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Forgetful people -- remember the Kwiry program

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This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

It’s tough to be forgetful. All those late fees on bills and time spent searching for your keys adds up.

If you’re extremely forgetful, you might want to write this website on your hand or tie a ribbon around your finger to remember it: kwiry.com. Kwiry, currently in open beta, lets people send themselves reminders by texting things to 59479 (the service’s tagline: ‘Text it before you forget it’). Your reminders are collected in your personal account on a website that you can check whenever you like (if you remember the password), along with recommended services related to the reminder. Text yourself ‘electric bill’ and you’ll get an e-mail in your Kwiry account reminding you to pay your bill, along with links to the electric company and other relevant services.

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Today, San Francisco-based Kwiry is launching two new shortcuts that allow users to add movies to their Netflix queues and items to their Amazon.com account. So let’s say you’re driving in your car, hear a story on the radio about ‘The Last Lecture’ and decide you need to read it. Just text ‘amazon the last lecture,’ and the book should be added to your Amazon queue. (If your request is ambiguous, you might get an e-mail from Kwiry asking which product you wanted). The company hopes to add shortcuts to more third-party sites soon.

Kwiry was created by Ron Feldman, an erstwhile commuter who read the Wall Street Journal cover to cover during his commute. He would end up with a big pile of newspapers at the end of his commute because he wanted to save some articles and show them to friends or family, but he couldn’t figure out a good way online to notate which ones to save. So he decided to create a program that would allow him to send URLs of his favorite articles by text.

‘The general concept is that it helps you remember all the things you want to remember when you’re not in front of your computer,’ he said.

Kwiry is free, but you do have to pay the regular cost of sending a text message. The program is supported by advertising as well as affiliate revenue. If you buy something on Amazon through Kwiry, for instance, the company gets a small cut from the e-commerce giant. That’s why you’ll get a whole list of links and suggestions when you text a reminder to yourself, rather than just the text of the reminder.

Now that we’re a few paragraphs down from the top of this blog posting, the forgetful out there have probably forgotten where to text your reminders (once you sign up, that is). Here’s an easy way to remember: On a phone key pad, 59479 spells K-W-I-R-Y.

-- Alana Semuels

Semuels, a Times staff writer, covers wireless, marketing and the L.A. tech scene.

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