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Comment by TheKnack | Hacker News Reader

I was setting up something on my daughter's laptop last weekend when I made a startling discovery. For context, she will graduate this year with a degree in Computer Science and Computer Engineering. When I added a URL to the Bookmarks in her browser, I noticed that it was the only thing in her Bookmarks. When I asked her why she didn't have any sites Bookmarked she said she keeps tabs open for everything she uses regularly (Gmail, Blackboard, and a few other things). I didn't know how to process this information. I guess she uses phone apps for just about everything and on the rare occasion that she needs to use a web site for something she finds it with Google.

I don't know if she is typical for people her age, but for her the answer to your question would be "none".

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No bookmarks here either; I set up newsboat for RSS feeds a few weeks back and am very happy with the resulting batch-like interaction.

(it may not really be any less Skinner-boxy, but it sure feels less like it)

[Edit: to the original ask, I try to spend my net time in active browsing mode, pulling content according to my interests du jour, rather than letting it be pushed to me — another reason that batching the "push" content has been satisfying]

[Edit2: where do things live that I "might read someday"? Mostly in my browser history. A few in external files, depending upon whether I think someday is realistic enough to be worth backing up.]

People who keep tabs perpetually open are strange. I'd like to observe their browsing habits to find out they actually use the web. When i'm done with a website, I close the tab. I sometimes meet people who have 100+ tabs open and it's like meeting those people who claim they have no inner monologue, or people who don't like chocolate. Just total space alien behavior.

I'm early 40s and I don't use bookmarks, the only exception being when I find a random site I'm worried i won't remember that I can't look at right then. This happens <= 2x per year. Otherwise I do the same as your daughter. What do you use bookmarks for?

>What do you use bookmarks for?

Mostly to keep up a digital backlog to rival the stack of books next to my desk.

Occasionally for reference in searching as they're sorted by topic and google search has steadily become wrestling with the algorithm for relevant results.

"This sounds really interesting. I definitely want to read it. But it is so long I don't want to read it now. I'll read it later, definitely!"

Not sure if you're relating or trying to mock me. Anyway, your summary is accurate and a very common occurence in my web browsing.

I was trying to answer your question what people use bookmarks for, not to mock you :)

I use them for research. I've been doing a lot of work with NURBS lately for a side project and I often run across articles and papers that I don't yet understand enough of the math for, or I'm not at the stage of my project where the information will be useful yet. So I bookmark them for later.

My problem now is that I have so many bookmarks that it's becoming easier to re-Google the topic than to find that bookmark I swear I made 3 months ago...if only I could restrict a search engine to just my bookmarks...

I have yet to restore the backup of the bookmarks I did not read in 1998 and which I plan to definitely read soon.

But first, I must process the thousands of bookmarks of the years in between.

I'll do that after I cleaned up my dozens of "Desktop" directories.

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