Google Bookmarks
Breaking from Google Bookmarks was an easy decision. I manage my most frequently used bookmarks (think top 20) in a hand written HTML file that is the default page when I open a web browser. I do this so they are a single click away and I keep this file copied to each device I surf from. For devices like the iPad that you cant do this, I have the file hosted from a web server running on my router. My iPad is Wi-Fi only and typically doesn’t leave the house so it works out perfect for me.
Google Bookmarks does pretty decent job of bookmark management. Everything is presented in a list format similar to their search engine results. You can, of course, search your bookmarks, and there are a few sort options as well.
I looked at many bookmark sites at the time but I ended up moving my online bookmark collection to Delicious. Delicious has the following features:
- Browser plug-ins that allow easy access, addition, and management of your bookmarks (even on iOS devices).
- Supports tags which help you categorize and find bookmarks quicker.
- You can sort the tags alphabetically or by count.
- Orders the bookmark list by most recently added.
- Has filtering and searching to make finding bookmarks easy.
- Displays an image from the bookmarks destination URL so you can get a quick visual.
Delicious is a social bookmark sharing site by design, but you can mark yours as private so only you can see them. The social aspects allows you to discover sites / pages.
Migration can be a little cumbersome. When you choose “Export Bookmarks” (left column) from Google Bookmarks, it downloads an HTML file to your desktop (or your default save location) as “GoogleBookmarks.html”. You can open this file in any browser and access the links by clicking on them. However, this format is not conducive to importing into another bookmarking service.
I ended up doing this over the course of several days and just visiting each link and re-bookmarking it in Delicious. This, while lengthy and tedious (especially if you have a lot of bookmarks), provides the following benefits:
- Validate the URL is still valid.
- Validate if you still need the URL.
- Validate your tagging is correct and update if needed.
- Refresh your memory on what has been bookmarked.
Next up: Google Docs
Unfinished Bitness 