How Best to Organize Bookmarks

[engine]

Over the years my bookmarks grew and grew, and it's a valuable resource. I have been quite good at removing broken links to sites and services that no longer operate. However, the time is right to try and find a better way to bookmark. I have, in the past, used bookmarking software, which worked fine, but the authors didn't update it and it became unusable. I certainly don't want to put the bookmarks online for services to harvest.

What bookmarking techniques/systems are you using, and why?

[Shepherd]

We built a back end admin (accessible online privately, website) that we use for bookmarking. Allows us to save notes and share within our team. It's searchable, team members can search notes to help find sites.

[aristotle]

I created a simple html page where i just add links to pages that I might want to visit again. It takes more time to add a new link than a normal bookmark does, but I think it has saved me time in the long run. I have it organized into categories, and I can find what I'm looking for very quickly just by scanning the page.

[piatkow]

I created a simple html page where i just add links to pages that I might want to visit again. It takes more time to add a new link than a normal bookmark does, but I think it has saved me time in the long run. I have it organized into categories, and I can find what I'm looking for very quickly just by scanning the page.

I did that in a previous job and on my first PC. It was how I taught myself the rudiments of html in fact.

[engine]

I used to have an html file, or should I say files, but it took too long to manage.

I haven't looked at this in a while, so i'm wondering if there are solutions that are easier and faster to manage, in addition to being cross browser capable.

[aristotle]

I'm not sure what you mean by "cross browser capable". But in my case I've set my html page of links as the home page in all the browsers that I use on my desktop. They can retrieve it from my hard drive almost instantly. I put links to frequently-visited sites at the top of the page, and then have categories below that. I also use a table layout that creates three columns. I use this page so often that i know where most of the links are and can get to them very quickly.

I keep my main links page on my hard drive instead of uploading it to the web. But I have a shorter version that I've uploaded to a hidden location so that I can use it when traveling.

[engine]

aristotle, by "cross browser capable" I mean that it will work with whichever browser i'm using at the time. I quite often use different browsers for different functions, or for testing purposes, so to be able to use all/any of the bookmarks in whichever browser would be helpful. The html files format will solve that problem.

I also used to use a spreadsheet, but it still took time building and editing the spreadsheet. I still use spreadsheets for research purposes, but not for the main bookmarking activity.

[aristotle]

engine -- Thanks for your explanation. But I'm not sure you understand what I meant, because I also use different browsers simultaneously sometimes. But by setting my links page as the home page in all of these browsers, cross-browser use isn't a problem. Since they all use the same links page. Anyway, I like doing it this way, but understand that others might not.

[engine]

aristotle - I'm with you. It's a great idea, and worth considering.

I'm also looking at database options, too, as that will help greatly when updating.

[SmallP]

I've just started to move all my bookmarks over to Workflowy, which I use for pretty much everything these days, both personal and business. It is described as an "online organisational tool" but that doesn't really do it justice.

I used it for about a month before I realised its potential. Now I store to-do lists for me, my family, and all my freelancers (you can share individual lists). I also use it to manage my website schedule, and to keep a very large database of quotes as well as notes, book reviews, dates etc. I use it for brainstorming, on my own or with freelancers. Travel plans and schedules go in there. If I need to save anything and find it again in the future it goes into Workflowy.

I use two browsers on a daily basis and have Workflowy as my starting page. I also use the iphone app regularly.

I'm not finished yet but I've started to move all my Bookmarks over. I used to store them with a html page but found it hard to motivate myself to keep it up to date and organised! Also I created it many years ago and have been finding it a pain to use from my iphone. In Workflowy it's very quick to search or drill down and you can tag any way you want. The sharing concept works brilliantly too. Recently when I wanted a freelancer to do some research for me I shared one small collection of bookmarks with her within moments, and asked her to add any new websites to the list that she thought might be useful in the future. It worked really well. My daughter is currently travelling for 6 months and we created a list of Bookmarks for all the relevant travel and hostel websites, visa applications, buses and airlines, weather info etc which the whole family can access.

I don't think you have to pay for Workflowy, although you do have to pay for the App. It's a while back since I did it so it might have changed, but there was premium "if you like Workflowy you might like to support us" option which I paid within a couple of days when I realised how useful it would be.

I'm not affiliated in any way - I just love it so I tell everyone about it. And I can't think of a better way of organising bookmarks, so thought I'd chime in here.

[Robert Charlton]

I certainly don't want to put the bookmarks online for services to harvest.

Ditto, which has kept me from using Xmarks. See discussion we had about it in our Firefox forum back in 2010, when we thought the service was going to end... [webmasterworld.com...] I use bookmarks for some aspects of project management, so sharing was out of the question.

Xmarks has been kept alive [xmarks.com...] ...but some of its major utility still relies on sharing. It also for me has a problem I'm increasingly having with all types of topic organization, as I'll describe below.

With multiple browsers, I've started used text files (or NoteTabPro otl files... not entirely satisfactory... but it's given me the capability to make semi-searchable notes about stuff on the web I link to from the files.

It's been impossible, though, to anticipate how some topics might expand and grow... and thus what to call and how to group things. Eg, Google's "Knowledge Graph" has branched into "semantic search" and "named entities", among others.

Ironically, I'm finding I'm using Windows shortcuts to effectively give multiple names to some of my text files and topics I'm dealing with. That's almost like coming around to Windows Explorer favorites again, but used on my local machine. It's all getting unwieldy.

Some kind of outliner that can be reorginized would be very helpful. I'd been intrigued by Dave Winer's OPML ever since some early presentations about it he made in Berkeley, but I guess he's waiting for a developer to do something with it, much as I am. There is an OPML plug-in for Firefox bookmarks, now, but I really don't want to tie myself to FF bookmarks.

The idea of a personal wiki has also crossed my mind... but at this point it's nothing more than a vague idea in search of time and energy.

SmallP - Workflowy looks intriguing from what I can see of it in the blog, and it seems to have outlines at the heart of it. I'll be darned, though, if I'm going to give my name and email address to a software service that doesn't tell me anything about its product on its site, and IMO that bodes badly for the product. I'm wanting something for desktop, btw. What more can you tells us about it?

[bill]

I'm still an XMarks user. It remains the best cross-browser way to keep all your bookmarks in sync.

I certainly don't want to put the bookmarks online for services to harvest.

Although Xmarks does keep your bookmarks online, there is no publicly accessible way for anyone to view any of your bookmarks unless you give someone your password or explicitly share them.

From the XMarks privacy policy

Synchronized Bookmarks: We may share information about our users' bookmarks in anonymous, aggregate form only with our users, subsidiaries, and affiliates. In doing so, we protect your privacy in two ways. First, we share only anonymous, aggregate data. For example, we may share a list of the most commonly bookmarked pages in the Wikipedia, or the sites most frequently bookmarked within a "News" folder. Such data is never released in a form that can be associated with individual users. Second, we only share data about bookmarks that are held by a substantial number of users. Finally, you may explicitly opt to share all or portions of your bookmarks with other users; you can do so by visiting my.xmarks.com and selecting "Share."

[engine]

I decided to run a test of Firefox sync and it's been a disaster. The machines I used for the sync now have duplicate bookmarks. In addition, they are all out of sequence. Furthermore, it appears that the synch seems to then duplicate the duplicate bookmarks between the two machines, and so on. I know have a complete mess on those two machines, and there is no obvious fix.

I'll take a look at xmarks, thanks.

[Planet13]

I like using evernote, but I am still just learning it. It's a lot more sophisticated than just a simple bookmark feature though.

[mack]

What about a simple directory script with search function... perhaps a "popular Links" section. Sounds very 1999 but on localhost no one is looking :)

Mack.