Getting Started with Springpad

Springpad is a free web application that wants to help you remember those things you think are important or interesting. It offers a web clipper, a mobile application, and a posting email address to help you save things and keep track of what you have saved before. Everything is automatically organized and enhanced to help save you time and frustration.

If Springpad seems familiar to you, it should. In concept, it’s about identical to Evernote. There are a few key differences that may make Springpad more useful to you. This is especially true if you’ve never been able to wrap your head around Evernote. Their primary similarities revolve around clipping, storing, and tagging things from the web, but pretty much end there.

Basic Operations

After you’ve signed up with Springpad, you’ll probably want to connect with Twitter, Facebook, Gmail, and Yahoo. Hit settings and then move to the Services tab to do this. When you link these accounts under Account Options, that only allows you to login, not share information. On your My Stuff page, you should see the web clipper at the bottom of the right sidebar. Drag this to your bookmarks toolbar to make it simple to snatch random stuff off the web.

Operating the clipper is simple. When you see something you want to save, click it. You’ll get a small window (which you can drag around) where you specify the details of your catch. Add tags, notes, and even rich media pulled in from the site. You can also use the clipper as a general method for posting to Springpad. If something pops into your head, hit the clipper, choose what type of item you want to save (Movie, Album, Task, Note,etc.), and fill in the details.

The Key Differences

One of the key issues you’ll find with services that allow you to capture things is that organizing, categorizing, and adding details is tedious. Capturing things without adding these details makes it harder to find what you want later. With Springpad, the extra details are filled in for you. This will ultimately make you more productive.

You can even find what you want directly from the Springpad interface. For example, I have been really curious about fried pickles lately. On a whim, I typed “fried pickles” into the what would you like to add? box on Springpad. The results were not only surprising, but exactly what I needed. So, Springpad not only serves as a service to store things, but a place to find things as well.

Springpad also has a social aspect, which allows you to see what you’re friends are storing on Springpad. You can choose to make items private or public in this case. An iPhone app is available for accessing your stuff on-the-go. If you have a smart phone, simply browse to http://springpadit.com/m. For those of us with no data plan, you can still use MMS to post things via your Springpad email. You can even use Apps to help organize and manage your content.

I was definitely pleasantly surprised by Springpad. We have barely scratched the surface here. They have paid a lot of attention to detail and created a very powerful application. If you never got the point of similar services, this might be your chance to figure things out. Even if you’re heavily invested in some other service, Springpad just might make you switch.

About the Author
Rahsheen has been a certified geek since before it was the thing to do. He started programming and tinkering in the 4th grade. Now, Rahsheen mostly writes on various sites about technology trends in social media and mobile. . He is also a musician, singer, rapper, writer, and producer. @rahsheen - +Rahsheen Porter - coachrah.com
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