"Save for Later" Has No Later

Almost every app today has a bookmark button. Almost none of them has a later.

This video follows the save-for-later pattern from a 1983 study of office desks, through the browser's bookmarks bar and the hidden menu that outlived it, to the Watch Later lists we never open.

Further Reading

• How do people organize their desks? (1983)

• Information Archiving with Bookmarks (1998)

• Out of sight and out of mind: Bookmarks are created but not used (2021)

• Highbrow Films Gather Dust (2009)

• Doing It Now or Later (1999)

• Saving-Enhanced Memory (2015)

• When Online Content Disappears (Pew Research, 2024)

• An Article Has A Lifespan Of 37 Days (Fast Company, 2013)

• My save to read it later habits (Medium, 2013; the Pocket read-rate figures)

• New Gmail now generally available (Google, 2018; snooze)

• Save it for Later (Slack help docs)

• New Feature: Reminders (Raindrop blog)

• Reviewing Your Highlights (Readwise docs)

• mymind Serendipity