The abundance of information on the internet is a double-edged sword. On one hand, we enjoy access to a plentiful amount of excellent digital content (including articles, podcasts, videos, books, essays, etc.) on any topic or interest. But, for every piece of high-signal content like this, there’s 10 to 100 times the amount of clickbait, transitory content, and SEO-optimized garbage to sift through.

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Thus, if we want to find content that’s worth our time, it must be *curated* (that is, recommended by a real person). Kunal and I started Trove because [none of the existing platforms are designed for this](https://trove.to/trove/trove/cd705a0d-99cc-4872-8a7a-a43b22d18caa/why-we-built-this). Google is great for finding facts and answers, but is [not meant for content discovery](https://www.ben-evans.com/benedictevans/2016/1/31/lists-are-the-new-search). Social media platforms like Twitter occasionally *do* surface great content recommendations (given one is discerning enough to notice them), but “scroll until you find something good in your feed” is an incredibly inefficient use of our time.

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At its core, Trove is a purpose-built platform for curating, annotating, and sharing a collection of resources, on anything.

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Some examples:

* Internet libraries on a topic (e.g. [My startup library](https://trove.to/wes/trove/450fedbb-2e5b-4de4-a3f4-a62c64dd413a/my-startup-library))
* How-to / starter / resource guides (e.g. “Learning meditation and mindfulness”, “Learn how to play poker”, [Learn Linux](https://trove.to/wes/trove/eb1f8465-0436-4352-9d1e-6aef39c16c51/learn-linux))
* Reading lists (e.g. “Must reads for the aspiring product manager”, “Perspective-altering books”)
* Recommendation lists (e.g. “Educational yet entertaining YouTube channels”, “Online courses you’ll actually finish”, “Movies with great soundtracks”, “Best Joe Rogan podcast episodes”, “[Awesome Chrome Extensions](https://trove.to/matt/trove/8e975021-66f7-4ec6-bacf-8d201e68d833/awesome-chrome-extensions)”, “[The Coolest Blogs](https://trove.to/elethon/trove/2b58c743-60ec-45cc-8e8a-c4847d8190d6/the-coolest-blogs)”)
* [Syllabus 2.0s](https://www.usv.com/writing/2018/11/looking-for-syllabus-2-0/) (e.g. “A learning guide for blockchain and crypto”, “How to start making electronic music”, Investing 101”, “[The U.S. Healthcare System](https://trove.to/kunal/trove/c8ed7b9a-45c8-4614-bfe4-fce84677c4c9/the-us-healthcare-system-a-syllabus-20)”)
* Product recommendations (e.g. “[The ultimate WFH setup](https://trove.to/wes/trove/de58d807-518e-4730-8d46-042a1e7131af/the-ultimate-wfh-setup)”, “[Unique Homeware](https://trove.to/julian/trove/45952ff4-958a-4cb2-9326-c8250642159b/unique-homeware)”)
* Recipe libraries (e.g. “[Impressive But Easy Dinner Party Recipes](https://trove.to/holly/trove/347d5ed2-8818-41d8-ac46-a4aeb6b711d1/impressive-but-easy-dinner-party-recipes)”)
* Local guides (e.g. “Best taco spots in SF”, “Things to do in Rome”)

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To curate, annotate, and share a collection of resources on a topic

Everyone has ideas to share, but few want the overhead of starting their own blog or newsletter.

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Trove can be used as an ultra-lightweight publishing platform—allowing anyone to share their ideas online, even if they’re still in bullet-point form. The block-based format is particularly freeing because it allows each idea to exist independently; there’s no need to write transition sentences in a trove.

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The other nice benefit of the block-based format is that there’s comments on each block (instead of a single comment section at the bottom, like a blog post would have). This allows readers to engage more directly with your ideas.

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Examples:

* This trove
* [Crazy startup ideas](https://trove.to/wes/trove/9bf8b5a1-382b-4b4e-8e49-9b4103e92870/crazy-startup-ideas)

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To easily publish ideas and knowledge online

Found a delicious new recipe? Saw a recommendation for a book you want to read? Had a brilliant new idea come to mind? Trove can be used to keep and organize this information so it won’t be forgotten.

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Trove’s visibility functionality is especially useful here — you can have private troves where you keep your personal bookmarks and thoughts, and then easily pull things into public troves when you wish to share them.

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Examples:

* Categorized, annotated bookmarks (e.g. [Interesting Wikipedia Articles](https://trove.to/wes/trove/6f9d5650-5618-4cf8-b0c7-a3aa0b22ab0f/interesting-wikipedia-articles), [Articles](https://trove.to/madzen/trove/4606182d-db35-4fb3-a04f-51c1091d4683/articles), [Robots have already stolen your job](https://trove.to/nlpnut/trove/f9147733-4aea-4c81-9431-eb5402a00c38/robots-have-already-stolen-your-job))
* Read / watch / listen later lists (e.g. “movies I’ve been meaning to watch”)
* Idea scratchpad (e.g. “original jokes I’ve come up with”, “startup idea list”)
* Wishlists (e.g. “things we should buy for the weekend trip”)

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As a bookmarking / notetaking tool

What we call “research” today is mostly just doing internet searches and opening up many, many tabs (and of all the tabs we open, maybe 5 to 10% will end up being relevant / worthwhile). This makes Trove an excellent research tool, since it allows us to permanently store, organize, and annotate the best sources we found. Further, it allows us to easily share our research process with someone else, and [collaborate](https://trove.to/trove/trove/79e7fef3-6f2d-466f-9edc-a5303166d876/new-collaboration-chrome-extension-feeds) with them on the same shared knowledge base.

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Some examples of the types of research that can be organized with Trove:

* Planning a trip (what places to go, what restaurants to try, what Airbnbs to consider)
* Apartment / house hunting (keep track of appealing Zillow listings, research best neighborhoods)
* Doing product research (e.g. buying a new TV — list all the options and their pros/cons from review sites)
* Writing an academic paper (keep notes on all your sources)

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Our [Chrome extension](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/save-to-trove/fiohgohgokaemedjdofhfiijnnhdinbe/) is especially valuable for this use case, as it allows you to add resources directly from the browser as you research.

To organize a research process

Brainstorming all the ways Trove can be useful (or could be useful in the future, after a new feature perhaps). This is a working / ongoing document — let me know if you have other ideas!

Brainstorm: Use Cases for Trove

Apr 15, 2021 • 4 blocks •

To curate, annotate, and share a collection of resources on a topic

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To easily publish ideas and knowledge online

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As a bookmarking / notetaking tool

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To organize a research process

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