It’s not that often these days that an online service jumps out and demands to be embraced but Instapaper is a pleasant exception to the rule.

Instapaper is a simple tool that lets you “bookmark” articles, blog posts, etc. that you find interesting but want to read later. After dragging a booklet widget to your browser, you simply hit the “Read Later” button when you run across something good, and a link gets sent to your Instapaper home.

Before installing Instapaper a couple of days ago, I used two methods to handle things that I wanted to read later – I would either bookmark them in del.icio.us or save multiple tabs in Firefox. The problem with del.icio.us is I never actually went back to read any of the articles, while keeping 20 Firefox tabs open all the time is a waste of resources.

Instapaper is one of those online services that should be enthusiastically adopted because it fills a need in a simple, elegant way. Congrats to developer Marco Arment, who works at Tumblr, for this stroke of brilliance.

For more views on Instapaper, check out Paris Lemon, who calls it a “beautifully simple bookmarking tool”, while TechCrunch describes it as a “cool new service taking bookmarks back to basics”.

Technorati Tags: Bookmarks, Instapaper, Marco Arment, puppy

Twitter can be easily dismissed as IM-Lite or a tool for people with short attention spans but, interestingly enough, it is also starting to gain traction as a serious communications tool for people to communicate about serious stuff…like politics.

ReadWriteWrite’s Josh Catone has a great post looking at Twitter’s pros and cons, and how it is started to be used even by the mainstream media to distribute content in a quick and efficient manner.

There’s no doubt Twitter has come a long way in a short period of time while its status and image has been upgraded from toy to tool.

The next interesting development will be whether Twitter can take the leap from being a tool used by a small, enthusiastic group of tech-savvy people to the mainstream. At some point will Twitter become as ubiquitous as blogging? Remember, it was only a couple of years ago that blogging was a pretty niche-y activity, while today everyone’s got one.

Another thing to look for is how the Twitter ecosystem will follow in the wake of Twitter’s growing popularity. There’s already demand for plug-ins that will make Twitter more effective and useful. If this area flourishes, it will provide Twitter will another push into the mainstream.

For more, check out techPresident, which suggests “Twitter could be the breakout technology tool of Election 2008″.

More: Speaking of Twitter and politics, the next big test for the platform (technology as opposed to political) is Feb. 5 when Super Tuesday happens. Let’s see how Twitter fares with all the political types pounding out messages as 24 U.S. states hold presidential primaries.

Technorati Tags: Twitter

A few days ago, CenterNetworks asked whether anyone would pay $1/month to subscribe to an RSS feed or, perhaps, $4.95 for a package of 10 feeds.

Not surprisingly, the response was unenthusiastic. With so much content being pumped out every day, how many blogs are worth $1 – especially when many people are reluctant to pay for “professional” editorial content from the New York Times, Wall St. Journal, et al.

But what about online applications, particularly those you use on a regular basis? Would you pay $1 to $2/month to use Google Reader, for example. What about WordPress? After raising $29.5-million, WordPress will probably be looking to create new sources of revenue, so would you balk if they instituted a $1/month service fee for something you use every day?

What about $3/month for a package that included WordPress, Google Reader, del.icio.us, Google Docs, Facebook and Twitter?

And what about one-time fees? Earlier this week, I was looking for a way to convert a Word document into a PDF. After a quick search, I found PDFOnline, which offers a free conversion service. It worked so well that I would have gladly paid 50 cents or $1 if it was required.

Unfortunately, there are probably few people would actually pay for online applications, even if they really liked them. We live in a world of free with the idea of freemium (the concept of paying for premium services) looming in the background but sadly ignored.

At this point in the game, getting people to change their behavior would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, unless many of the major service providers (Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, etc.) got together and decided free wasn’t working any more. Of course, this scheme would quickly stop working as opportunistic players offered free services.

Still, you have to wonder an ad-supported service marketplace can continue to stay vibrant. Sure, development and server costs have dropped dramatically but there’s no such thing as a free lunch any more right?

Technorati Tags: del.icio.us, Facebook, Google Reader, Twitter, WordPress

DEMO has barely started but the incessant coverage of every single development has already become aggravating – and there’s still another day to go.

It’s like the blogosphere feels compels to cover this conference the same way that reporters are covering the Super Bowl, which coincidently happens just 260 miles away this Sunday in Phoenix.

Don’t get me wrong, DEMO is a pretty impressive event and an even more impressive business but the coverage is heavily reactionary – e.g. “Oh my god, isn’t this service/product super-duper cool” – as opposed to offering some insight into what need the service/product is actually trying to meet, the competitive landscape, etc.

And let’s be honest, how many absolutely new stories are coming out of DEMO anyway? Sure, there’s some news (e.g. Standout Jobs announcing a $2-million financing) but most of the companies presenting have already been noticed and covered.

There, rant over. I feel much better.

Update: If you really need a DEMO fix, check out AppScout, which is rating the companies doing presentations.

Technorati Tags: DEMO