Spurl.net now allows users to store a copy of spurled pages. Use the “Advanced” tab of the spurl! window, and choose “Store / Yes”.
When a page is stored, Spurl.net also indexes the entire text of the spurled page and thereby allows users to later search for any piece of text on pages that they have spurled.
This helps Spurl.net to further live up to the slogan: “You are what you read! Store it, search it, share it, use it” (the text that now greets new Spurl.net users).
The idea is that users will spurl and store everything that they’ve actually read, but just spurl (and not store) pages that they just want to keep for later reference. That way the index will correspond to what a user has actually read and thereby allow you to search for that little piece of information you know you’ve read but just don’t remember where.
Another obvious benefit is that this way you can be sure that your information will be available for future reference, even if the page is removed from its original source or lost via other means of “linkrot“. An invaluable feature when gathering information for research or writing.
I’m adding a functionality that will allow Spurl.net to store pages that require login, but as a vast majority of what most of us read online has open access, this should not be a serios drawback in the days until that will be available.
To search your spurled and stored pages, use the search page (or the search box at the top of the “My spurls” page). A document copy icon (
) indicates that the page was stored and allows you to open the stored copy.
In addition, Spurl now remembers your spurling preferences i.e. whether you last used the “Simple” or “Advanced” tab and whether you stored the last spurled page or not (assuming you’re likely to want to do the same next time around).
The next round of improvements will:
- …make the search results more thorough, showing where the search string was found (page text, comments, title, description, etc.) and display an excerpt indicating the match.
- …make the My spurls page more user friendly allowing different kind of sorting, filtering and manipulating the spurled pages.
Enjoy!
