Bookmarklets Show Key RSS Users
Bookmarks are a weird invention. Even more weird is that people actually use them. Sites like Pinterest, and Instapaper practically wouldn’t have been as big without bookmarklets. Of course to go mainstream there had to be buy in. Other sites needed to include them in there ecosystem. That core group of people that made the service grew up those are an amazing group of people.
I don’t know if there is any thing definitive about these people, but I am going to make some assumptions. They are informed, ahead of the curve, market makers. That last one is important, they create new markets, new spaces where there weren’t any before. I think we can all be sure that if we created a website, we want those people to use it.
I am talking about these sites, and these people not just because they are interesting, but they all seem to have something in common. Google Reader. The early growth of these websites could easily be driven by their bookmarklets, and both bookmarklets handle Google Reader especially. Instapaper even handles Newsblur. This is serious business. With all the talk of the death of RSS, these two companies still support Google Reader specially.
If you, or your company is building a new product, and you aren’t thinking about RSS, are you missing out on an opportunity to reach the same people that build Instapaper, and Pinterest?
In the all honesty category I did look at more then just Instapaper, and Pinterest bookmarklet. Turns out many other popular bookmarklets don’t handle google reader specially.
All the bookmarklets