Browsers are smart today, they have the ability to keep your bookmarks backed up in the cloud. This helps if you re-install the browser, or install the browser on some other machine. But the native syncing feature doesn’t work with other browsers.
As a one time solution, you can export the bookmarks from your old browser, and import them into the new one. But what if you have to switch between browsers every now and then? You can’t export and import bookmarks every time. Also, if you happen to use a device that your current browser lacks support for, what can you do?
As a simple solution, you can use a third-party bookmarks syncing application. There are dozens of them in the market today, most of which support most modern browsers. In this article, we will talk about Xmarks, the best browser syncing service I could find.
Xmarks
Xmarks is a service that syncs all your browser bookmarks across all the browsers that you install Xmarks on. You just install the browser extension / standalone application, and login with your Xmarks account. Xmarks will automatically do the rest.
Some Amazing Features of Xmarks:
- Support: Xmarks supports Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer and Apple Safari. This means you can use any of the supported browsers, and your bookmarks will always be in sync.
- Profiles: You can setup multiple profiles to keep different bookmarks on different browsers/devices using a single Xmarks account. It also means that you can switch between any number of profiles and maintain completely different bookmarks in those profiles.
- Manage bookmarks: Apart from managing bookmarks from your browser, Xmarks also gives you a web interface to manage your bookmarks. You can add/delete/edit bookmarks on Xmarks website using your login ID and password.
- Share Bookmarks: Xmarks lets you share all your bookmarks, a single folder (optionally including sub-folders) with anyone. You can share folders and other can import them into their own browsers.
- Bookmark Revisions: Like most note taking apps nowadays, Xmarks keeps revisions of your bookmarks. You can go back in time, and restore your older set of bookmarks at any point of time in the past. This makes sure you never lose your bookmarks, no matter what.
- Sync Open Tabs: Xmarks can also sync open tabs. This makes sure that you don’t loose your work even after switching your device.
In all, Xmarks is pretty great. In my testing and usage, it synced my bookmarks pretty instantly. Very rarely, it got into the trouble of not syncing properly, but the problem was easily resolved by my bookmarks revisions sorted on its server.
Download Xmarks