CheckThisLater Blog

Adding Delicious Bookmark Importing (being that the future of...

Sat, 18 Dec 2010 15:32:00 -0600

Adding Delicious Bookmark Importing (being that the future of Delicious is up in the air). Just head over to the tools page and you can get started.

And some more updates...

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 22:06:49 -0600

- Made some tweaks to search results. They no longer return posts sent by you, unless you are specifically using that option from the search drop down.
- Fixed an issue with improper displaying of urls in emails sent to people. Blank spaces are replaced with %20 so that email clients like gmail will properly make the entire link clickable.

Easier ways to share and save!

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:34:09 -0600

Don’t say I never gave you anything. Two pretty big updates to how you can send and save stuff.

1. This was implemented based on requests from people. Every post on your dashboard can now be shared with people from a little “share” link near the title. Clicking it will give you a lightbox popup similar to the popup you get using the bookmarklet.
2. You can now save any link just by prepending the link in your address bar with: checkthislater.com.

For example, in your address bar, you want to save http://www.google.com. Change it to: http://checkthislater.com/http://www.google.com and you’ll be presented with a page that’ll let you share or save the link like normal. Then once you send, you’ll be redirected back to that site. This is to make it easier to send and save things when using mobile devises.

Let me know if you run into any issues. Hope these work out for people.

- Zack

Character Encoding: Fixed

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 21:21:00 -0600

Just fixed a small, but annoying issue with the encoding of special characters. So those “?” that show up in post titles should be fixed now. Existing ones, I can’t do anything about because they are saved into the database corrupted. But future posts should show up fine now.

Some Recent Updates.

Sat, 13 Feb 2010 21:57:00 -0600

Based on a bunch of user feedback, I finally got around to making some updated:
- The biggest improvement has been the way tags and contacts are suggested to you. Should be a lot smoother and more accurate.
- When you’re saving a link that you’ve previously saved, if first requires a confirmation (telling you that you’ve already sent/saved this link) and confirmation, it’ll delete that old one, so it acts like it’s bumping up the saved link. Should help cut down on double posts.
- Some of the way contacts are handled has been updated as well. Not sure if what I’ve updated has solved all the issues people have had, so if you’re still having problems adding contacts or sending to certain people, please let me know.
- Moved “mark as (un)read”. No longer uses the envelope icons.

Aside from some small bug fixes, I probably won’t be toughing stuff too much for a while. Feel free to make suggestions and keep the feedback coming though, as next time I do an update, I’ll get things taken care of. Or if it’s something really easy, I may just take care of it one night.

Thanks to everyone for all their great feedback and suggestions. Especially: Devin, Morty, Brett, Kevin and Heather. You guys rule.

iPhone/Mobile Friendly?

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:58:00 -0600

iPhone/Mobile Friendly?:

You betcha. Just access: m.checkthislater.com or checkthislater.com/mobile/ with your iPhone or other advanced mobile devices (like Android) and you should see much easier way to check your dashboard.

Hopefully in the future, I can clean this up a bit and build out the functionality a bit more, but for now this is what you get.

I think I’ve finally reached a good stopping point for...

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 01:13:00 -0600

I think I’ve finally reached a good stopping point for v0.1. I’m essentially putting a freeze on new features for now. Anything (unless critical) is probably going to end up on v0.2. The main app’s interface and feature set is pretty complete and I’m really happy with how it looks and works.

I’d really like to thank Heather and my brother, Brett, for all their help with this site of the last couple weeks. Between the two of them, they’ve really helped me figure out what needed to be tackled.

Next thing to be done:
1. Update copy of emails and pages throughout site to help explain the purpose of the site and what is capable. It’s not obvious yet. I still need to explain things to people. I need to get the script concise and solid.
~~2. Possible mobile version. Making it easier to access your dashboard and other posts from your mobile phones (iPhone, Android, Blackberry).~~
~~3. Give users invites + send out some invites to get some more people using the site and get more feedback.~~
4. Build a basic admin so that I can better manage users and content as well as have statistics for the site.
5. Begin architecting v0.2.

I'm on a roll...

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 21:51:06 -0600

A lot of updates lately. Most noticeably, some color and display changes. Still not totally happy with the interface, but I think I’m slowly making progress. But most importantly, there’s a lot of backend work being done. A lot of infrastructure and core functionality work.

Now that I’ve gotten the main things I wanted to get done, is there anything that you’d still like to see? Anything I’m missing?

Bunch of Updates

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 23:58:40 -0500

Pushed a bunch of updates live this evening. Feel free to check them out and let me know if they aren’t working like they should be.

Here’s a list of some of what’s been updated:
- Tags. You can now add tags to the posts you send or sent to you.
- Edit posts. Edit the message and tags of posts.
- Updated search. You can now refine your search. Choose to search all posts, only post titles, only tags, or by a certain contact (contact search has live search of your contacts).
- Updated live search. Should work a lot better.

I also fixed a few issues as well just make some general updates that should make things a little easier. Next up on the todo list includes:
- Update the contact management a bit. Make it easier to add, edit, delete and search contacts.
- Improve search and interface stuff a bit.
- An invitation system so that you can invite your friends.

CheckThisLater Twitter

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 19:01:00 -0500

CheckThisLater Twitter:

You should totally follow us. It’s a great way to stay on top of the latest happenings.

Over the hump.

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 18:29:48 -0500

So a little while ago I stumbled across a huge issue with how I dealt with contacts and it required a major rework. Being that it was so much work (plus, I had a lot going on recently), I kept putting it off. Well, today I was able to finally get some stuff taken care of.

Fixes:
- Fixed that gaping issues with the contacts. Should be all set now, so hopefully can expand contacts in the future with little issue.
- Tweaked a bit for the iPhone. Added an iPhone/iPod Touch icon for site. Also took care of an issue with the titles and buttons. And lastly fixed the zoom/scaling of page.
- Changed the title (hover tooltip) of each post to be the full post title instead of the post link.
- Added the post’s link domain to after the date just for easy identification of where it’s pointing.

And I just discovered a gaping issue...

Sun, 23 Aug 2009 17:28:00 -0500

… with contacts and the storing of information as associated with the user accounts they represent. That’ll probably be the next big thing I get to. And that’ll probably be later this week.

More New Stuff!! YAY!!!

Sat, 22 Aug 2009 21:44:36 -0500

1. You can now do some pretty basic search. It’ll search the title, the link and the note as well as search for stuff sent to or from your contacts.
2. Import your contacts from Gmail.

I hope to get some sort of tagging/organizational aspect implemented this week. Enjoy.

Some New Features...

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 20:30:36 -0500

1. Favorites. You can now keep track of certain posts by “favoriting” them in a Gmail-like style. There’s a new page dedicated just to your favorite posts so you can find them and access them easier and faster.
2. Sending to multiple contacts. You can now send things to multiple people. Save yourself the hassle of having to send things multiple times.
3. Sending a yourself a copy. There’s now a checkbox on the bookmarklet that allows you to send yourself a copy of something in addition to your recipients.

This stuff is all pushed live and should be all set, but if you run into any issues, let me know and I’ll fix it asap.

Must Have Features?

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 09:56:00 -0500

I feel like CheckThisLater is at a good place. It’s at its most minimal yet functional place. Most bugs have been worked out. So what next? I have a roadmap with feature suggestions, but I’m starting to organize the priority of where to go next. Is there anything that you see as a must have?

I’m thinking:
- ~~sending to multiple people at once~~
- ~~favoriting~~
- ~~some sort of organization… like tagging or grouping or folders~~
- ~~Gmail contact import (via Heather)~~

Am I missing something?

The Road Map (or Things To Come)

Sun, 09 Aug 2009 16:31:00 -0500

This is a list of things that I am planning to get to as I can and where I see this site heading in the immediate future.

Overall Site:
- The biggest thing is to improve on the interface and design of the site. I’m no designer, so I’m relying heavily on friends to help me make the structure and usability of the site better.
- Not crazy about the colors. They work for now though.
- Improve the Dashboard blank state. Provide better instructions about what to do when you’ve never used the site before.

Posts:
- ~~Favoriting of posts. Similar to gmail’s star system, this would be a way to keep track of special posts so that they don’t get lost.~~
- Give posts their own page so that they can be linked to directly.
- Ability to comment on posts.
- Permissions for posts. The ability to set posts as public, private or only viewable by your contacts.
- ~~A way to organize and sort posts. Either folders, groups or tags.~~
- ~~Ability to send a single post to multiple contacts.~~
- ~~Search posts.~~

Contacts:
- ~~Fix the issue with association of contacts to allow members to store information about contacts that isn’t directly stored on contact’s user record.~~
- Easier ways to add contacts. Things like importing from ~~Gmail~~ or Yahoo Mail.
- User profiles. A profile for members so that others can see the items they want to share and keep track of. This could be completely public, completely private or only viewable by friends/contacts.
- Order contact search results by most frequently sent to.
- Grouping of contacts.
- Search contacts.

If you’d like to make any suggestions, please don’t hesitate to let me know (zack@checkthislater.com).

About CheckThisLater.com

Sun, 09 Aug 2009 16:04:00 -0500

CheckThisLater is an easier way to quickly share links with friends and keep track of things you want to read, watch or listen at a later point in time.

A little while ago, I realized that I was using various web applications in ways that they weren’t primarily meant for. Like using Tumblr to bookmark/remember certain things I wanted to get to at a later time, or using Twitter or email to share things with a friend.

I also found myself with browser windows full of tabs open with articles I wanted to read, videos I wanted to watch and songs I wanted to listen to. But during the work day, they were too distracting. And sometimes said browser would crash. Thank god for session savers and 99% of the time, I’d get everything back.

Now, there’s nothing really wrong with this, but I felt like there was a better way.

I wanted a better way to keep track of things I liked or needed to deal with later, as well as a more efficient way to share things with my friends. CheckThisLater.com is an attempt at solving my own needs and hopefully it helps a few others out as well.

So stop emailing links to yourself and friends. CheckThisLater is an easier way to share links with friends and an easier way to save and organize links you want to save for later.

Zack (creator)
zack@checkthislater.com