ControlC changes the way you copy and paste

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Web services, Social Software, web 2.0

ControlC changes the way you copy and paste

by Brad Linder Feb 4th 2008

Without copy and paste functionality, modern computers might as well be ancient typewriters. OK, that might be going a bit far, but would you really want to live in a world without copy and paste functionality? It's amazing how much time you can save copying and pasting serial numbers, text, URLs, pictures, and other items.

But what happens when you hit Ctrl+C and then forget to hit Ctrl+V until after you've already accidentally copied something else to your clipboard? Or what if you copied a URL into an email last week but you can't find the URL or the email today?

ControlC is a new service that automatically saves everything you copy to your clipboard to your web account. Since a record of all your copies is saved online, you can copy to your hearts content, save in the knowledge that even if you accidentally overwrite the clipboard you can still find that text snippet you need. In fact, you might start hitting Ctrl+C even when you have no intention of pasting the text anywhere, just to save a URL for later.

If you copy a picture, ControlC will not store the image online. But if you copy the URL for a web image or video, you can view the pictures or video from your ControlC account. You can also mark some text, images, or videos as public if you want to share them with friends or the the larger ControlC community.

ControlC is compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux machines. The service is currently in private beta, but you can sign up for an account using the code "beta4040." Free account holders will only be able to access 5 days worth of clippings. But you can remove that restriction by signing up for a paid account for $20 for 6 months.

[via TechCrunch]

Tags: clipboard, control-c, controlc, copy, paste

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Steve said 7:01PM on 2-04-2008

It keeps it online. May I ask..WHY? Often the things people copy are sensitive information and putting it online on some site is nothing less than stupid in my opinion. This could easily be done by saving the stuff on your local hard drive, and is by the many free utilities that already do this sort of thing. Then they want to charge $40 a year to let you do this? LMAO, well that explains the online part.

Sorry but this is garbage and is not worthy of being posted on DLS.

Tyler Darko said 7:33PM on 2-04-2008

...or they can download Yahoo! Widgets and set up the copy widget. Then they can just look at their desktop to get the info.

Andrew Pollack said 11:26PM on 2-04-2008

I have to agree with Steve on this one. A muti-layer clipboard that's local -- sure. Copying everything that goes into my clipboard out to some website somewhere? Holy hacking batman! That sounds like the worst idea I've heard in a really long time. Ugh.

Tweaq said 11:26PM on 2-04-2008

I use Clipomatic:http://www.mlin.net/Clipomatic.shtml
You can set how many items it saves, and you can setup a permanent clipboard.

scheckley said 9:01AM on 2-05-2008

awesome, I can see a list of all the temporary information I never needed to keep.

5 stars :)

BananaBoat said 9:02AM on 2-05-2008

This is a terrible...TERRIBLE...idea.

Thinking about it, I do want a better clipboard that stores alot of stuff though...LOCALLY. I might try the one listed above.

Victor Agreda Jr said 9:21AM on 2-05-2008

I use iClip on the Mac, and it is worth every penny. If you've ever accidentally c&p'ed something you'll thank yourself.

Steve, we report on this stuff for precisely that reason: to point out apps that might be a little on the wacky side (remember the 3D email?).

That said-- yeah, this is a terrible idea. Although would be great for monitoring kids, muahahaha!

Jeff said 12:36PM on 2-05-2008

I would like to give it a try. But you need an invite to register. Do you have any extra invites?

cga1cga1 said 3:40PM on 2-05-2008

One word, Clipx.

DaveH said 6:01PM on 2-06-2008

Well I tried it out, quickly realised it was a dumb idea and tried to uninstall, but no unistaller was obvious, not even through Add/Remove programs or CCleaner. No option. I eventually found the message boards and someone else had asked the same question. The two word helpful response "delete it".

I went looking for away to remove my account. Nothing apparent or obvious. I work in usability, I'm possibly a little critical but this a terrible site with a terrible customer service ethos.

IMO don't use them, use one of the other clipboard services mentioned above or better yet realise that you don't really need a copy of most of that stuff you Ctrl-c on a given day.

Samuel said 5:25PM on 2-11-2008

I am looking for way to copy multiple portions of text from we webpage, anybody know how to do that?

Semapy said 8:48AM on 4-13-2008

I like ClipX, Free and simple to use without touching the mouse.

David SF said 5:36PM on 3-29-2008

My company just released a text snippet manager called Snip-It Pro, that also monitors the windows clipboard. It won't store anything on a website, but you can setup snippet folders on network shares so multiple people can share them. And when you copy text from webpages it keeps track of the url source where the text came from.

www.snipitpro.com

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