How do you collect and organize your favorite links, images, and videos? What type of service do you use?
Today I’m going to share a new service called Bundlr, that lets you do just that: create bundles of content for your own personal use, collaboration, or to share on the Web.
According to the Bundlr website, a bundle is a collection of content you find on the web: photos, videos, documents and links. So you may want to create bundles showcasing content from: your favorite artist, group, or band; your favorite websites; places that you want to visit on a trip; items that you want to decorate your house or office with; and more.
Bundles are also great for planning parties like birthdays, graduations and weddings. Anything that involves more than one photo, video, document or link can be made into a bundle.
Getting Started
You can sign up for Bundlr using your Twitter, Facebook, or Google account.
Next you’ll need to enter your name, desired username, and email address. Bundlr will grab this info from the service that you use to sign up, so all you’ll need to do is edit the information if needed.
Next you’ll be able to create your first bundle, but you’ll probably want to click on the “skip this, take me to my profile” link instead. This way, you can further customize your account, follow your friends already using Bundlr, and start following topics that interest you.
Bundlr will suggest topics to you and you can choose to follow the ones that you’re interested in. You’ll also be able to see how many followers that topic has and how many views that bundle has received.
Creating Bundles
Once you’re done following your friends and the topics that interest you, you’ll be taken to your profile. From here, you can create your first bundle by clicking on the “Create a new bundle” button.
On the “Create a new bundle” page you’ll need to enter a title and description, and then choose a category for your bundle.
Adding and Viewing Clips
Next you’ll need to add clips to your bundle. A clip is a link pointing to an article, website, photo, video, document, etc.
This is pretty straightforward; as soon as you paste the link and add it, the item will appear in your bundle. From there, you can click on it to view it in more detail. There are other options that you’ll see when you click on an item: set as bundle cover, remove clip, share (Twitter, Facebook, Google+, etc), and edit note.
Since you can’t add a note when you first add a clip, this is where you can do so if you want to add a description, comment, etc.
If you happen to add a video as a clip, you’ll be able to watch the video right from Bundlr – no need to go to YouTube or any other website; this is definitely a great feature to have. You can also read full-length articles in a format much like Readability; this adds a nice reader element to Bundlr.
Another nice feature is the ability to navigate through your clips using backward/forward navigation arrows on both sides of a clip. This way, you won’t have to close out the clip you’re in and then open the next one; this is a huge convenience.
Collaborating
You’ll also notice that you can invite a collaborator to your bundle, which also makes Bundlr a great tool for groups/teams. Unfortunately, you can only invite Bundlr users to collaborate (via name or username). So you’ll need to invite your family, friends, or group members to the service before you can start collaborating.
Other Features
Bundlr includes a few other useful features such as:
- Change the view from grid view to list view
- Make your bundle public or private; unfortunately it’s public by default because you need a premium account to make your bundles private
- Check the stats for your bundle (besides views and followers) – you will have to upgrade to a premium account to use this feature
- Share and embed your bundle
- See how many views your bundle has received
- Explore public bundles, follow them, share and embed them
Final Thoughts
What more is there to say about Bundlr? It’s an excellent service for collecting and organizing links and media. It’s user-friendly and makes a great collaboration tool as well.
Even though a few of the features require you to upgrade to a premium account, at just $19.99/year that’s pretty affordable.
What are your thoughts on Bundlr?
