Bookmarks manager
This page is about tools you can use to manage bookmarks: software and Web sites. My page
Managing your bookmarks under
Net navigation is about techniques for managing your bookmarks.
Bookmarks are very important. Building, organizing, and backing up your personal bookmarks collection is one of the two main keys to navigating the Internet, the other being learning how to get the most out of Web search engines.
Every Web user has at least two kinds of bookmarks tools available: browser bookmarks features, available only on your own PC, and online bookmarks manager sites, available anywhere you have Internet access. If you run a personal Web site with links pages, those can function as public bookmarks for your own use as well as for other Internet users.
Modern browsers have reasonably decent bookmarks management features: you can create multi-level folder systems and move bookmarks around as much as you like. The main limitation of browser bookmarks is they are only available to you when you are at your own PC.
There was some interest in locally-installed third-party bookmark manager utilities in the early years of the Web, maybe mostly because the bookmark features in the early browsers were so primitive.
- Powermarks ($25)
http://www.kaylon.com/power.html
- Powermarks has been around for years; it lets you maintain one synchronized set of bookmarks across multiple browsers such as IE, Firefox, Opera.
- Bookmark Bridge home page
http://bookmarkbridge.sourceforge.net/
Bookmark Bridge project page http://sourceforge.net/projects/bookmarkbridge/
- An open-source freeware project (0.72 beta released Feb 2004) which does some of the same things as Powermarks. It seems to work pretty well within its limits, and it hasn't hurled on my shoes yet. Looks like it may not be compatible with Opera 8, though.
Of course, instead of bothering with synchronized bookmarks, you could just pick one favorite browser to do all your bookmarking in, and restrict your use of the others to testing Web-page formatting.
Another good trick is to identify the main bookmark file of your primary browser—the one that's modified as soon as you update a bookmark—and in each of the other browsers you use, make a bookmark to that local-disk file. Your browser's documentation, local-drive or on the Web, should tell you where to find its bookmark file.
top
Most people now probably just use the browser's native bookmarks features. I like to use them in combination with an online bookmarks manager, which allows me to access and edit my Web bookmarks from anywhere, secured by a password like Web-mail.
- MyBookmarks
http://www.mybookmarks.com/
- Fast-loading, easy to use; supports import/export, move, sort, edit. I like the MyBookmarks interface the best of all of these. Their system-tray icon may be designed for always-on connections like DSL and cable.
- linkaGoGo
http://www.linkagogo.net/
- Looks interesting; lots of customization flexibility.
- myHq.com
http://www.myhq.com/
- Supports import/export
- Backflip
http://www.backflip.com/
- One of the earlier online bookmarks sites (2001). Folders and subfolders; "Backflip It!" Links-toolbar JavaScript button.
- iKeepBookmarks.com
http://www.ikeepbookmarks.com/
- Looks pretty fast-loading; supports export of all bookmarks or individual folders
- Bookmark Commando
http://www.bookmarkcommando.com/
- Skimpy details on the service only available on the public site via the tiny Help link
- Murl.com
http://murl.com/
- Being run by an individual at no profit?
- Bookmark Tracker http://www.bookmarktracker.com/
- Site privacy policy says they add "bookmarks" to yours that are similar in subject matter: not good (both that they're doing it, and that the disclosure is buried in the privacy policy). Fancy browser-based interface. Sort and move are supported; apparently has some sort of upload/download synch feature with no publicly accessible details that I could find.
- LookSmart's Furl.net
http://www.furl.net/
Spurl.net
http://www.spurl.net/
- Bookmark managers usually just save the page address, title, and maybe your comments. Furl and Spurl.net are a little different; apparently they save the whole page.
- ol'bookmarks home page
http://olbookmarks.sourceforge.net/
ol'bookmarks project page http://sourceforge.net/projects/olbookmarks/
- If you are a computer geek, you have a Mysql or Postgresql database, PHP, and access to a Web server with PHP support, you can provide your own open-source freeware online bookmarks solution.
- Bookmarks Synchronizer Firefox extension
- Appears to function similar to ol'bookmarks, with server requirements
You can also search on "bookmark" in the WWW category on
Yahoo Directory to find more. Most of these sites seem to have reassurances about privacy policy. If you're ever really worried about privacy, keep those bookmarks on your local disk.
People sometimes suggest you simply take a saved bookmarks file with you, on a diskette or one of those USB "thumb drives." It's a thought, but I can see two problems. My local library's free computers use security settings that prevent the browser from opening anything on the local system, only allowing external Web URLs. Also, I'd like to be able to edit my traveling bookmarks at will, regardless of where I'm accessing them.
top
Functionality
- First and foremost: quick-loading and easy/fast browser-based interface: study Gmail vs. Yahoo Mail, Lycos Mail, also about ads
- Store the following three fields per bookmark, all editable:
- Display all three fields in the browse interface.
- Support the following functions:
- Support links for all online protocols (http, https, ftp, Gopher etc.)
Having a gee-whiz "bookmark it" widget is not that important, especially if it's only going to work in WinXP; everybody has a Links, Bookmarks, or Personal toolbar now. Besides, at the copy shop or the library your subscribers are going to have to remember your URL and their login and password anyway.
Policies
- Follow the Google rule: "don't be evil."
- Give full details on the service, accessible on your public site prior to signup.
- Explicit privacy policy, including public vs. private bookmarks
- Don't be a fly-by-night; have a stable business model and zero downtime.
- If there will be ads, be clear what they will look like, and say if there will be graphics, animations, or sounds allowed, or not. It's pretty clear people tolerate the text-only ads on Gmail better. Sounds are a show-stopper; animations are almost as annoying.
- If you're going to use subscriber bookmarks statistically in some manner, be very clear about it.
- A bookmark is a link to a resource the user found and decided was credible, valuable, and worth returning to. If your system adds its own links to the user's bookmarks folders, that the user didn't evaluate or select, then what you have there isn't really a bookmark manager, is it?
top
site feedback