Author Topic: Let go of your bookmarks! (Read 32362 times)

MrCrispy · « **on:** June 15, 2008, 10:20 PM »

Topic of discussion - bookmarks are not needed, all you need is a search engine!

I've invested a lot of time and effort in bookmarking any site which I find useful or interesting, and then organizing and syncing those bookmarks using various tools and online managers like del.icio.us etc. And I hardly ever use them. This is what ends up happening -

1. if its a site you visit frequently, its going to be in your browser history, or saved session in Firefox as well.
2. if its not, chances are good its a reference site. In this case you're better off using google or any social bookmarking service to find it based on what you'r elooking for.
3. A lot of the sites you've bookmarked are probably dead/moved/no longer current.

Maybe I'm the only (insane) user who has hundreds of bookmarks, yet hardly ever uses them when looking for something.

lanux128 · « **Reply #1 on:** June 15, 2008, 10:35 PM »

good point, that's why i always have these two add-ons in my Firefox for searching within the bookmarks. not to mention Farr's FarrFox when the browser is closed.

1. Autocomplete Manager
2. Enhanced Bookmark Search

Darwin · « **Reply #2 on:** June 15, 2008, 10:54 PM »

No, you're not alone, MrCrispy. I have hundreds of sites bookmarked, backupped and organized into next week... yet rarely, if ever actually use them!

Grorgy · « **Reply #3 on:** June 15, 2008, 11:02 PM »

I use them as a first step to finding things, I have 3 or 4 hundred sites bookmarked, I find that I have trouble finding a site again, particularly if it is something like a site that has fonts or something which to me is a bit obscure, and there are so many of them, and mostly so confusing to the novice, I don't use them often, but they save the day sometimes.

kartal · « **Reply #4 on:** June 15, 2008, 11:05 PM »

I do not use bookmarks at all. I think that they create clutter because they are so easy to create. What I do is keep the web sites I like and so called bookmarks in my info application which is Wikidpad. I can tag them, date them, link them etc. It is easier to integrate into my info environment this way otherwise they would be in seperate application.

I also started using Zotero for firefox in conjunction with Wikidpad.

Deozaan · « **Reply #5 on:** June 16, 2008, 12:57 AM »

I haven't used bookmarks for years.

Except at work to easily access the company intranet pages for information I use frequently.

J-Mac · « **Reply #6 on:** June 16, 2008, 03:17 AM »

I have >4,000 bookmarks! Granted they need a severe cleanup, but I am getting little by little using Linkman. However I do use my bookmarks extensively, along with saved pages in Local Website Archive.

Jim

kreatorr · « **Reply #7 on:** June 16, 2008, 03:51 AM »

wait, let me bookmark this page...

mouser · « **Reply #8 on:** June 16, 2008, 04:36 AM »

justice · « **Reply #9 on:** June 16, 2008, 05:37 AM »

good point, that's why i always have these two add-ons in my Firefox for searching within the bookmarks. not to mention Farr's FarrFox when the browser is closed.

1. Autocomplete Manager
2. Enhanced Bookmark Search
-lanux128 (June 15, 2008, 10:35 PM)

good find lanux

Don't forget foxmarks, in combination with google web history you can usually find what i was looknig for.

Fred Nerd · « **Reply #10 on:** June 16, 2008, 05:56 AM »

One of the major Geeks site slogans is "we're your ctrl+D site, right?"

I use a few bookmarks, for things I visit once a month or so. It is quicker than typing it in, and searching is just more work. Also you can bookmark the Forum section of a website when google gets the homepage.

Sometimes I bookmark things which look interesting to check out later, but I never do, and just have to keep ignoring it, until some upgrade accidentally cleans up my bookmarks

Basically, if I need help to remember it, it isn't worth remembering.....

sri · « **Reply #11 on:** June 16, 2008, 09:20 AM »

I have 5157 bookmarks at del.icio.us. Fantastic web service!

rjbull · « **Reply #12 on:** June 16, 2008, 10:39 AM »

Some of my bookmarks are in KeePass, because it's convenient for sites that require logins.

Lashiec · « **Reply #13 on:** June 16, 2008, 10:50 AM »

Google is my bookmark system

Seriously, with a search engine is quite easy to locate what you want, and more or less I can easily discern the useful information from the useless one. For certain type of sites I already know the ones that matter, and that added to the new history system in Opera coupled with the feed reader, makes me think I'm well covered.

Still, I have around 100 bookmarks in the browser, I don't bookmark pages, but pages sections, like articles, forum threads, photo albums, or rare pages which the other way around I could not find in a thousand years.

MrCrispy · « **Reply #14 on:** June 16, 2008, 11:50 AM »

I end up using the FF Scrapbook extension a lot more than bookmarks - it saves a complete copy of the webpage which is usually enough for what I want, without needing to load the site, so it can be used offline as well and is an excellent way to save information. Since it remembers the url of the page, it also serves as a bookmarking tool.

sri · « **Reply #15 on:** June 16, 2008, 11:54 AM »

I end up using the FF Scrapbook extension a lot more than bookmarks - it saves a complete copy of the webpage which is usually enough for what I want, without needing to load the site, so it can be used offline as well and is an excellent way to save information. Since it remembers the url of the page, it also serves as a bookmarking tool.
-MrCrispy (June 16, 2008, 11:50 AM)

Scrapbook is one of the most useful add-ons for Firefox. One of the reasons why Firefox is still my primary browser.

Jimdoria · « **Reply #16 on:** June 16, 2008, 02:13 PM »

I don't have more than a hundred or so bookmarks in any bookmark system...

Of course, I've got at numerous bookmark systems

* Work-related bookmarks (and browsing) in Firefox
* Personal interest sites that I'm likely to come back to repetedly (or at least once in a while) in Maxthon
* Project-related searches & sites saved as Groups in Maxhton (different list from bookmarks)
* Odd sites that I probably won't vist that often, but that might interest others, in del.icio.us
* A surf list for sites I want to visit in OneNote
* Hotlinks for frequenly-visited webcomics & entertainment sites in the K-Meleon install on my thumb drive

I also have a wish list in del.icio.us, which is essentially a special purpose bookmark list.

Despite all this, I usually just go to lifehacker, consumerist, donationcoder.

tomos · « **Reply #17 on:** June 16, 2008, 02:18 PM »

Scrapbook is one of the most useful add-ons for Firefox. One of the reasons why Firefox is still my primary browser.
-sri (June 16, 2008, 11:54 AM)

Surfulater was the main reason for a long time that I stayed with FF
it still is one, along with flashblock tabmixplus adblockplus ...

I save a lot of reference sort of stuff in it which I wouldnt use that often but occasionally, also tried using it for bookmarks but with the FARR bookmarks-plugin I now just save bookmarks in ff & make sure there's some easily searchable word in title
Like others I dont use most of them at all, but what difference - they sit there unsorted, unseen, occasionally loved

dspelley · « **Reply #18 on:** June 16, 2008, 10:47 PM »

Like a lot of others, I Google more often than using my bookmarks - I guess I automatically remember certain words on the sites I'm looking for and use them as search terms.

But when I do want to get to one of my 1200+ bookmarks, Powermarks is just too speedy not to use.

Deozaan · « **Reply #19 on:** June 16, 2008, 11:58 PM »

I use Firefox as my bookmark tools. If I find an interesting page/site I want to come back to later, I open it in a new tab. Then I have Firefox restore all previous tabs when it loads up. So sites I visit often are always right there when I launch Firefox, and sites I don't normally visit but have found interesting lately also stay open until I haven't used them for a while and decide to close them.

Now that I think back on it, I am pretty sure the advent of tabbed browsing and restoring tabs at launch when I stopped bookmarking.

Although I guess sometimes I also do use Gmail for bookmarks. I'll send an e-mail to myself, or someone I think would be interested in the site, containing a link and a short description along with some keywords (tags, basically) to make it easy to search for--years later from right within my Gmail.

rjbull · « **Reply #20 on:** June 17, 2008, 05:05 AM »

I'll send an e-mail to myself, or someone I think would be interested in the site, containing a link and a short description along with some keywords (tags, basically) to make it easy to search for--years later from right within my Gmail.
-Deozaan (June 16, 2008, 11:58 PM)

That's a good idea. I often keep a few notes in MemPad, even if nowhere else. Despite Google, it seems to me worthwhile to keep original links somewhere, because Web pages can disappear. If you have their original location, you have more chance of recovering them from the Wayback Machine.

Jimdoria · « **Reply #21 on:** June 19, 2008, 02:46 PM »

I find for the sort of things I often bookmark, Google isn't all that useful.

First of all, to Google something I've got to remember what it is first. There's no reminder functionality which bookmarks provide.

Second, try googling "windows xp tips". You get thousands of hits. Which one is that particular tips site I saw a few months ago that had that list of obscure RUNDLL32 functions? Bookmarks to the rescue!

Curt · « **Reply #22 on:** June 20, 2008, 05:50 AM »

- good points, Jimdoria.

I like the bookmark manager in Firefox 2 combined with:

- 2 Pane Bookmarks 0.4.2008052701
   {FD61379B-066A-4afc-89DE-89FB24D907C2}
   http://piro.sakura.n.../xul/bookmarks2pane/
   Firefox 1.5 - 3.0.*
   shows the Bookmarks sidebar panel with 2 pane style like 0pera.

and

- Locate in Bookmark Folders 0.2.5
   {06652CB6-16D0-4e7a-BF2D-E0037A87E57A}
   http://alex.muntean.name/
   Firefox 1.0 - 2.0.0.*
   Locates a bookmark in Bookmarks Manager's folders tree or in the Bookmarks Sidebar, complementing the Bookmark Search feature of Firefox.

But maybe the page doesn't even need to be bookmarked, so I also use:

- Read it Later 0.80
   [email protected]
   http://www.ideashowe...ctive/read-it-later/
   Firefox 1.5 - 2.*
   Save pages to read later, then maybe bookmark.

If it is just a short article or a few quotes, I will mark the lines, and up will pop the context menu, and I will copy to file. This is surprisingly quick, if you use HyperWords:
- Hyperwords 4.0
   {9A752782-D706-479b-98F8-3F66BF921692}
   http://www.hyperwords.net
   Firefox 1.5 - 3.0.*
   Makes every word on the web interactive.

Anyway, the most visited pages all becomes my homepages:

- Speed Dial 0.7.1
   {64161300-e22b-11db-8314-0800200c9a66}
   http://speeddial.uworks.net/
   Firefox 2.0 - 3.0.*
   Direct access to your most visited websites

MrCrispy · « **Reply #23 on:** June 20, 2008, 04:38 PM »

I find for the sort of things I often bookmark, Google isn't all that useful.

First of all, to Google something I've got to remember what it is first. There's no reminder functionality which bookmarks provide.

Second, try googling "windows xp tips". You get thousands of hits. Which one is that particular tips site I saw a few months ago that had that list of obscure RUNDLL32 functions? Bookmarks to the rescue!
-Jimdoria (June 19, 2008, 02:46 PM)

I know what you mean, but I couldn't help trying out your example.

The google query - http://www.google.co...btnG=Search&aq=f
5th result on page - http://winxpinfo.com...mands_in_Windows_XP/

Don't know if that page has the kind of info you're looking for, but google knows all!

Curt · « **Reply #24 on:** June 20, 2008, 05:27 PM »

The hardest part of using Google is to create just the right search... and I very often fail to do so! So: Hurrah for bookmarks! But of course: To "let go of >some< bookmarks" I quite often email site addresses (to myself) in order to remember to study their content. Right-click > Send Mail > Send. This is almost as fast as bookmarking, but I am a lot more certain that I actually will re-visit the page, this way!