Update July 22, 2013: Archify has been shutdown (archived).
It is a common thing for me and many other people to remember the turtle video we watched last week, but not know what site it was on, or even what it was called. Oh, and remember that great article about beer you saw in your Facebook News Feed last month? That ad I wanted to click on to buy that cool t-shirt when I got paid is not on the website anymore; what was the store called? With Archify these questions will have answers!
Once you complete the signup process (invites below) you will be prompted to install the plugin/extension. The page will automatically deliver the proper one depending on your browser; Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari are supported. You will then connect your Twitter and Facebook accounts. (Edit: February 15, 2012 - LinkedIn support has been added to record those status updates.)
Archify works by using the plugin to save a record of every webpage you visit. The page's text is saved and becomes searchable and a low resolution screenshot is captured (example) so that you can see exactly what you saw on that day. Secure pages that are under https and domains you have added to your personal blacklist are not recorded in any way.
On the social network side it saves every Tweet and Facebook post that is visible to you or that you created. Unlike the plugin, you do not have to be on the social webpage for the content to save. I noticed that new user setups may take a bit of time for the social information to start flowing in, so don't be discouraged if you do not see it right away. An excellent aspect to the Facebook data is that it will import everything since you began using the site, instantly making Archify an easy way to search old status updates. Google+ and LinkedIn connections are coming soon.
Now that all this data is available in your account it can be searched and shared. Let's run through an example to give you a better idea of how it works.
Here we have just read an article about Dropbox. Behind the scenes the extension automatically records the text and takes a screenshot. If you wanted, you could click on the extension icon to open the small window outlined in orange. In it your are able to share the information you just read, place that domain on your blacklist, or initiate a search of your archive.
When you search your index this page will now show up. To the right of the screenshot there are options to share, favorite, or delete the entry. On the left side you will notice the excellent controls available to refine your search. The relevance sorting uses their "Dwell Rank" which takes into account how much time you spent on the page as well as other factors.
A page you share is publicly available and can also be shared.
Now when you search on Google, Yahoo!, Bing, Facebook, or Twitter the results from your personal index are just one click away.
Overall the service works very well. The only issue I had was that the extension bogged down my Chromebook a bit, but worked fine on my other machines. Gerald Bäck, co-founder of Archify, has provided fifty invites to the private beta for you to check it out. Follow their progress on Twitter, Google+, and Facebook.
Signup today; only 50 invites available!
looks interestings
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