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April 4, 2011

Topicmarks – More Reading In Less Time

Topicmarks is a web-app that students and professionals can use to quickly summarize long text documents. Developed specifically for anyone who has to read or study long documents as part of his or her job, Topicmarks systematically works by cutting up articles, essays, and reports into short sentences. It then analyzes the meanings of individual words and spits out a condensed overview of everything that was written. When used correctly, Topicmarks can extract the facts from any lengthy article and summarize the contents in just a few short minutes.

Upload a file to begin using Topicmarks, and type in your email address to create an account. In mere seconds, Topicmarks will scan the document, analyze the text, and let you know how much reading time you saved by using its service. Head to the results page to see an overview of everything you didn’t take the time to read. Topicmarks starts out by listing the facts contained in the document you uploaded, ensuring you never miss any of the highlights. Check out the summary page to review a condensed version of the article and view a list of any keywords that were mentioned. Click on any one of these keywords to dig deeper and read an overview of the specific parts of the article where those keywords were discussed. When done properly, Topicmarks says anyone should be able to review any full-length article in as little as four minutes flat.

Based on your opinion of the review, you can give Topicmarks a thumbs up or a thumbs down. You can also share the summary via Twitter, Facebook, or email. Although Topicmarks summaries are free for smaller documents, heavier uploads will require a nominal fee in the future. For students, professionals, and anyone else looking to take a few shortcuts in life, Topicmarks is an interesting web-app that’s worth checking out.

Practical Uses:

  • Save time by reading a summary of your coworkers’s research article
  • Get informed about articles you haven’t actually taken the time to read
  • Review an article for class without actually reading the whole thing
  • Analyze annual reports for work without having to sift through each page individually

Insider Tips:

  • Upload PDF, DOC, DOCX, ODT, HTM, TXT, or HTML files
  • Sign in with a Google or Yahoo account
  • Topicmarks does not put a limit on the time it will store a user’s uploaded text
  • Texts can be marked as private to ensure confidentiality

What we liked:

  • Topicmarks offers a useful service without charging for basic uploads
  • Users can read a list of facts from any article without having to scan through the whole document
  • People who use Topicmarks can save time in life
  • Topicmarks is a great resource for anyone who needs to analyze large amounts of text in very little time

What we didn’t like:

  • Having Topicmarks available could encourage students to cheat when it comes to reading for school
  • Topicmarks’ summaries do not always reflect the entire scope of the articles, and people who rely on these summaries alone could be missing out on important information

Alternatives:

Company Info:

  • Launched: March 2010 (Public Beta)
  • Privately Held
  • Headquarters: San Francisco, California
  • Founded by: Roland Siebelink and Karl Dawson
  • Web site: http://topicmarks.com

Costs:

  • Free
  • Credits will eventually be introduced for heavy users

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