Linksley.com
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For researchers who mostly need the source back, not the highlights

4 min read · Switching & alternatives

Diigo pairs a bookmark manager with highlighting and annotation. Many researchers use a small slice of that and still lose time on the daily task underneath it: locating a source again six months later. Linksley is a Diigo alternative that spends its entire surface on retrieval and sharing - boards with categories, a description on every link, group sharing with view-only caps, and a searchable new tab page. It does not highlight or annotate pages.

The feature you use versus the features you bought

Open your library and count. Three thousand saved pages, maybe forty of them highlighted, and none of the highlights touched since the semester you made them. Meanwhile the thing you do twenty times a week - get back to the paper, the dataset, the department form - still runs through a search box that returns four hundred results because everything is tagged research.

Long-lived tools accumulate. The interface grows a shelf for every feature, and the core job of putting a hand on the right link competes for space with things you tried once. That is the trade worth examining before you renew: are you paying in daily friction for capability you do not use?

Where the two tools stop overlappingTHE OTHER TOOLLINKSLEYPersonal collectionShared with a teamPer-person permissionsSurvives someone leavingboth are good at the first row; only one is built for the rest
Both tools are good at the first row. Only one of them is built for the rest.

Structure that survives a literature review

Linksley organizes links as board, categories, one optional level of subcategories, then links. A review gets its own board. Categories map to themes rather than tags: Methods, Contradicting findings, Datasets, To read. Subcategories exist for the one theme that genuinely splits, and the depth ceiling keeps the rest honest.

Diigo is a reading tool with a bookmark manager attached; Linksley is a bookmark manager with nothing attached.Retrieval has two routes: search across boards, and the browser extension's new tab page, which renders your boards from a local cache the moment a tab opens. Saving is a keyboard shortcut, a right-click, or the popup, and star capture can file anything you bookmark with the browser star onto a private Unsorted board for triage later.

Notes where a note actually helps

Every link takes a description - the one line explaining why this source mattered and what it argued. That line is what makes a list of forty URLs readable a year on, and it shows under each link when a board is published as a public page.

For context that belongs to a section rather than a link, a board takes text blocks: inclusion criteria at the top of a category, a note about which dataset version you used, a warning that a source is paywalled off campus. Checklists with a recurring cadence handle the repeating tasks in a project, and a read-only calendar from an ICS feed puts submission dates on the same board as the sources.

A board holds categories; a category holds linksTeam HQboardDailyClientsReferencecategories across · links inside
A board holds categories; a category holds links. Small enough that someone actually keeps it current.

Sharing with a research group or a department

Share a board with named people or with a group. Anyone can be capped at view-only, enforced in the web app and in the extension, and Can share is a separate grant so a reading list does not quietly acquire five editors. An admin can push a required board - the ethics forms, the style guide - that members cannot remove from their own view.

Offboarding is one action. Revoke a graduating student's access and every link stays with the workspace, and the board can be reassigned to whoever inherits the project. That is the failure that a personal account full of research links causes every single year.

The honest limit, and getting out

If you genuinely mark up sources - highlight passages, leave margin notes, and quote from your own annotations while writing - Linksley will not replace that. It never touches page content. It stores organized, shareable links, and if annotation is the workflow you are protecting, keep a tool built for it.

If retrieval and sharing are the workflow, moving is quick. Import a browser bookmarks HTML export, Toby JSON, Raindrop CSV or Pocket CSV from Import and export in the sidebar, and each becomes a board with categories. Export standard bookmarks HTML any time, on every plan, including free.

Common questions

Does Linksley support highlighting and annotating web pages?

No. Linksley does not modify or capture page content. It stores links on shared boards with a description on each one, which is a different job from in-page annotation.

Can I share a reading list with a class or research group without letting them change it?

Yes. Share the board with people or a group and cap them at view-only. The cap is enforced in the web app and in the browser extension, and Can share is granted separately.

What happens to a student's boards when they leave?

Access is revoked in one action and every link stays with the workspace. Boards can be reassigned to a successor, so a project's sources do not leave with the person.

Can I get my links out later?

Yes. Linksley exports standard bookmarks HTML at any time on every plan, including the free one.

Find the source in one search

Put your reading list on a board your group can open but not rearrange - free to start.

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