[kijin]

Google is not in the bookmarking business because it is not profitable enough for them.

But apparently, Pinboard generates enough profit to make it sustainable without any ads. Which means there are enough people who pay $10 for an experience that they consider superior to their browser's own bookmark manager.

Why would you pay for a tourist/hiking map if you don't own any property that is shown on it? Presumably because you like the convenience of being able to pull it out at any time and study it in its full 40" glory without having to worry about your phone's data roaming rates. Why would you pay for an "enhanced" contact manager app if you don't own any of the phone numbers and email addresses that you manage with it? Presumably because the cost of the app is well justified by its improvements over the stock Contacts app. I don't see any silliness or irony in that. It's just a cost-benefit analysis that turned out to favor paying some guy a small amount of money to facilitate your interaction with third parties.