This is LinkHugger's untidy open secret.  LinkHugger doesn't have a lot of user-friendly error messages built-in. If you enter information that doesn't validate, such as a password larger than 10 characters for example, you will simply be kicked back to the main page. Although more user friendly error behavior is being rolled out over time, most errors in LinkHugger today result in this behavior. So, if it happens to you review your previous action and data.

When viewing a link list click "Just Delete" for the link you want deleted forever. This would be the case when you and your partner or friends are all done musing over them. This approach does not visit the link first so be sure you really want it gone when using it.  To visit a link and then delete it, click "Visit and Delete".

Click Visit and Delete or Just Delete.

Nope. Investing in the time to do that is contrary to the core values of LinkHugger which is to remain the easiest way to store and recollect links between 2 people. The bottom line is that if anyone wants these things there are far more established and polished services out there like Delicio.us or Google Bookmarks. LinkHugger is an interpersonal sharing and retrieval tool that strives to remain thin and airy in use. It is assumed that the links shared will be discarded or otherwise moved on by the user to another longer-term storage system of choice later. LinkHugger is a way to keep links without having to think about processing them. Don't think of LinkHugger as a destination for links; think of it as one part of a link transit system.

At the LinkHugger main menu enter a known hug code into the box that reads "View an existing link list". You will be shown the associated link list instantly. You have this code because you either know someone who shared it with you, or you created it yourself. If you enter an unused code (as of this update) you receive an empty list.

Once you have accessed your link list you should consider bookmarking the page and storing it in your toolbar. This will give you one-click access to that list. If you are part of a couple or a small group of friends you can more easily bounce in every now and again and see who's shared what. You will notice there is an "auto-refresh" option on the link list. Clicking that takes you to a version of the page that refreshes every few minutes so that you can leave it open in a browser tab and look over occasionally to see what's up without clicking anything.

There are two ways. And the second way is the one recommended.

First, on the LinkHugger main page enter data into the "Create or add to a list" box to add to an existing list. If the list as designated by your chosen hug code did not previously exist, the new entry will create one and be the first link in the list.

You provide a friendly name, URL, and then a "hug" code which you completely make up and is the code you or your special someone will use to retrieve your list later. The code should be somewhat complex and nonsensical like "fuzzywug3" to effectively eliminate the possibility of someone using your code. Your code should be considered a password as it is the only thing restricting other people from reviewing your shared link collection. It can only be 10 characters or less and only contain letters or numbers.

Once you click SUBMIT you should receive a confirmation page that will tell you that your link has been added and also offer to let you look at your shared collection right then and there.

Of course, a better way to do all of this is to install the LinkHugger bookmarklet. This tool sits in your browser toolbar and allows you to collect web links with a single click while you browse the web. Much better.

As we like to reply affirmatively:  No. Unless you're doing it wrong. It's actually a way to build and share entire link lists. You might start out with just one link, true, but the real value comes from the ability to collect many links (using the bookmarklet) while you surf, thus rendering them available to yourself or someone else later via a unique link hug code. LinkHugger assumes that you'll eventually delete the links or store them long-term on another service, but gives you a fast place to put them in the meantime.

LinkHugger is ideal for two people, like a couple, or, a small group, like a family or a tight-knit bunch of friends who enjoy sharing links. It should also be useful for journalists or researchers who work together in teams. That's because LinkHugger is designed with intimate sharing and user trust in mind. By contrast grand-scale public sharing is best accomplished through the usual services like Google Bookmarks or Delicio.us, or, social media like Facebook and Twitter.

It's also the perfect personal scratch-pad or stick-note system for just you. It's ideal for those times when you might want to store links for later but don't want the hassle of categorizing or thinking too much about them just yet. LinkHugger is perfect in either scenario.

Here are the typical use case scenarios:

• You have a significant other and want to privately share links all day. None of that social crap.
• You're part of a close-knit tech team and want to pool useful links instantly for shared distribution.
• You're part of a small club and want a centralized link distribution method. LinkHugger lists can be set to public.
• You're a student moving from PC to PC, LinkHugger can be retrieved from anywhere.
• You're a radio show host (or on staff of one) and want to produce (and publish) instant link lists as you broadcast.
• You're a reporter or researcher and want links to reference for story development later.
• You want to save links for later but have no time for categorizing, tagging, registering, or anything else.
• You want to store links at another bookmarking site later, but find LinkHugger faster for the short-term "grab".
• Countless others...

You can read the developer's story behind LinkHugger to get the most complete sense of why it exists. It is really his personal tool which he happens to share with the public.

Welcome to the LinkHugger.com blog.  My name is actually David Pinero and I am a resident of Queens, New York.  Online, I promote myself as Dave the Web Guy because, man, the web is where I find all the action to be and have great enthusiasm for.  LinkHugger.com is just one of my creations.  I also work on Battle Blog (which is this blog's engine), Headline Prophet, and a number of publishing projects.

I just love coding up useful websites as well as the challenge of making them into recognizable brands on a zero budget.  Obviously I don't do it for the money; my sites are not polished or infrastructurally sound enough to be the next Google or Facebook.  Rather, I produce strictly on a prototype level for fun and maybe to make other people worry about me.  Still, I do know that I get an enormous sense of pleasure from coding, and, the subsequent post-build adoption by thousands of people like you.  All my projects, I believe, are a road to the dreamed "big one".  At the very least I imagine I'm staving off senility just a tad more by the complex development process.

LinkHugger.com is one of those products I believe in and am passionate about.  You'll see that here when you check in from time to time.  The project itself evolved from a conversation between my girlfriend and I over the classic dining table of a New York City greasy spoon.  All that's missing from the genesis tale is the pen and napkin blueprint, but really, LinkHugger didn't even need that.  The concept of interpersonal URL sharing is just too simple.  And in fact LinkHugger's very first weekend implementation was a measely 5 .php pages and 1 .htm.  As with all my projects I felt it was worthwhile to undertake so long as I was confident that in the end I as sole user found it handy (or in this case myself and the babe).

In a broader sense LinkHugger.com is not unique or entirely complex.  It could well be the demonstration project of a first-week MIS student or the wild output of some other hack with too much time on their hands.  It's so primitive most coders wouldn't spend the time.  In any event the web is rife with bookmarking tools, some of which are client based as well as web, and nearly all of them are far more polished and sophisticated than LinkHugger.com.  However, none of this dissuades me from building my own interpretation of what a tool like this should be like and how it should behave, as well as how it should spin out to users.  These things require the input of my unique philsophies and talent, and these things validate your and my time using it.

I'll use this blog to address support issues and to broadcast news and events relative to LinkHugger's development and adoption.  I encourage anyone to comment and tell us how LinkHugger has changed your linking life.