Bookmarks are handy, but as time passes, they often go bad. You can download web pages to your computer, but embedded code often goes haywire, formatting can render text unreadable, and organizing them is a chore.
With this in mind, not since
TinyURL have I found anything as useful for sharing web pages as
iCyte, a free service that preserves and catalogs information found online.
The iCyte tool is a browser add-in designed to save text, pictures, or entire web pages with one click. Thereafter, the content is frozen in time and remains accessible, even if the information is deleted or changed.
“One of the most frustrating things about bookmarking is finding the link doesn’t exist anymore, losing access to the information,” says iCyte co-founder
Stephen Foley. “We store entire web pages so they can be viewed, along with notes and highlighted text, or the way they appeared originally.”
iCyte is ideal for preserving news stories, saving online purchase receipts, or establishing what appeared on the Web at a particular time. Students can use iCyte to backup web citations in research papers or for collaboration with other students, granting access to specific iCyte users or to
all iCyte users.
The service itself is completely agnostic and works on any information found online, including sites that are password-protected. If you have access to the content, you can preserve it with iCyte.
The tool lets you organize data as specific projects. Tags and notes can then be added to make an easily searchable database of the information.
The company also claims you don't have to worry about storage limitations. You can save as much Web content as you want for as long as you want -- without paying a service fee.
iCyte's add-in currently works with Mozilla Firefox on both Macs and PCs and with Internet Explorer 7 and 8. To download the free tool, create an account and get started, visit
iCyte.com.
