We have deployed a new version of Findings! The biggest change is a major bug fix that was preventing the display of all of your sources in your Library. Previously, some websites and sources from which you saved other people’s Findings were being hidden. Now you’ll find all sources represented in your Library.
Numerous other bugs and display quirks were corrected now as well. As always, let us know what you think at feedback@findings.com!
Today we deployed an update to fix an issue with the bookmarklet to gracefully handle when the bookmarklet is launched twice on a page. (Previously, it was producing unexepected behavior.) You shouldn’t have to do anything to update this yourself…if the code is cached it should now expire in a day anyway.
Additionally, we added the ability to request a defined number of highlights from the JSON feed with a “t” query parameter. For example, if you just want to pull the latest highlight from your feed, simply add “t=1” to the URL:
http://findings.com/corey.json?t=1
We’re working towards opening up our “Early Access” phase soon by providing invites to our current users. We’ll let you know when that happens!
Hot on the heels of our recent implementation of Atom feeds, you can now access your last 50 highlights in JSON format. Grab the JSON by adding “.json” to the end of your username. For example:
http://findings.com/corey.json
If you need to wrap the JSON in a Javascript function, just add “?callback=” and a function name…such as “?callback=getJSON”.
Additionally, we’ll be using this naming format from now on for accessing your feeds. Thus, the “/atom” URL is depracated. It will work for a while, but will eventually be disabled. From now on, please point your feed parsers to your standard user URL with a “.xml” at the end:
You can now find a link to your feed (and any other users) at the top of a user’s clips stream.
Also note that we’ve formatted the Atom feed’s <summary> element to fit within a tweet, including a shortened link back to the highlight. So if you want to use the feed to send highlights to Twitter, the <summary> element is the way to go!
We just released an update that allows you to get an Atom 1.0 feed of a user’s last 50 quotes. Just point your feed reader to “/atom” after the username. For example:
http://findings.com/corey/atom
Expect more ways to get your data out of Findings in the future. As always, send a message to feedback@findings.com if you have any questions or issues.
Findings has just released its largest update since going private beta! We have taken much of the feedback from current users to add a number of new features. Plus we have tightened up the design considerably. Here’s a rundown of some of the new features:
1. New logged-in home page: Many of you asked for a better way to discover new readings, quotes, and people to follow. Now when you log in, you will be taken to a new home page that displays some of the most-recently quoted sources, as well as a full global stream of all quotes that have been imported by our users in reverse-chronological order. We’ve also provided a “Who to Follow” section to suggest users who you might enjoy following.
2. Better navigation: We’ve made Findings easier to navigate by providing links to the main areas at the top of every page. If you want to go directly to your clips, just click the “Findings” link at the top! We’ve also made it simple to view an individual users’ collection of findings…whether it’s their entire stream of clips (i.e. http://findings.com/corey), their clips from a particular source (i.e. http://findings.com/corey/book/B003ZK58TA), or for an author (i.e. http://findings.com/corey/author/31).
3. Improved stream: In addition to a cleaner look, your stream (http://findings.com/my_stream) now only displays one clip per source for each import. If a user you follow imports a lot of quotes from a book, your stream will no longer be inundated. Instead, we provide a link to see the user’s collection of quotes from that book. (This was one of our most-received pieces of feedback.)
4. Your Library: We’ve updated (and renamed) your navigable collection of sources, which is now called the Library. You can view all of your sources, or any user’s collection of public sources (i.e. http://findings.com/corey/library). We provide two views into the Library…a grid view and a list view. Use the list view to manage your sources’ privacy settings, or remove sources completely.
5. Amazon links: We’ve not only made it easy to discover new readings, but if you’re interested in a book you’ve found on Findings you can now go directly to its Amazon page to purchase it for your own Kindle.
6. Webclip update: We’ve improved the bookmarklet to capture highlights from the web, fixing a number of bugs and improving its performance.
In addition to these visible changes, a lot of work has been done to the backend in preparation for a many new features. So be on the lookout for even more features. Be sure to follow us on Twitter as @fndgs (http://twitter.com/#!/fndgs) and this blog on tumblr. If you have any comments or questions about Findings, send us a message at feedback@findings.com!
Our vision at Findings is to provide a place for readers to capture, store, and share digital marginalia…such as highlights from an ebook, or notes about blog posts or newspaper articles from the web.
Craig Mod recently published an fantastic essay on Post-Artifact Books and Publishing. In it he says,
The moment a Kindle edition of a book is downloaded and highlighted it has been altered. The next person to download a copy of that book will be downloading the ‘complete’ form plus all associated marginalia. And the greater the integration of systems of marginalia, the greater the impact that subsequent conversations around the book will have on future readers.
The act of highlighting or annotating a work alters it, as long as it is digital and networked. Distributing other readers’ highlights and notes adds to its value. Kindle books are a great example of this, but they shouldn’t be the only ones. Clips from every newspaper article, blog post, or even tweet should be collectible and shareable…and the aggregate of those collections enhance the work itself.
Currently, digital marginalia are barely more accessible than their analog counterparts. They are locked away within e-reading platforms, exist in ephemeral discussion threads on a myriad of social media platforms, or are stored in a digital notepad with little shareability. Worse, attribution metadata surrounding digital marginalia is often non-existent. Who wrote the work being discussed? Where was it published? When? Usually the onus to record and report this information is on the reader. Marginalia without context might as well be generic text. At Findings, context is paramount, and is collected and verified by our application as best as possible.
Findings allows readers to collect highlights from digital texts around the web, and from their favorite ebooks. With our browser bookmarklet, users can highlight text on any web page, add a note, and save it to their Findings account. Or they can navigate to https://kindle.amazon.com/your_highlights and click the bookmarklet to import their Amazon Kindle highlights and notes into Findings. Users can search within their collection of highlights as well as browse by author, title, or publication.
Findings puts a social context around your highlights by allowing you to share them with others. By “following” other Findings users, your stream of highlights will be populated with your friends’ new highlights from their favorite readings. If you like a particular clip added by a Findings user, you can easily add a note or save that clip to your own collection. Findings also makes it easy to share highlights via social networks like Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook. Your highlights and sources do not have to be social, however. Each clip can be individually set to be private, so only you can see it. You can also set the privacy of each highlight source, so only you can see that you have clips from a particular book or website.
Findings is currently in Private Beta, but will soon be opening up for Early Access to interested readers. If you would like to use Findings, please use the form at http://findings.com to send us your email address. And please follow us on Twitter (via @fndgs) for news and information about Findings!
