash (2007-11-14). "Save a Link for Later with Read It Later". Lifehacker.
  29. ^ Nate Weiner (October 2008). "Read It Later 0.99 Released". Idea Shower Blog.
  30. ^ Nate Weiner (April 2009). "Read It Later iPhone App Released". Idea Shower Blog.
  31. ^ Sarah Ang (October 10, 2013). "5 Best Read-It-Later Apps: Pocket". Mashable.
  32. ^ Sarah Ang (October 10, 2013). "5 Best Read-It-Later Apps: Readability". Mashable.
  33. ^ Sarah Ang (October 10, 2013). "5 Best Read-It-Later Apps: Evernote Clearly". Mashable.
  34. ^ Sarah Ang (October 10, 2013). "5 Best Read-It-Later Apps: ReadKit". Mashable.
  35. ^ "The Feature". Marco.org. March 22, 2012.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Instapaper&oldid=604980711"