This is a FAQ for all the new changes in Secondbrain.com. If you have been using the previous edition of Secondbrain – this will hopefully answer most of the questions that you might have.

1. Why did we make all these changes to Secondbrain?
2. Can I still synchronize my social media services?
3. Why are some of my content items missing?
4. How can I import my Delicious bookmarks?
5. Can I use the same bookmarklet as before?
6. Where is my account, I cannot find it?
7. What has happened to all the people that I used to follow?
8. Where are my private collections and bookmarks?
9. What is a Restricted Collection?
10. Why are items in Private/Restricted NOT displayed in “What’s new”?
11. Why can I no longer upload files to my Secondbrain?
12. What happened to events in my recent updates stream?
13. Why do all bookmarks have to be placed in collections?
14. Why has the link address (URL) changed on my collections?
15. How can I give feedback to Secondbrain?
16. Have you changed the Terms of use or the privacy policy?

What`s NEW in Secondbrain
- A list of all the changes

1. Why did we make all these changes to Secondbrain?
Online bookmarking should be easy, and we were not happy with how we solved the core user scenarios in Secondbrain. The purpose of Secondbrain has always been to save interesting content – for future reference and for sharing with other people. But our previous solution concept tried to do much more than that, e.g. lifestreaming, online file management, synchronizing all social media account etc. This became an unmanageable complexity for our design and development team – but most importantly – compromised the user experience for our core use case. The appeal of Secondbrain, as we see it, is to have a Secondbrain in the cloud with all the content that you find valuable, and simple tools that help you find and share this content. With this in mind, we decided to go back to the basics. We radically simplified and focused our product model and started building the service with a bottom-up approach.

The first goal is to make online bookmarking as simple as possible. As soon as we feel that our service supports this well, we may again expand to support social media services and file uploading, but in a more sophisticated way compared to in the previous version.

Some people may see the new edition as a step back compared to how we pitched the service last year, and in some ways it is. Nevertheless, we believe that by focusing on building a solid and user-friendly service for sharing great bookmarks first, we will be able to expand the service over time while staying true to our original vision.
Back to the top

2. Can I still synchronize my social media services?
As a temporary limitation, we do no longer offer the possibility to synchronize your social media accounts to Secondbrain. We plan to reintroduce this feature in a more user friendly way in a few months.

3. Why are some of my content items missing?
- If you have imported items (picture, video, messages, bookmarks etc) from one of the social media services, you may find that some of those items no longer exists in your Secondbrain. Only imported items which you manually placed in one of your collections is still available in the new edition. However, all those items (video, pictures, messages, bookmarks etc), are of course still accessible on the other web sites where you created them originally.
- Everything you have saved to Secondbrain with our in-service bookmarking feature or bookmarklet is available just like before. Secondbrain bookmarks that were tagged but not placed in a collection are put in a new collection that is called “Unsorted”. Back to the top

4. How can I import my Delicious bookmarks?
As a temporary limitation, we no longer offer a direct ongoing import of Delicious items. However, if you would like to import all your Delicious bookmarks to Secondbrain, you may export your data manually from delicious, and then import the file to Secondbrain. You can find the import feature on the “Tools” page. This feature can also be used to import bookmarks from your browser.

5. Can I use the same bookmarklet as before?
Yes, you can still use the bookmarklet you installed from the previous edition. It will take you to a new and simpler form. The bookmarklet is the simplest way of saving interesting web pages to your Secondbrain. You can find the bookmarklet on the “Tools” page. Back to the top

6. Where is my account, I cannot find it?
All activated accounts were migrated to the new Secondbrain. If you did not activate your account on Secondbrain, i.e. click on the link in the activation email and create a password – your username was not migrated and you need to create a new account.

7. What has happened to all the people that I used to follow?
The “follow” option has been replaced with a “subscribe to collection” feature. Instead of following all updates from a person, you select which collections you find interesting and subscribe directly to them. This gives you more control over the updates you receive from the other people. Updates from your subscriptions are listed on the What’s new page and on the Subscriptions page.

We have migrated all your following relations in the old version of Secondbrain to subscriptions. The first time you log in to the new version of Secondbrain you will find all the collections of all the people that you were following on your Subscriptions page. You may want to go through your subscriptions and remove collections that you find less interesting. This gives you more control over the updates that you receive from the community. Back to the top

8. Where are my private collections and bookmarks?
Your private collections are available on your collections page under the “Private” tab. These collections are not visible to other Secondbrain users. Bookmarks that were defined as private but not put in a private collection are organized in a “Private items” collection.

9. What is a Restricted Collection?
A restricted collection is a public collection that is not publicly visible. It is not visible to other people on your collections page and updates are not published on the What’s new page. It is only visible to you on under the Restricted tab on your collections page. You may show this collection to selected people by sharing the secret URL. Use the share option to share the secret URL. You may allow people to contribute to your collection just like you can with a regular public collection. Back to the top

10. Why are items in Private/Restricted NOT displayed in “What’s new”?
We have simplified the privacy management on Secondbrain. The privacy is set on the collection level, not on individual content items. A bookmark can be put in both a public and a private collection. It will be publicly visible in the public collection. The private collection as well as all content instances in that collection are only visible to you. Back to the top

11. Why can I no longer upload files to my Secondbrain?
The upload files feature is temporarily disabled. We plan to reintroduce this feature in a simpler way in a few months. All the files you have previously uploaded are still available to you as bookmarks to the source of the file.
Back to the top

12. What happened to events in my recent updates stream?
Events and notifications are moved to a separate inbox. We decided to do this to separate content updates from user actions in an effort to make the What’s new page more relevant to you.

13. Why do all bookmarks have to be placed in collections?
To simplify the process of adding content to Secondbrain, we decided to remove the requirement of tagging content. Instead, we require that you put new content in a collection. You may still add tags to your content, but it is not a requirement. This simplification also makes it easier for other people to subscribe to updates from specific collections. Back to the top

14. Why has the link address (URL) changed on my collections?
We have changed the way we handle data on our systems. That is why we have given all the collections a new link address (URL). The link address is still the same for the front page on your profile on Secondbrain. (http://username.secondbrain.com)

15. How can I give feedback to Secondbrain?
We have a feedback widget on the left side of the page that gives you easy access to our feedback forum. You may also contact us directly on support@secondbrain.com.

16. Have you changed the Terms of use or the privacy policy?
The terms of use and the privacy policy are the same as before.
Back to the top