7 Popular Ways to Save Links to Read Later

Revisit an article, blog post or other web page any time you want

There's a ton of content out there online, and if you're anything like the average internet user, you tend to spot a few interesting headlines, photos, and videos scattered throughout your social feeds while browsing when you should be busy doing something else. It just isn't always the best time to click and get a good enough look at what pops up in your feeds.

So, what can you do to make sure you can find it again later when you have more time? You could always add it to your browser's bookmarks, or just copy and paste the URL to email to yourself, but that's the old school way of doing it.

Today, there are so many faster, newer ways to save links — both on the desktop and on mobile. And if it's a service that can be used on both platforms, you're saved links will likely be synced across your account and updated on all your devices. Nice, right?

Take a look below to see which popular link-saving method might work best for you.

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A woman browsing Pinterest on a tablet.

 

Rich Polk / Getty Images

Pinterest is regarded as a social network, but many people use it as their ultimate bookmarking tool. Its interface is perfect for it, allowing you to create separate boards and pin links attached to images for easy browsing and organization. And with Pinterest's "Pin It!" browser button, pinning a new link only takes a second. If you have the app installed on your mobile device, you can pin links right from your mobile browser too.

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Curate Your Own Flipboard Magazines

Flipboard on iPhone X

Flipboard, Inc.

Flipboard is a popular newsreader app that mimics the look and feel of a real magazine. Similar to Pinterest, it lets you create and curate your own magazines with collections of articles that you like. Add them right from inside Flipboard, or save them from anywhere you find them on the web within your browser with the Chrome extension or bookmarklet.

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The X logo

X is where news happens, so it makes sense that a lot of people use it as their primary source for news. If you use X to get your news or follow accounts that post interesting links, you can click or tap the star icon to save it under your Favorites tab, which can be accessed from your profile. It's a very quick and easy way to save something.

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A man reading the news on a smartphone.

hanieriani / Getty Images 

There are loads of apps out there that are made specifically for saving links to look at later. Two of the most popular are called Instapaper and Pocket. Both let you create an account and save links while you're browsing on the desktop web (via an easy bookmarklet browser button) or on your mobile device through their respective apps. If you simply type "read later" in the App Store or Google Play, you'll find lots more options too.

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Use Evernote's Web Clipper Browser Extension

The evernote app icon on an iPhone.

Pixabay

Evernote is a popular tool for people who create, collect and manage a lot of different files and sources of digital information. Its handy Web Clipper tool is a browser extension that saves links or specific content as Evernote notes. With it, you can select the content from the page you want to save or just grab the whole link, and then drop it into the category you want — plus add some optional tags.

Check out our review of Evernote to find out more about this nifty, cloud-based tool.

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Use Bitly to Save and Organize Your Links

Bitly logo

Bitly

Bitly is one of the most popular URL shorteners on the Internet, specifically on X and anywhere else online where it's ideal to share short links. If you create an account with Bitly, all of your links (called "bitlinks") are automatically saved for you to revisit any time you want. Like a lot of the other services on this list, you can organize your bitlinks to "bundles" if you prefer to sort them categorically. Here's a complete tutorial on how to get started with Bitly.

Read through our review of Bitly if you want to find out just how powerful it really is.

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A screenshot of IFTTT.com.

IFTTT.com 

Have you discovered the wonders of IFTTT yet? If not, you need to take a look. IFTTT is a tool you can connect to all sorts of different web services and social accounts you have so that you can create triggers that lead to automatic actions. For example, every time you fav a tweet, it could be automatically added to your Instapaper account. Another example would be a PDF note in Evernote to be created every time you fav something in Pocket.

Find out how IFTTT works and learn how to make your first applet with it.

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