Instapaper

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Instapaper
Instapaper Logo.png
Instapaper web reader example.png
An example of an article being read in the website
Type of site
Online bookmarking, saving articles for later reading
OwnerInstant Paper, Inc. (previously Pinterest)
Created by Marco Arment
URL www.instapaper.com
CommercialYes
RegistrationYes
LaunchedJanuary 28, 2008;16 years ago (2008-01-28)
Current statusActive

Instapaper is a social bookmarking service that allows web content to be saved so it can be "read later" on a different device, such as an e-reader, smartphone, or tablet. The service was founded in 2008 by Marco Arment. [1] In April 2013, Arment sold a majority stake to Betaworks [2] and by mid 2016 Pinterest acquired the company. [3] In July 2018, ownership of Instapaper was transferred from Pinterest to a newly formed company Instant Paper, Inc. The transition was completed on August 6, 2018. [4] [5]

Contents

History

Instapaper started out as a simple web service in late 2007 with a "Read Later" bookmarklet and stripped-down "Text" view for articles. When Marco Arment launched the service publicly on January 28, 2008, [6] its simplicity rapidly earned accolades from the press, including Daring Fireball [7] and TechCrunch. [8]

In April 2013, Arment sold a majority stake in Instapaper to Betaworks. [2] Afterward, the service's web interface was redesigned. [9]

On August 23, 2016, Instapaper was acquired by social networking service Pinterest. [10] [11] The service continued to operate, and the Instapaper staff worked on development for both Instapaper and Pinterest. [3] On November 1, 2016, Instapaper announced that it would discontinue its subscription model and offer its "Premium" features to all users. [12] On July 16th, 2018, it was announced that Pinterest would sell Instapaper to InstantPaper, Inc, "a new company owned and operated by the same people who’ve been working on Instapaper since it was sold to Betaworks by Marco Arment in 2013". [13] [14]

On May 23, 2018, Instapaper announced that it had suspended its services for residents of the European Union in order to address compliance with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requirements. [15] Service was restored on August 7, 2018. [16]

Features

Instapaper can be used via a web-based interface, or through mobile apps for Android and iOS. Within a web browser, a "Read Later" bookmarklet can be used to save pages to a user's personal unread queue on Instapaper. Every article is automatically reformatted to remove excessive formatting and graphics. [17]

Instapaper was initially distributed as a paid app. Later, the app became a free service, but with certain features exclusive to a "Pro" version of the app, and later an "Instapaper Premium" subscription, such as ad-free browsing, full-text search, and voice dictation on supported platforms. These features became free for all users on November 1, 2016. [12]

iOS

Instapaper's free iPhone app (removed from the App Store on March 12, 2011 [18] ) with offline reading was one of the first apps in the App Store on July 12, 2008. [19] [ better source needed ] Instapaper's paid app, then called Instapaper Pro, launched shortly afterward on August 26, 2008 and introduced tilt scrolling, which automatically scrolls a column of text when the device is tilted slightly up or down. [20]

On March 10, 2011, with the launch of the 3.0 app, Instapaper added social sharing and browsing features. [21] Later in 2011, the redesigned 4.0 app added full-text search of all saved articles for customers with the optional $1/month subscription. [22]

The Instapaper iPad app launched with the iPad itself on April 3, 2010. [23] [24]

Android

The Instapaper for Android was built by development shop Mobelux [25] in 2012 and supports Android phones and tablets.

Kindle

An automatic send-to-Kindle feature was added on March 8, 2009. [26] The Kindle feature alone is used by over 60,000 Kindle owners as of late 2011. [27] Manually sending individual articles, or digests of recent articles, from the Instapaper app is currently a Subscriber feature.

The Feature

On June 1, 2008, Instapaper launched Give Me Something to Read, a standalone website that featured a few high-quality, longform, nonfiction articles every day from Instapaper's most frequently saved articles. [28]

Unlike a conventional social news website, which carries stories posted automatically by popularity, Give Me Something to Read is human-edited. Marco Arment was the editor for the site's first year. On July 27, 2009, Arment hired Richard Dunlop-Walters as a part-time contractor to take over as editor. [29] As of March 2011, Dunlop-Walters was Instapaper's only employee besides Arment.

On March 22, 2012, Give Me Something to Read was renamed The Feature. [30] The articles are still hand-picked, and they are featured in Instapaper's website as The Feature, and in the iOS app as The Feature section.

Marco Arment observed about The Feature (formerly known as Give Me Something to Read):

The very similar Longform and Longreads both started significantly later than Give Me Something To Read but always got a lot more attention, with Longreads fueled especially by its active Twitter presence. They’ve both done great things, but I always believed that Give Me Something To Read deserved a similar level of attention that it never seemed to achieve. [31]

Competitors and similar services

Instapaper is one of several "read it later" [32] (also known as "read later" [33] or "saving" [34] ) services. In November 2013, Mashable named Instapaper and the following four clients as the "5 Best Read-It-Later Apps"; [35] they all support a variety of devices and other apps.

See also

Related Research Articles

Evernote is a note-taking and task-management application developed by the Evernote Corporation. It is intended for archiving and creating notes with embedded photos, audio, and saved web content. Notes are stored in virtual "notebooks" and can be tagged, annotated, edited, searched, and exported.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Google Reader</span> Defunct RSS/Atom feed aggregator formerly operated by Google

Google Reader is a discontinued RSS/Atom feed aggregator operated by Google. It was created in early 2005 by Google engineer Chris Wetherell and launched on October 7, 2005, through Google Labs. Google Reader grew in popularity to support a number of programs which used it as a platform for serving news and information to users. Google shut down Google Reader on July 1, 2013, citing declining use.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digg</span> Social media/news aggregator website

Digg is an American news aggregator with a curated front page, aiming to select articles specifically for the Internet audience such as science, trending political issues, and viral Internet issues. It was launched in its current form on July 31, 2012, with support for sharing content to other social platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.

Amazon Kindle is a series of e-readers designed and marketed by Amazon. Amazon Kindle devices enable users to browse, buy, download, and read e-books, newspapers, magazines, Audible audiobooks, and other digital media via wireless networking to the Kindle Store. The hardware platform, which Amazon subsidiary Lab126 developed, began as a single device in 2007. Currently, it comprises a range of devices, including e-readers with E Ink electronic paper displays and Kindle applications on all major computing platforms. All Kindle devices integrate with Windows and macOS file systems and Kindle Store content and, as of March 2018, the store had over six million e-books available in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">App Store (Apple)</span> Mobile app distribution platform by Apple

The App Store is an app marketplace developed and maintained by Apple, for mobile apps on its iOS and iPadOS operating systems. The store allows users to browse and download approved apps developed within Apple's iOS SDK. Apps can be downloaded on the iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad, and some can be transferred to the Apple Watch smartwatch or 4th-generation or newer Apple TVs as extensions of iPhone apps.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Google Chrome</span> Web browser developed by Google

Google Chrome is a web browser developed by Google. It was first released in 2008 for Microsoft Windows, built with free software components from Apple WebKit and Mozilla Firefox. Versions were later released for Linux, macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and also for Android, where it is the default browser. The browser is also the main component of ChromeOS, where it serves as the platform for web applications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Calibre (software)</span> E-book management and editing software

Calibre is a cross-platform free and open-source suite of e-book software. Calibre supports organizing existing e-books into virtual libraries, displaying, editing, creating and converting e-books, as well as syncing e-books with a variety of e-readers. Editing books is supported for EPUB and AZW3 formats. Books in other formats like MOBI must first be converted to those formats, if they are to be edited. Calibre also has a large collection of community contributed plugins.

Graphicly was a platform for publishers which offered work flow integration, self-publishing, digital distribution, conversion, and promotion for digital content. Launched by Kevin Mann and Micah Baldwin, the website was initially a platform for digital comic books, but later added support for children's books, art books, and magazines. Graphicly accumulated more than 3,500 publishers and more than 10,000 independent creators. The website hosted an active social community, allowing creators and fans to interact directly. Graphicly shut down in May 2014, and some of its key staff moved on to fellow digital publisher Blurb.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marco Arment</span> American software developer and podcaster

Marco Arment is an American iOS developer, web developer, podcaster, restaurateur, technology writer and former magazine editor. As a developer, he is best known for being chief technology officer for Tumblr and creating Instapaper and Overcast.

Springpad was a free online application and web service that allowed its registered users to save, organize and share collected ideas and information. As users added content to their Springpad accounts, the application automatically identified and categorized it, then generated additional snippets based on the types of objects added—for example, listing price comparisons for products and showtimes for movies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pinterest</span> American social media platform

Pinterest is an American social media service for publishing and discovery of information in the form of pinboards. This includes recipes, home, style, motivation, and inspiration on the Internet using image sharing. Pinterest, Inc. was founded by Ben Silbermann, Paul Sciarra, and Evan Sharp, and is headquartered in San Francisco.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pocket (service)</span> Social bookmarking service

Pocket, formerly known as Read It Later, is a social bookmarking service for storing, sharing and discovering web bookmarks, first released in 2007.

Betaworks is an American startup studio and seed stage venture capital company based in New York City that invests in network-focused media businesses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">OpenDyslexic</span> Typeface designed to mitigate reading errors caused by dyslexia

OpenDyslexic is a free typeface/font designed to mitigate some of the common reading errors caused by dyslexia. The typeface was created by Abbie Gonzalez, who released it through an open-source license. The design is based on DejaVu Sans, also an open-source font.

This is a timeline of Pinterest, an Internet service that serves as a "visual discovery tool", as well as the eponymous company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kindle Store</span> Online e-book e-commerce store operated by Amazon

The Kindle Store is an online e-book e-commerce store operated by Amazon as part of its retail website and can be accessed from any Amazon Kindle, Fire tablet, or Kindle mobile app. At the launch of the Kindle in November 2007, the store had more than 88,000 digital titles available in the U.S. store. This number increased to more than 275,000 by late 2008 and exceeded 765,000 by August 2011. In July 2014, there were over 2.7 million titles available. As of March 2018, there are over six million titles available in the U.S. Content from the store is purchased online and downloaded using either Wi-Fi or Amazon's Whispernet to bring the content to the user's device. One of the innovations Amazon brought to the store was one-click purchasing which allowed users to quickly purchase an e-book. The Kindle Store uses a recommendation engine that looks at purchase history, browsing history, and reading activity, and then suggests material it thinks the user will like.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Overcast (app)</span> Podcast app

Overcast is a podcast app for iOS that was launched in 2014 by founder and operator Marco Arment. Since its launch, Overcast has received positive reviews.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Readability (service)</span> Service for cleaning up web pages for reading

Readability was an Internet-based "read it later" service launched in 2009 by Arc90. It ceased its 'bookmarklet' service on September 10, 2016, and discontinued its API service on December 10, 2016. It was similar to competitors Instapaper and Pocket in that it allows a user to save an article from the web and read it later without the clutter of the original website. It started originally as a bookmarklet to remove clutter from webpages and reformat the main article text in a readable font and layout, but following the popularity of the bookmarklet, it evolved to become a service with an app.

References

  1. ↑ "Instapaper: Press and Media Kit". Archived from the original on November 26, 2011. Retrieved December 20, 2011.
  2. 1 2 "Instapaper acquired by Betaworks, owner of Digg". The Verge . Vox Media. April 25, 2013. Archived from the original on May 4, 2018. Retrieved August 23, 2016.
  3. 1 2 Lynley, Matthew (August 23, 2016). "Pinterest acquires Instapaper, which will live on as a separate app". TechCrunch . Archived from the original on October 24, 2020. Retrieved August 23, 2016.
  4. ↑ LeFebvre, Rob (July 16, 2018). "Instapaper buys itself back from Pinterest". Engadget . Archived from the original on July 17, 2018. Retrieved July 17, 2018.
  5. ↑ "Instapaper is going independent". July 16, 2018. Archived from the original on August 6, 2018. Retrieved August 7, 2018.
  6. ↑ Arment, Marco (January 28, 2008). "Instapaper". Marco.org . Archived from the original on October 9, 2020. Retrieved December 21, 2011.
  7. ↑ Gruber, John (January 30, 2008). "Instapaper". Daring Fireball . Archived from the original on December 18, 2011. Retrieved December 21, 2011.
  8. ↑ Work, Henry (January 30, 2008). "Simple Bookmarking Now Available with Instapaper". TechCrunch . Archived from the original on December 30, 2011. Retrieved December 21, 2011.
  9. ↑ "Instapaper gets complete redesign after Betaworks purchase, new mobile apps soon". The Verge . August 28, 2013. Archived from the original on March 25, 2017. Retrieved August 23, 2016.
  10. ↑ Newton, Casey (August 23, 2016). "Instapaper has been acquired by Pinterest". The Verge. Retrieved January 27, 2025.
  11. ↑ Alba, Davey. "Pinterest Buys Instapaper, the Popular 'Read Later' App". Wired. ISSN   1059-1028 . Retrieved January 27, 2025.
  12. 1 2 "Instapaper drops monthly subscriptions". The Verge . November 2016. Archived from the original on April 20, 2017. Retrieved November 1, 2016.
  13. ↑ Krumparak, Greg (July 16, 2018). "Instapaper is leaving Pinterest, two years after being acquired". TechCrunch . Archived from the original on January 11, 2024. Retrieved January 11, 2024.
  14. ↑ "Instapaper is going independent". Instapaper . July 16, 2018. Archived from the original on July 17, 2018. Retrieved January 11, 2024.
  15. ↑ "Instapaper is temporarily shutting off access for European users due to GDPR". The Verge . Archived from the original on May 24, 2018. Retrieved May 24, 2018.
  16. ↑ "The next ten years of Instapaper". August 7, 2018. Archived from the original on August 7, 2018. Retrieved August 7, 2018.
  17. ↑ Tweney, Dylan (August 28, 2009). "Instapaper: A $5 App That Justifies Your iPhone Purchase". Wired . Archived from the original on February 20, 2014. Retrieved March 7, 2017.
  18. ↑ Arment, Marco (April 28, 2011). "Why Instapaper Free is taking an extended vacation". Marco.org . Archived from the original on May 4, 2016. Retrieved August 24, 2016.
  19. ↑ Arment, Marco (July 12, 2008). "Instapaper: Now available offline". Marco.org . Archived from the original on October 9, 2020. Retrieved December 21, 2011.
  20. ↑ Arment, Marco (August 26, 2008). "Instapaper Pro with tilt scrolling". Archived from the original on April 26, 2012. Retrieved December 21, 2011.
  21. ↑ Arment, Marco (March 10, 2011). "Instapaper 3.0 is here". Archived from the original on December 28, 2011. Retrieved December 21, 2011.
  22. ↑ Arment, Marco (October 17, 2011). "Introducing Instapaper 4.0 for iPad and iPhone". Marco.org . Archived from the original on November 12, 2020. Retrieved December 21, 2011.
  23. ↑ Chen, Brian X. (April 1, 2010). "10 Apps We're Excited to Try on iPad Launch Day". Wired . Archived from the original on January 11, 2012. Retrieved December 21, 2011.
  24. ↑ Wagner, Mitch (April 13, 2010). "The eight best iPad apps so far". Macworld . Archived from the original on January 18, 2012. Retrieved December 21, 2011.
  25. ↑ "Mobelux". Archived from the original on October 26, 2013. Retrieved September 5, 2013.
  26. ↑ Arment, Marco (March 8, 2009). "Kindle support now available". Archived from the original on January 3, 2012. Retrieved December 21, 2011.
  27. ↑ Arment, Marco; Benjamin, Dan (December 19, 2011). "Build and Analyze #56". Build and Analyze . 5by5 Studios. Archived from the original on January 6, 2012. Retrieved December 21, 2011.
  28. ↑ Arment, Marco (June 1, 2008). "Officially launching Give Me Something To Read". Marco.org . Archived from the original on October 9, 2020. Retrieved December 21, 2011.
  29. ↑ "About Give Me Something To Read". Archived from the original on July 10, 2012. Retrieved December 21, 2011.
  30. ↑ Arment, Marco (March 22, 2012). "The Feature". Marco.org . Archived from the original on October 9, 2020. Retrieved March 29, 2012.
  31. ↑ Arment, Marco (March 22, 2012). "The Feature". Marco.org . Archived from the original on October 9, 2020. Retrieved March 29, 2012.
  32. ↑ Chan, Christine (March 10, 2012). "It's The Battle of the Read It Later Apps! Read It Later vs. Instapaper vs. Readability". AppAdvice. Archived from the original on December 2, 2013. Retrieved November 23, 2013.
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  34. ↑ Glazer, Emily (October 21, 2011). "Worth It? Saving Websites to Read Offline". The Wall Street Journal . Archived from the original on December 24, 2011. Retrieved December 21, 2011.
  35. ↑ Ang, Sarah (October 10, 2013). "5 Best Read-It-Later Apps". Mashable . Archived from the original on November 22, 2013. Retrieved November 23, 2013.
  36. ↑ Pash, Adam (November 14, 2007). "Save a Link for Later with Read It Later". Lifehacker . Archived from the original on January 20, 2014. Retrieved January 27, 2014.
  37. ↑ Weiner, Nate (October 2008). "Read It Later 0.99 Released". Idea Shower Blog. Archived from the original on January 1, 2014. Retrieved January 27, 2014.
  38. ↑ Weiner, Nate (April 2009). "Read It Later iPhone App Released". Idea Shower Blog. Archived from the original on April 4, 2014. Retrieved January 27, 2014.
  39. ↑ Ang, Sarah (October 10, 2013). "5 Best Read-It-Later Apps: Pocket". Mashable . Archived from the original on November 22, 2013. Retrieved November 23, 2013.
  40. ↑ Ang, Sarah (October 10, 2013). "5 Best Read-It-Later Apps: Readability". Mashable . Archived from the original on November 22, 2013. Retrieved November 23, 2013.
  41. ↑ Ang, Sarah (October 10, 2013). "5 Best Read-It-Later Apps: Evernote Clearly". Mashable . Archived from the original on November 22, 2013. Retrieved November 23, 2013.
  42. ↑ "Evernote to end support for Clearly, Evernote for Pebble, and versions of Skitch". Evernote Help & Learning. December 17, 2015. Archived from the original on June 13, 2018. Retrieved June 28, 2017.
  43. ↑ Ang, Sarah (October 10, 2013). "5 Best Read-It-Later Apps: ReadKit". Mashable . Archived from the original on November 22, 2013. Retrieved November 23, 2013.
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