Markup.io lets you share Web pages with more than just a link

Sharing Web pages with friends usually consists of sending them a link and some sort of explanation. Markup.io is a new service that makes the process a bit more personal -- and a lot more fun. Basically, it allows you to not only share a link, but also show your friends exactly why you're sharing it, by marking the page up as though you took a sharpie to your screen.

Markup.io works through a simple bookmarklet, so your choice of browser doesn't matter. When you're on a site you want to mark up, whether it's by circling a block of text or pointing to a person in a picture, you just hit the bookmark to load the service. When you're done, you can choose to publish your markup version of the page. That gets its own short-ish URL at Markup.io, which you can use to share any way you want.

Possibly the most interesting part about it all: When you friend gets the link you send them, they have the option of responding with markup of their own. The service is still new, but current markup options include drawing lines, arrows, freestyle shapes, circles, and text. It reminds me a bit of Skitch, only it shares entire Web pages instead of images.

The only issue I ran across while using it so far has been how long it takes to load once you click the bookmarklet, which tends to trip Chrome's time-limit alarm. I'll give it that one since it's still new, and because Chrome's touchy like that.

Tags: annotation, bookmarklet, fun, markup, social sharing, SocialSharing