I recently wrote a blog post about one of Mendeley’s great features, the web importer. Promising an update at the end of the last post, I can now say that the newest cool thing that the importer can do is save webpage snapshots.

What this means is that not only can you import references from an ever growing list of supported sites but you can now save a snapshot of an actual webpage in your library.

The web importer saves a static HTML file with an exact snapshot of the webpage you are visiting and, if available within the webpage’s HTML, extract any relevant metadata.

Given the growing need to cite from websites, the ability to store a snapshot of a webpage is definitely a great new addition to the web importer’s features.

I know I’ll be using it, how about you?

To get the web importer, visit: http://www.mendeley.com/import

Upload Space

When we first cleared out some room on our servers to allow you to upload PDFs to your private Mendeley Web account, we spared 500 MB per person, given that PDFs are usually around 1-2 MB, this  enables you to store 250-500 PDF documents online. In response to requests (or should we say popular demand?) as well as bulging research collections, we will increase the storage space as part of a premium package in early 2010 (we are also working on more detailed stats, a recommendation engine and some other nice features).

For the growing number of people who really can’t wait that long (hats off to those of you who have already maxed out your accounts!), please write to support@mendeley.com with a request for extra space and we’ll be happy to pass out some freebies. It will be a temporary upgrade but you won’t have to switch to a premium subscription later. Once the premium features are in place and if you choose not to upgrade, you won’t be able to add any further documents to your web account (if it is larger than 500 MB), but your data will still be accessible and safe.

Shared Collections

Taking a similar approach with shared collections – which are currently limited to ten people – we quickly found requests rolling in for collections of a much larger size, mainly for departments and labs. So, we will raise the number of people who can access a shared collection as part of a premium package and in turn make the limits flexible. Again, write to support@mendeley.com if you need more shared collection slots within your department, lab, or research group. Send us your username (e-mail address), the name of the collection, and the number of people you would like to collaborate with and we can expand your shared collection to make it a bit more sociable for the festive season.

(Image by CwThomas43)