Google Bookmarks

For a while now I have been trying to find an easy way where I can access the same bookmarks or favourites regardless of which computer I am using. I have two laptops (one in the house and a netbook for daily travel) and a desktop (which acts more like a server). One of the annoying things has been having a useful bookmark on one but not the other. Ideally I wanted to sync them all for ease of use. I had the brief notion of using Delicious, but it required a Lycos login (I think) and I am not keen on signing up for anything else these days.

So I was looking for a web based option that didn't require a new login or indeed having to share it with every Tom, Dick and Harry in the world. This is a personal online need. If I want to share anything I will make that decision and do so appropriately.

I am not sure why I didn't look into this before, but Google have a service called Google Bookmarks. It is extremely easy to use and can be accessed online at any point (very much like your GMail). You can also install the Google Toolbar on each browser you are using to fully integrate it. Now admittedly there are two key things to getting this to work seamlessly - 1. sort out and clean up your bookmarks first in your browser and 2. some tweaking is needed in the Google Toolbar settings.

I use FireFox as my main browser on all my computers. I think it is excellent and better than either IE or Chrome. I had recently gone through a process of re-categorising my bookmarks and deleting ones that were no longer of interest. It took a few hours but it was a worthwhile experience. I did this across all my computers to ensure I didn't miss any good sites. I tend to stick to basic headings or labels - Email, Comics, Blogs, Techie stuff etc. This way it is easy to find relevant sites. So once you have cleaned up your browser and are happy with your favourites, you simply import them into Google Bookmarks. This is seamless. As long as you have a Google login, you can do it and just like checking your email online, you do the same with your bookmarks. Of course you can add as you go along and regardless of where you are in the world you can access your favourite sites and blogs.

On the settings front withing the Toolbar, there are a fair few and I would recommend running through each option to make sure that you have the same setup across various computers. It doesn't take long.

For someone like me who is a big Internet user and views a lot of content across a lot of different sites, this is great way to access those sites from anywhere. I can even access them on my IPhone which is just too cool. I strongly recommend it.