Raindrop.io is a bookmarking system. Besides working as bookmarks manager it has several display formats and can act as scrapbook of webpages with working bookmarks as it can save a thumbnail image of the page, title, URL, description, notes, tags, and highlights. Raindrop bookmarks are maintained in the cloud (AWS). It does not provide bookmark aliases, nor will it accept or use bookmarklets. I am using it for my bookmarks for all browsers and devices. Bookmarklets will have to be used from browser's own bookmarks.
SHOW WHAT IT DOES FIRST, before showing install!!!
Accessing Public raindrop.io bookmarks on the web as a User (#public)
Every raindrop.io bookmark and every folder has a unique id. As a general user you can use the Search button (🔍) within any folder you see to search within that folder. If you are the owner (have password) this works differently as the owner searches all folders.
Use the search button (🔍) next to the raindrop.io icon in upper right corner to bring up a search box. For the first test try the tag #lon, you can use additional or other words and tags. Additional tags may be added so that all are required (AND). The tag is case agnostic (#lon is the same as #LON). Try that out. (example of text highlighting included)
Try entering a few words or tags (#...). This is similar but not like Google, presented with a word(letters) rain raindrop.io will include hits on drain, rain, raining), as you might expect a search on AI is not going to help much. PRO accounts will include full text search of stored document/page as well as what is in the bookmark, unless restricted with info: .
Here are some search operators or filters: (more under filters)
word words/strings are searched for in title, description and link, but not in a note.
title:... word in bookmark title, for words next to one another surround with quotes (title:"word1 word2"). Similar to Google intitle: but Google can use OR in addition to assumed AND.
excerpt:... find text in bookmark description.
note:... find text in bookmark note.
link:... find text in bookmark link. (similar to inurl: in Google)
info:... will not search full text in PRO account, only title,description, and url in each bookmark.
#... find tag(s) #puppies #funny, a tag can include spaces but would have to be enclosed like in #"adam smith" (not the same as #adamsmith).
As a non-owner user, you can select any collection then within the group click on search (🔍) to search only within that collection and included nested collections as well. Note if you are working in the app or in the web app.raindrop.io (your own stuff) all of your collections will be searched.
☆ If given a link with search arguments, remove search then refresh before entering your own search in the search box to remove remnents of original search. After each search refresh your original link to remove search remnants from url in address bar.
Highlighting in raindrop.io (#hilite)
You may or may not be familiar with
highlighting through Chrome links. Unlike Chrome bookmarks and links you are not limited to a single highlighting in Raindrop which offers unlimited highlighting and in four colors and with highlight notes also available (to owner in preview). There are significant differences between an owner view and a user view as the user sees all of the highlights, but not in context (don't show on webpage). The owner can't see all the highlights in the bookmark itself but can see/create/modify all highlight in preview and add a note viewable only in the bookmark by the owner. There is a little edit bar that appears when owner mouses over or selects a bookmark -- New Tab, Preview (eye), Edit, Delete (trash can).
Raindrop HELP (starts with Install of Raindrop) (#install)
Your own raindrop.io will be using the Raindrop.io APP and/or the web browser https://app.raindrop.io
Using either the app or the web is your choice, you must remember to use same userid and password when you start the APP for the first time on a device, and in a browser for the first times on different systems. Use the official sites to get the app, the extension, and the bookmarklet.
It is important to take backups you have to initiate them yourself in Free, in PRO there will be a backup each day and you may also add your own. In any case only 30 backups are saved in the cloud. You can download as HTML or as CSV. Many other bookmarking systems that were far superior to browser bookmarks have disappeared. Specifically Delicio.us and bookmarks.com so you want to take backups fairly frequently but also copy a backup to your own system occasionally.
Android users: Change Settings ‐ Settings > Display > Touch Sensitivity ‐ ON to lessen problem of accidental wild category rearrangements (not a problem on desktop systems using a mouse and button to drag and drop)
Export Bookmarks from Android
Export Bookmarks from Windows
Import each imported file into Raindrop, doing the best one first, duplicate URLs will not be uploaded (by default)
Raindrop attempts to avoid duplicates but the same link with different id (#) or query strings (?) added after the question make it a different bookmark.
The Raindrop extension (RD | RDR) additional bookmarks, bookmarklets, and extensions I use in Raindrop are shown later in this document or in my pubic Raindrop folder.
Raindrop Owner / Team Member (#owner)
Team membership requires a PRO account, so not covered here.
You can access Raindrop.io from the App, from a Browser (app.raindrop.io), or from the Raindrop extension. Generally on Android you don't have extensions available to you. Kiwi makes use of Chrome extensions on Android but the last update in Jan 2025 will remain the last. You should obtain the bookmarklet "RD" (suggest RDR:) directly from raindrop.io HELP for use in the address bar if you have the extension/addon , See "RDR:", "RDF:", "RDU:", "RD$:", "RDS:" on my BMLETS: Bookmarks page. You can click on the href: bookmarklet to see the code for all bookmarks including bookmarklets on the page.
You can export Raindrop bookmarks but you will only see only folders, and page titles but the HTML also includes url, dates, and folders. Notes, tags, descriptions, and Raindrop additions may not be included (have to check this).
There is no option for exporting JSON or the complete HTML export, but CSV does include all bookmark items.
Raindrop will by default not add a URL if it is already present to prevent duplicates so that the existing one will not be overridden . New additions are in Import if imported or in Unsorted if you add a bookmark individually. You should move bookmarks to appropriate category (folder) as soon as possible so it gets done. For those that I don't put into a specific collection and are Public, I put the in a collection beginning with "$" so I get suggestion to add to my own $misc-Public along with tags when I move it from Unsorted have created it with the bookmarklet or extension so it is available to public and not forgotten in Unsorted or Imported.
I have mostly a single hierarchy of bookmarks in Raindrop because of problems with categories moving unintentionally on Android BEFORE the settings change, and even with the Settings change it will still happen and they may become misplaced among categories or hiding as an incorrect subcategory. On a desktop you use a mouse where this is not a problem because you use a button when you drag and drop.
Personal note: My last half decent Firefox on my laptop was June 17, 2015 ver 56.0.2 (problems), Raindrop.io bookmarking will work with all browsers so perhaps on a new machine I'll install a current Firefox. I do have a current Firefox on Android devices but am currently not using Firefox. Raindrop does not have keyword shortcuts (alias), but then neither does Firefox anymore.
Usage Instructions: (for Owner or Team Members (#usage)
To Bookmark a Webpage: § (#bookmark)
You submit the URL to Raindrop and Raindrop adds the cover image,
page title, description from page meta data (if present), as well as Date created and updated but are not visible. If you are in a collection(/folder) and add a URL from there, it will be added to that collection; otherwise, you might look for it in All Bookmarks or Unsorted Bookmarks, both of which I maintain as sorted newest (history timestamp) at top .
Four ways of adding a bookmark (#4x)
Add the URL of a page directly into the APP.&nsp;
Open the APP, use the Add Bookmark (🕀) to add a bookmark.
From the page you want to bookmark, Using the RD (|RDR) bookmarklet or the extension allows you to make changes immediately in your new bookmark. If a bookmark is not created you already have it and you will view the bookmark with any previous changes.
Install the browser extension, use the black/white Raindrop.io symbol in the extensions menu > select folder/collection category; if missed look at "All bookmarks" or "Unsorted" for the latest additions /updates.
Without the the bookmarklet, View page in Browser > Share > Share Raindrop (oOo). You are sharing the url. You can also use Share to open page in a different browser, create an email or many other things. After created raindrop.io bookmark you can open the bookmark and modify it.
Use of Extension or a browser bookmark, or bookmarklet are required separately in each browser you use.
Sharing a raindrop Bookmark, or a webpage. If you want to view the page in a different browser you can share the page with that browser. for example one browser
may be able to read a paywalled page, or not have used a monthly allowance to you can switch to that browser.
To share with another browser: click on Share > at the bottom 2nd of two share lines > Chrome | Kiwi | Brave; You should check/change category.
Collections default to Private until you change them to Public in the collection items.
My Private stuff is stored with RED icons entirely separate from my public collections. Those are just an extra precautions as every collections is either fpublic or private.
============================
Show How To Sort and relocate Groups & Bookmarks, manually (Android sensitivity issue)
When you add a bookmark to Raindrop, you add the URL and Raindrop finds or creates a cover image, and fills in the title. You can modify text and url and add a note afterwards. Raindrop does not show/add the description immediately when using RD bookmarklet which allows you to change folder. You can check for description later. You can use a bookmarklet to get description from webpage later if necessary.
To Move Folders Manually & with Sorting. (#move)
Demonstrate use of RDR:, RDF:, RDU:, RDS: bookmarklet and bookmarks.
My public Raindrops are in https://raindrop.io/dmcritchieA1
Public folders can be searched individually, only the owner can search for bookmarks in all folders, or change the View (List, Cards, Headlines, Mood board).
To FIND a Raindrop bookmark using the APP (#find)
You must first get into Raindrop.
Click on Raindrop icon to get into app from desktop, or
Bring up app.raindrop.io in your browser, or
Get into the app from the Raindrop extension in your browser.
Use Search (🔍) at Top of Raindrop, or
Pick a Category (folder), then click on bookmark to view page, or examine and modify, or add bookmark (🕀).
Note: any Search in Raindrop on word "search" will find RD Bookmarks contain "Search", "research", or "searchers" in title/description/note
Note: The three dots menu ("⫶") to right of a bookmark allow you to modify (Edit), move, delete your bookmark, or to reattach a cover image.
To Find a Raindrop Bookmark Using Your Browser:
You cannot invoke a Raindrop bookmark directly from the address bar because RD bookmarks are separate from your browser.
Click on Raindrop extension from extensions bar or menu
Use Search (🔍) at top, or
Pick a Category (folder), then click on bookmark to view page, modify, or add bookmark (🕀) to open folder.
If you don't want to see the sidebar on your mobile device use the app. Best to use the app on Android anyway as each Chrome tab has to be reloaded when you go back to a previous tab and easy to lose your inputted data.
§ shortcut: slide bookmark left for Share, Category, Delete; Slide right for Select ☑
To View webpage/document in Browser of your choice (not default) or other application: (#view)
at bottom in 2nd line of Share > Choose Chrome | Kiwi | Brave (for instance)
You can also change category or the favorites indicator.
If you share a Raindrop bookmark with your browser, it will be opened in the browser and you have full use of the browser you can use bookmarklets, and and other browser features.
Some bookmarks to help with Raindrop (#bmlets)
To start with suggest renaming the RD raindrop bookmark to RDR to avoid other unrelated address bar suggestions
RDR get the bookmarklet from help.raindrop.io
RDF Full database
RDU Unsorted
RD$ Public - Unsorted
RDS Site Search other users via Google (you need to add SEARCH words)
word – words/strings are searched for in title, description and link, but not in a note. PRO account may
include full text and that can be searched unless blocked with info:word search.
-word – word/string is not found in title, description, link, or note.
#tagname – tags are identified with # sign.
-#tagname – indicates bookmarks do not have that tagname.
title:... look in title ("search" will include research)
excerpt:... restricted to finding text bookmark description.
info:word look in title/description for word. Will never search full text that may be in a PRO account.
link:... look in URL for word
created:yyyy-mm-dd created on specified date (24 hours)
created:>yyyy-mm-dd created on and after date
created:<yyyy-mm-dd created before date
lastUpdate:yyyy-mm-dd updated on/within date; yyyy-mm, yyyy — modify for before(<), or after(>); Note "U" must be capitalized in lastUpdate: and must be a specific date (no "<", ">" nor yyyy-mm nor yyyy, which do not work and do not give an error)
match:OR all search entities become OR, default is AND; OR for either choices. Hard not being able to mix default AND with OR as in Google Search.
type:type – article | image | video | document | audio | link
— indicate a type
Raindrop searchs for words as a character string head would be accepted in each of: head, ahead, heading
In raindrop a word/string/tag may include spaces an must be enclosed in quotes. tags with spaces usage #"word1 word2 word3" -- this is quite different from Google, but can be advantageous in a small database as your personal raindrop bookmarks.
Tags can also be searched and found as if searched or as words.
Limited markdown is available in Note but not in Description. Even though when you edit a bookmark you see Title/Description/Note it will display as Title/Note/Description if you see both description and note.&nsp; Verified description does not take markdown.
Links [This Link](https:example.net)
Lists: * (line starts with *,+,- all treated same must have space after, [# may not work as digit period (1 . ) all treated as numeric list]
Phrase Emphasis: *italic* , **bold** , _italic_ , __bold__
all show up as boldface as if **bold** were used.
Account statistics (#stat)
In the raindrop app, go to settings>account, you will find Used space,
which I believe only refers to images, documents, PDFs, abd saved pages.
‐ I have use 5.3 MB this month for uploads limit of 100 MB for free account
‐ I have 2517 bookmarks as of Sept 21, 2025 in all my collections (app.raindrop.io) per settings>account, I have 19 public collections (raindrop.io/dmcritchieA1) each collection will tell you how many bookmarks it has, member since Mar 30, 2025
Have included bookmarks from Android tablet, and Windows bookmarks bar, which are now available on all my devices through raindrop -- except for bookmarklets. I had 2,700 bookmarks, but deleted 1000 which were bad (not found, bookmarklets, or old Mozilla Firefox on/before version 56 which had descent features. Deleted another 100 after I finally realized many of the messed up titles showing parts of IMG were really missing bookmarks.
The Following list was created from my Raindrop.io Bookmarks in Raindrop by selecting individual bookmarks and then opening them all at once in my default browser, then using the TabCopy Chrome extension to get HTML links.
complete list of my Public Raindrop.io Categories: AI Brain Mind Link, AI from image, Batteries, Future, Gemini, Grok, Interesting Finds, NJ Long Trail, Postal, Raindrop, Smart Glasses, Watched 2025-05-17, XR, YouTube, YouTube Shorts, site:raindrop.io AI (2025-05-19)
sorting: manual drag/drop, history(newest first/last), Alphabetical (order A-Z/reversed Z-A), website (A-Z/Z-A); orders can be changed by viewer, manual sorting is broken by sorting, newest additions are added at bottom until sorted or moved . User can change sort order each time.
view=list | grid | headlines | mood, is as set by owner, a user cannot change view or options within
If you are the owner you can set view as you like, if you are looking at a shared view it is whatever was left on. You might see AI as list, Battery as Cards, and Chrome extensions as Headlines. Mood is similar to cards but will fit them in a smaller space and basically goes down then across removing large empty spaces when a bookmark is next to one with longer notes (possibly not paying attention to sort order).
Chrome Extensions (#ext)
My own extensions for Chrome (on my Anroid) are now public. Most important to me are a Check my Links (only the one from logflare.app works properly it was out for awhile but is back), Raindrop.io, Tab Count TabCopy, Textarea Cache (critical for recovering what you were working on should your session quickly trminate.), Tab Copy (not on my cellphone, so not in list), Tab Sorter .
Possible Chrome extensions to add ‐ Favorites of 2024 (MUO)
UpNote ‐ saw a recommendation as a substitute for Evernote. Will have to check it out. Rest are from the MUO (makeuseof.com) article.
Text Blaze ‐ eliminate repetitive typing with canned text
Stylish - might work to make unreadable dark websites readable, or use a zapcolors bookmarklet. Nothing will really work on images trying to undo a black background site.
better.raindrop.io, not sure better copies of something
blog.raindrop.io, blog
developer.raindrop.io
Your own and other People's Libraries on Raindrop.io
Anybody can sort bookmarks in any collection they can view, overriding what the own set for themselves. Only the own has
control over the formatting and what is listed for each collection.
https://app.raindrop.io/my/0 --
this is your library, parts may be public by your choice
https://raindrop.io/userid -- would be someone's raindrop.io public bookmarks, you can't update without the (app.) even if it is your own, may have private / public / shared group collections, but uou woud ony see public.
Google Search (🔍) ‐
site:raindrop.io -inurl:help -inurl:app (words in English)
after the google Search URL append &num=100
or install an extension to give 100 hits as default is now 10 and option removed .
Political Warfare
https://raindrop.io/UnbreakableTruth/political-warfare-40496594/sort=-created&perpage=30&page=16
Social Movements & the Law
https://raindrop.io/UALawLib/social-movements-and-the-law-32036312
https://raindrop.io/dmcritchieA1
Documentation notes:
Documentation: there is no Share Symbol in Unicode, and no suitable Unicode substitute.
I have installed Raindrop.io -- All in One Bookmark Manager (http://raindrop.io) from the Playstore, and it's browser extension from the chromewebstore . It provides much of what has been dropped from bookmarks and were never in Google Chrome: You can display bookmarks
in lists, or like a picture scrapbook with text.
Groups (Folders), Title, Description, Notes, Tags, Highlights, URL,
Groups can be Private, Shared, or Team.
Display (view) can be List, Cards, Headlines, or Moodboard
Parts of each bookmarklet display and include:
Cover(picture), Title, Note (your own), Description (from webpage),
Highlights (your color highlighting marks on page), Tags,
Using Android I had problems with categories moving wildly around until changed Settings > Display > "Touch sensitivity" to ON (even though don't have screen protector), also turned ON "Accidental touch protection" (even though I personally don't have a problem with pocket dialing).
On Windows: suggest making Cursor more visible when pressing Ctrl Key, very useful if giving a presentation or to see when wireless keyboard activates: Settings > Devices > Mouse > Additional mouse options > Pointer Options > (check) show location of pointer when I press Ctrl Key.
Windows APP (creating highlight items)
APP yes, from preview yes / web link app. no / web app (preview_ yes, user no
Android
APP yes, from preview yes / web link app. no / web app (preview_ yes, user no
Meeting Sept 24, 2025 7:30 PM ET, Hunterdon & ACGNJ
(installed Raindrop.io Mar 27, 2025).
This page was created on April 17, 2025
Questions concerning this page can be emailed to me:
David McRitchie
send email comments (site comments/corrections).