A while back, I wrote about a tool called "ClipMarks" that I was using to share snippets of web pages with other people. I really like it.
However, I have now found a tool I like better for this, and I have converted to i-Lighter. I'd looked at it before and didn't like it, but they've made significant improvements since then and now I think it is awesome. What's so cool about i-Lighter? Read on...
Easy as a yellow pen (but much better)
i-Lighter is a free browser add-in (Firefox and IE) that gives you the virtual equivalent of a yellow pen that you can use to highlight all or part of a web page. You see the highlights right there on the page.
First, you download the browser add-in and create an account at the i-Lighter site (this stores your highlights centrally in a sort of catalog). Then you click the i-Lighter toolbar button to turn on your yellow pen, and start highlighting.
Share the love
Once you've marked the best parts of the page, then the fun really starts. i-Lighter has a bunch of options for what you can do with your highlights:
- Add a note to the highlights to blend in your own commentary
- Email the page (with highlighting) or just the highlights to someone else (you can create an i-Lighter address book to streamline the process)
- Send the link to Twitter - this automatically creates a tinyurl for you!
- Blog it (Wordpress or Blogger only)
- Tag it on del.ici.ous
I use this quite a bit these days to share news article on interesting topics with my coworkers, and find that i-Lighter makes it very easy. If you want to see i-Lighter in action, check out the online tour.
By the way - this is Windows only for now, but the i-Lighter CEO's blog says a Mac version is likely in the future.