We have seen a lot of web apps that saves your favorite web content on cloud. Dragdis, Saved, Unmark, all of these lets you bookmark your favorite content on cloud. There are also dedicated apps for Mac like Stache and Ember. I am currently using Ember and it is one of the best in the category. It collects and stores all your stuff locally but you can use your Dropbox account to sync everything.
Raindrop.io is a bookmarking tool by Mussabekov Rustem, which allows users to save content of any type, be it a photo, video, link or an article. It looks like yet another bookmarking web app but it is actually much better and is designed mainly for creative minds. Raindrop works just like Saved and Unmark and comes with browser extensions.
After signing up, you can install Raindrop extension on your browser to simplify bookmarking. Using Raindrop extension, you can save anything on you Raindrop account without leaving the current page. It has extensions for Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Opera. Users of other browsers can use the bookmarklet for bookmarking. You can create Collections to better organize your bookmarks and also to keep similar stuff grouped. Raindrop allows users to create Public and Private collections. You can share Public collections with anyone but Private collections can be accessed only by the user who created the collection.
The Web interface of the app is nice and well designed. The site lists all your collections and option to create a collection on the left column and it displays all your bookmarks on the right column sorted by date. On the left column, there’s also a Subscriptions section where you can discover Public collections from other Raindrop users and subscribe to your favorite collections. You can sort the collections on the left column either alphabetically or by bookmarks count. You can also drag and drop a collection to re-order the list manually. On hovering over a collection, it shows an edit option through which you can edit that collection. You can edit collection’s name, description, set its privacy to Public or Private. You can also use custom background and icon for your collections.
On the right column, it shows all your bookmarks which are displayed in list view by default. You can click on the grid icon which is just above the bookmarks list to make the bookmarks list appear in grid view. On the top of this column, it shows a search box to quickly find a specific bookmark. Below the search box, it shows the number of photos, or links that you’ve in your bookmarks. You can have the bookmarks sorted alphabetically or by date. On hovering over a bookmark in the list, you get option to open the bookmark link, edit it or delete it from your collection.
The best thing about Raindrop is that it intelligently saves your bookmarks. When you save a link to any of your collection, it recognizes the type of content you have bookmarked. Like, if you bookmark a Dribbble shot page, it just bookmarks the shot image and its description. You can see the shot and the description right on your Raindrop account without having to jump to the Dribbble shot page. Similarly, if you bookmark any article on the web, Raindrop just keeps the content for you in your collection. This is something unique and really useful functionality. Without moving to the links, you can read all the articles and see all the bookmarked photos right on your Raindrop account.
Raindrop also gives users the option to import bookmarks from their Pocket account. Users who use the native bookmarking functionality in Chrome, Safari, Firefox or who use services like Delicious, Kippt or Zootool can also import bookmarks to their Raindrop account. The Import feature is currently in beta though.
If you got an iPhone, you can browse all your Raindrop bookmarks using Raindrop iPhone app. And if you don’t own an iPhone, you can always access all your bookmarks on your smartphone or tablet by logging into your Raindrop account. Using the bookmarklet, you can bookmark from any of your device.
When I first signed up on Raindrop, I did it just to see how it works but now I switched from Saved to Raindrop for collecting my favorites. The service impressed me with its unique bookmarking functionality and its web interface. Also, import functionality is also useful for users who wants to switch to Raindrop.