I’ve added a new service to my repertoire of online reading tools: Findings. This service allows readers to clip and share anything from the web, and it also connects to your Kindle notes and highlights shared via kindle.amazon.com.

It should be clear by now for readers of this site: I use a lot of tools to collect my reading because I believe that digital media is changing how we interact with books. While there are many moments where reading should be a solitary act, there are also moments where I want to share and connect with other like-minded readers. I’ve covered my thoughts on social sharing and reading in many articles on this site (see here, here, and here for examples).

Since I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how social media helps us connect with readers, I’d like to point out two areas where social media has helped change how I read. The first way is through what’s called “curation” — that social media helps us connect with web content curators that point us to valuable reading. The second is the need to share and give back. It’s basic social media etiquette: you give me something of value, I give you something of value. For book lovers, this can be quite a profound and meaningful experience.

Right now, Findings is a social sharing site that accomplishes both of these tasks best: it connects readers through similar reading interests and helps filter reading materials available online.

In my short time using Findings, here’s what I’ve discovered about my reading habits: even though I read for pleasure and to learn something about myself and the world around me, I still want to share what I read with others. Like many other readers, Findings helps me do that with little effort.

What does Findings do?

Findings does several things: it connects to Amazon’s kindle highlight service, and it allows you to like, re-find (similar to “pin” on pinterest), and follow like-minded readers. You can select whether you want these notes public or private, and you can share these via Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instapaper, and/or Readability.

Findings, in my opinion, is very robust. So far, I’ve found it to be the easiest way to collect and share my notes and highlights, even compared to Amazon’s in-house Kindle service and other sites like Goodreads. For a brand-new tech. startup like Findings, this is great news. With further improvements, Findings might become the premiere service for e-marginalia collection on the internet.

[caption id=”attachment_448" align=”aligncenter” width=”470"]

Findings is easy-to-use with a simple, familiar interface.[/caption]

Beyond what the service does, it looks amazing. Its interface is intuitive, and it integrates with bookmarklets and extensions including an official Chrome extension. Any time I’m reading from my computer, I can highlight text and hit a single button. Findings takes care of the rest, sharing my note/highlight how I want.

With that said, there are some areas of improvement. First, the community is still somewhat small, but over time and with more use, I think this will change. Second, I wish there was an easier way to import notes from other services like Evernote or from my “clippings” notebook on my e-ink Kindle (this allows me to collect notes from non-Amazon books). There are ways to do this manually, but I’d like to see more automation.

I’d recommend Findings for most reading situations, even with these issues. If the service continues to grow and seek out new readers, I think it might eclipse similar sites that have been slow to embrace the social sharing and curation aspects of the internet.

Pros

Easy to find articles, links, and curate your own interests

More convenient than kindle.amazon.com or goodreads.com

Send to Instapaper or Readability with one-click

Many user controls over how and what is shared

Keeps highlighting and note-taking as simple as one click

links to a variety of social media

New service, so has time to grow and improve

Cons

Because it’s new, the community is still small

Needs better integration with Evernote and non-Amazon e-book services

Chrome extension is still buggy. I had to restart it several times while collecting highlights.

No mobile apps yet (in particular, no iOS or Android apps)

Sites like Byliner have similar features with larger communities. The competition is fierce right now.

It’s becoming clear that serious readers want social media to connect them with smart content curators, creative writers, and great long-form articles and books. From my experiences so far, Findings is one of the best places to do this. As an e-marginalia nerd, that’s saying a lot.

We’ll see if this site fits in well with other similar sites. Either way, this is a great time to be a reader online.

Follow me on findings: findings.com/criticalmargins