2004/07/17
Synchronizing bookmarks
One of my plans for this weekend was to find a good way to synchronize my browser bookmarks on multiple systems. When you use the internet a lot, and you have a different computer at work, you'll see why you would want a solution for that.
After some time of googling and trying results I think I have found it: Bookmarks Synchronizer for Mozilla Firefox. This synchronization extension saves your bookmarks as an XML file to an FTP server. Set the login data once on every system, and every time you open Firefox you get the most recent version of your single set of bookmarks. Saving and loading the bookmarks does take a short while. My XML file turned out to be 150kB. That isn't too much of an issue, however, as you can start browsing before loading the bookmarks is finished.
If you don't have an FTP account at the ready, there is at least one company which still gives away free web space with FTP access: VillagePhotos. Actually their service is only meant for sharing photos, so you have to configure Bookmark Synchronizer to use a .jpg extension for the XML file. Which of course isn't a problem for saving or loading the data. Thanks VillagePhotos! :)
I've been using Firefox as my main browser for quite some time now, with great satisfaction. If you're looking for a way to synchronize your bookmarks/favorites with a different browser, SiteBar might be the thing for you. This puts a sidebar with bookmarks in your browser, which are stored online. Several free public bookmark servers exist. This could be a satisfactory solution for me, if only it was better integrated with the browser. I need keyboard shortcuts, fast cut-and-paste and drag-and-drop of bookmarks. SiteBar provides none of those. The easy and free online storage is good, and it contains some cool features to share some of your bookmarks online. But as long as I can't store my real browser bookmarks in it, or am provided with a user interface that's as good as the native one of my browser, SiteBar isn't for me.
I can't wait to be at work and have my complete bookmark collection available!
Update: VillagePhotos has recently spawned a new service specifically for hosting any file, not just photos: Ripway. Also free and the service is good. Happy synchronizing!
After some time of googling and trying results I think I have found it: Bookmarks Synchronizer for Mozilla Firefox. This synchronization extension saves your bookmarks as an XML file to an FTP server. Set the login data once on every system, and every time you open Firefox you get the most recent version of your single set of bookmarks. Saving and loading the bookmarks does take a short while. My XML file turned out to be 150kB. That isn't too much of an issue, however, as you can start browsing before loading the bookmarks is finished.
If you don't have an FTP account at the ready, there is at least one company which still gives away free web space with FTP access: VillagePhotos. Actually their service is only meant for sharing photos, so you have to configure Bookmark Synchronizer to use a .jpg extension for the XML file. Which of course isn't a problem for saving or loading the data. Thanks VillagePhotos! :)
I've been using Firefox as my main browser for quite some time now, with great satisfaction. If you're looking for a way to synchronize your bookmarks/favorites with a different browser, SiteBar might be the thing for you. This puts a sidebar with bookmarks in your browser, which are stored online. Several free public bookmark servers exist. This could be a satisfactory solution for me, if only it was better integrated with the browser. I need keyboard shortcuts, fast cut-and-paste and drag-and-drop of bookmarks. SiteBar provides none of those. The easy and free online storage is good, and it contains some cool features to share some of your bookmarks online. But as long as I can't store my real browser bookmarks in it, or am provided with a user interface that's as good as the native one of my browser, SiteBar isn't for me.
I can't wait to be at work and have my complete bookmark collection available!
Update: VillagePhotos has recently spawned a new service specifically for hosting any file, not just photos: Ripway. Also free and the service is good. Happy synchronizing!
