Bookmarks Sync with Google

I’m not sure how many of us had noticed… Xmarks for Google Chrome browser is not working anymore. Recently, I’m facing problems with synchronizing my bookmarks/passwords across my browsers and laptops.

What is Xmarks?

A little introduction about Xmarks, for people who don’t know much about it. Xmarks is an efficient add-on that support synchronizing your bookmarks, passwords etc across different browsers and across all of your work stations. Currently they support Google Chrome, Firefox & IE. My primary browser is Google Chrome. I was one of those happy buddies when they introduced it for Chrome. You can create multiple profiles (work, home, personal etc) and organize your bookmarks in them. This was quite a powerful add-on for Firefox (I don't know how it is for IE, as I'm not using it there).

As I said before, recently the service is not working anymore for Chrome. There are server synchronization errors. For people who face this, Google Bookmarks could be an alternate. While in Firefox, you need a add-on to use this, in Chrome it's not the case. You can use the "Sync" feature for synchronizing your bookmarks to your Google Account (which then is replicated to other browsers). And it is just not bookmarks. You can also add your theme to it. Though, not very useful for other browsers, but for people working primarily on Chrome, it provides the same environment & mood everywhere!

How to setup?

1. Choose "Setup Sync" from Customization menu on your chrome.
2. Sign in to your account. And that's all you have to do.

The synchronization of bookmarks happen until you are logged in to your account on the browser. Once you log-out the synchronization stops. But nothing is deleted from your Google account itself. Only the changes that you make (to bookmarks etc) will not get to your account.

What are the added advantages of using "Google"?

1. No data is lost anywhere. Everything is in your Google account.
2. You don't have to sign in to, yet another service for synchronizing bookmarks.
3. Create lists & share your bookmarks with others.
4. Fully searchable.

 

 

All those are OK.. but where are these stored in Google? Don’t rush to www.google.com/bookmarks. They are stored in your Google Docs now. You can find them under “Google Chrome” directory.

My Take: I do see that I cannot launch Bookmarks from within the Google Docs. May be it's intended. But strange!! :)

Useful Bookmarks For Your Browser

Bookmarks are always a useful tool to do some tasks directly from our browsers. Recently, I came across this useful list of bookmarks. Wanted to share with others.

• Twitter Reactions – To keep track of all recent tweets on Twitter on the web page that I’m currently viewing.
• Capture Screenshot – To capture the screenshot of the current page and upload to online services like Flickr, Blogger, Evernote etc. Allows you to crop out the section that you want from the current snapshot.
• ToRead.cc – A bookmark that will send the current page to your email (to read later, to share etc). You need to provide the email address to register with this free service. After registration drag the provided bookmark to your browser. Clicking on the bookmark will then forward the page to the registered email.
• Short URL – Creates shortened URL for the current site using bit.ly service.
• Readability – Creates a readable layout of the current page. Removes distractions on the web page (such as ads etc).
• Tidy Read – Another readability tool, that changes the cluttered web page to a more readable format. Works by changing the underlying CSS to make the page more suitable to read without disturbances.
• Show RSS Feed – A really useful bookmark. Gets the RSS feed associated with the site (if the browser cannot do it by itself). Also lets you to subscribe to the RSS in your favorite reader.
• Edit This Site – You can edit any site with this bookmark. See the video below to see it in action.

• Print What You Like – Will let you print part of web page or whatever you want on the page. It allows you to mark the print area (various options to select the area), and also allows you to save the snapshot as HTML or PDF.
• GMail This – Creates a mail in GMail with selected test from the page pre-populated.
• Sitonomy – Provides all technical information regarding the current site – site’s advertising partners, web stats program, web servers etc. Provided by Sitonomy.
• DownloadPDF – Downloads the webpage as PDF.
• Google Trends – Quickly determine the relative popularity (web traffic) of any web site using the Google Trends for websites service.