Benefits of Synchronized Bookmarks
The ability to have your own set of synchronized bookmarks on hand anywhere you are in the world helps in keeping your Internet activities organized. It saves you time and effort when using a second and third PC. In most cases, conventional bookmark sync apps also securely saves your website usernames and passwords.
Over the years, I've come to depend on Xmarks to do the job of synchronizing my Internet life across my computers and mobile devices. The service used to be called Foxmarks since it was first designed to be a Firefox browser plugin. It has since grown to be a cross-browser compatible add-on for Safari, Internet Explorer and Google Chrome.
Revival for Xmarks
A few weeks ago, Xmarks announced that it will discontinue its services by the end of 2010 with old investors pulling out of the project. Because the Xmarks services are still being offered free of charge, it had no way of sustaining its operations.
However, support from loyal Xmarks users poured in and the makings of a subscription based service is now underway. Personally, I think a $10-$20 annual subscription to Xmarks is well worth the convenience and security it provides.
Apart from the convenience of cross-browser compatibility (each browser have their own sync plug-ins but none are cross-compatible to other browsers), Xmarks also offers online access to your bookmarks (again, something the in-browser sync apps do not provide). So, even if you're in an Internet cafe, you won't need to install the plug-in. Instead, just login to the Xmarks website and browse, add or edit your favorite bookmarks straight away.
So, here's hoping that the Xmarks bookmark sync service will continue on for many more years to come.
