Surf

Surf is an Electron-based app available for Windows and Mac, which gives you the possibility to collect notes and URLs. They are automatically shared across all devices by getting synced to your personal account.

The tool is wrapped in a clean and attractive interface that makes it intuitive to use. Although it's advertised as portable by the developer because it only takes you to double-click the downloaded .exe in order to reach the main window, that's not exactly true  because it creates files in the AppData folder.

It's not possible to go any step further without signing up for free on Surf's website using either your Facebook or Google Plus account (even if you were interested in saving your data locally only). A token generated on the website must be introduced into the desktop app to proceed.

The window is split into two main areas for creating and accessing categories (dubbed as "interests") as well as for adding, editing and viewing items. The links and notes can be added by just typing or pasting them in a text box on the bottom side, similar to sending a message to a friend when using an instant messenger.

It's not necessary to select anything to let Surf know which item is a note and which is a link since it gets autodetected. Also, URLs are accompanied by a caption. Keep in mind that URLs must be preceded by http:// or http://, or they will be identified as notes instead.

Two viewing modes can be toggled: list and thumbnail. By default, all items are displayed in a list but you can filter items by type: URL or note. You can create multiple categories (one item cannot belong to multiple groups) as well as edit and share interests with your friends via email.

Several options become available when moving the mouse cursor over an item, such as launching a website in the default browser, copying a note to the clipboard, and making edits. Besides deleting items, you can change website titles and descriptions, add titles to notes, write hashtags, and apply some font options like bold, italic, underline, header type, or block quotes.

Although it doesn't have an abundance of features like other similar tools, Surf has the necessary and sufficient tools for managing a collection of notes and website. It's very comfortable to use, whether you're looking to improve your productivity at work or just gather your favorite ideas and activities in a single place.