Why I created Bredbox

I’ve been searching for the perfect, portable bookmark manager for at least two decades. My first choice was Delicious. I loved its simplicity and convenience, especially the browser bookmarklet that let me save URLs in seconds. I added hundreds of links, tagged them carefully, and felt confident because it had Yahoo’s backing (where I worked from 2006–2011). Then Delicious began to unravel after Yahoo announced it was shutting the service down and later sold it. The site never recovered, so I started looking for something else.

Eventually I found Pocket, and I fell in love. Where Delicious felt simple, Pocket felt alive. Its Open Graph images gave every saved link a visual presence, and the whole library felt more tangible. I used Pocket every day to save things I wanted to read or keep track of. It felt like my links finally had a safe home.

When Mozilla announced it would shut down Pocket, I felt lost. I looked for a replacement that could come close to what Pocket gave me. I found a mix of old-school bookmark managers with outdated, ugly interfaces and nothing that matched my daily workflow. I had a choice: settle for something good enough or build the solution I really wanted. With AI’s help, I chose the latter.

Start with what Pocket did well

My plan was to rebuild the parts of Pocket I used every day. That meant a simple way to add and tag URLs, plus an app that pulled Open Graph information and displayed it in a layout similar to Pocket. I wanted a beautiful, easy-to-read article view, a browser extension for one-click saving, and a mobile app. Those were non-negotiable.

I also loved discovering other articles I might enjoy. Before the Pocket homepage filled up with clickbait and promoted content, I regularly found interesting posts. I wanted to recreate that experience with Bredbox, so today you can see both recommendations for you and newly added articles. Those recommendations come from the interests you select and the articles you’ve saved. They include only articles other people have saved, with no promoted content and no algorithm trying to keep you engaged.

…and build on top of it

As much as I loved Pocket, it had flaws. I wanted a UI refresh with newer patterns from modern web apps:

• Keyboard navigation
• Clear visual indicators when things change
• Faster navigation
• Clearer navigation labels
• Better handling of non-HTML URLs

I also wanted more direct access to my library without relying on the web app. That’s why Bredbox offers a Pro subscription with the features I always wanted from Pocket:

• REST API access
• MCP server
• Webhooks

You can build your own client with these tools if you prefer.

Plus full exports

Pocket’s biggest broken promise was that it didn’t keep permanent copies of what you saved. When Mozilla announced Pocket would shut down and you could export your data, I felt relieved. But I felt disappointed and frustrated when the export excluded the actual article content. Many of the links I saved were no longer live, so importing them into another app would not restore the content.

That’s why Bredbox exports include the actual HTML for every article you save, along with the metadata. An export zip, which you can request at any time, contains:

• All URLs with title, tags, creation time, and read status
• The full article HTML for each URL
• All collection information, including notes
• All highlights associated with each URL

Your entire library arrives ready for offline reading. The zip uses the same format as Pocket, with the addition of HTML content, so you can import it into any app that supports Pocket zip format.

Welcome to Bredbox

Bredbox started as a personal answer to the tools I had outgrown, but it became something more: a place to keep the things that matter without the noise of the web. I wanted a reading and bookmarking experience that felt calm, fast, and reliable, while still giving me the power I need for the way I use the internet every day.

If you’ve ever felt that your bookmarks were scattered, your reading list was disorganized, or your favorite tools let you down, I hope Bredbox feels like a better home for those links. I built it from real frustration, real habits, and a genuine desire to make saving and reading the web feel enjoyable again.