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Thursday, June 8, 2006

I have many computers. I have my Windows box in the office that is my main unit (until the Mac Pro is out
). I have a MacBook Pro that I pretty much use any time I’m not in the office and even while in the office. I also use my wife’s Mac mini. So that’s three computers all using Firefox with the need to have the same bookmarks. Transferring the bookmark.htm file is easy enough, once, but keeping changes in order from computer to computer is much tougher. That was until Foxmarks.
Foxmarks is one of a handful of bookmark synchronization extensions available for Firefox, but what sets this one apart from the rest is that it is a small add-on and doesn’t require a server to be active to work like de.lio.us. Additionally, Foxmarks has built-in auto-sync which none of the others seem to offer. This takes the worry out of if you’ve synced lately or not (though you can always manually sync if you wish.) As a final bonus, you can have complete and full access to your bookmarks online via a web browser if you’re ever on another computer that isn’t yours.
Set-up is a piece of cake as it will walk you through creating an account if you’re a new user. Once the account creation is done, you then upload your bookmarks. After that, it’s off to your next computer. When you install it here, you now input your account information (instead of create one.) You’ll then be prompted as to what you wish to do with your bookmarks. You can chose one of three choices from combining your current computers bookmarks with the one on the server, downloading the servers version and erasing the current computers bookmarks, or uploading the current computers bookmarks erasing the servers version. Most will chose the first or second choice though you might find yourself using the third if your current set-up is filled with more valuable bookmarks. After the bookmarks are taken care of, you’re now set to auto-mode. Every time you make an addition or subtraction to your bookmarks on one computer, the other will see it, and vice-verse.
You can set your sync to use either ftp or a more secure HTTPS protocol. If you have sensitive bookmarks, the later is a great feature to enable. From the advance settings screen, you’ll also be able to manually upload or download your bookmarks.
Foxmarks is a great extension for Firefox and it will help keep all your PCs and Macs in sync with one and another easier than you can say, “Where was that bookmark for Dancing Bush?”