Webware

Foxmarks, the browser bookmark utility, is getting new features and a new brand at Demo 09.

Now known as just Xmarks (download), the tool layers in site discovery features. The Xmarks plug-in shows you sites similar to the one you're on, based on what other users have bookmarked and where they've filed those bookmarks. The plug-in also gives you additional information in search results, letting you see site popularity and user ratings on your search hits.

Xmarks adds a "more info" button to Firefox. It shows you data about the site you're on as well as sites that other users think are related.

(Credit: Screenshot by Rafe Needleman / CNET Networks)

All roads also, optionally, point the user to the Xmarks site, which has more reviews of and data about sites, and wiki-like directory of sites.

Xmarks is used by about 1.5 million people, CEO James Joaquin told me, and it knows about 600 million bookmarks. That's a lot of data to mine, and I asked Joaquin if he thought about offering a StumbleUpon-like feature to help users find completely new sites. He said Xmarks' model is utility, not entertainment. His directed "more like this" discovery is closer to the original Foxmarks mission, he implied, than the random walk down the Web that makes up StumbleUpon.

What's not clear, yet, is how this handy new function makes any money for the company. Xmarks may be able to sell some ads on the Web site, but even Joaquin doesn't seem to think that will be an appreciable revenue stream. And the system's utility is primarily in the browser; I expect only a fraction of users will spend time on the site.

Xmarks still performs the function it was originally designed for: It capably synchronizes users' bookmarks across machines and browsers (Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari). The new features look like a nice bonus.

Foxmarks was started by Mitch Kapor, the founder of Lotus Development, to solve his personal frustration with bookmark sync. Kapor was also the founding chair of the Mozilla Foundation, which created Firefox.

Xmarks modifies Google and other search pages, too.

(Credit: Screenshot by Rafe Needleman / CNET Networks)

A browser's built-in password database makes it easy to log in to personal or secure sites you visit frequently without having to type in your password each time. But if you use more than one computer (say, one at home and another at work), then you have to enter in your password at least once on each machine. No current browser that I know of lets you synchronize your preferences, like passwords and bookmarks, across multiple installations of their product. Correction: Opera and Maxthon have this feature, according to commenters on this blog.

But there are solutions, and they're getting better. Foxmarks, which has been out for a while with a tool to synchronizes bookmarks across browser installations, on Tuesday took its password sync feature out of beta. The product is a Firefox add-in that works seamlessly and behind the scenes. In its default configuration, every time you exit your Firefox browser, it sends updates of your bookmarks and passwords to a server. When you launch a session, it reads them in. Your database of passwords is protected by a PIN (another password) that it appears Foxmarks has no backdoor to, which is good.

My kind of utility: Set it and forget it.

In use, Foxmarks is completely invisible to the user, which puts it a little ahead of alternate solutions like the Web-based password keeper Passpack, or the software app like Roboform, which uses a database that can be synchronized across multiple machines. On the other hand, Passpack works on any browser, and Roboform supports both Firefox and Internet Explorer. Foxmarks is just for Mozilla browsers like Firefox.

Eventually, browsers will support centralized databases of user preferences and passwords--Microsoft, Mozilla, and Google execs have all told me they're working on this for the future. In the meantime, if you hate having to manage passwords across multiple computers, Foxmarks has a new solution worth looking at.

Featured on this week's Real Deal podcast: Synchronizing two computers. If you want to know how to keep yourself sane if you regularly use more than one PC, tune into this show for a rundown of my tips on how to keep files, bookmarks, and e-mail synchronized over the Web.

Products mentioned:

• FolderShare
• LogMeIn
• SimplifyMedia
• Orb
• FoxMarks
• Del.icio.us
• Google Docs and Spreadsheets
.


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