I used to do this with a plug-in called Google Browser Sync on Mozilla back in the day. Since then, there’s a Firefox plug-in for Delicious that would help keep things synced up with that bookmark sharing site. But that’s not really what I wanted. I wanted Google Browser Sync, and now I finally have it again, cross platform.
At long last Mac and PC versions of the Google Chrome web browser have the ability to save bookmarks to Google Docs and sync all the changes/additions/deletions to that single central file. I’m so happy I went through and did a huge house cleaning on all my accumulated bookmarks. Soon I will follow-up to find out which ones are dead and get everything ship-shape once again. It’s sad the utility of a program like browser sync is taken away. I assume it was based on arbitrary measures of popularity and success. Google’s stepping down and taking away Browser Sync gave some developers a competitive edge for a while, but I wanted Browser Sync no matter who it was that did the final software development. And now finally I think I have it again.
Why is bookmark syncing useful? The time I’ve spent finding good sources of info on the web can be wasted if all I ever do is Google searches. The worst part is every Google search is an opportunity for Google to serve me AdWords related to my search terms. What I really want is the website that has a particularly interesting article or photo gallery. Keeping bookmarks direct to those websites bypasses Google as the middleman. Better yet, I have a link I can share with friends who need to find a well vetted, curated source of info. This is how it should be and luckily now with Chrome, I have it.
Carpet Bomberz Inc. 