HN Explorer

Ask HN: I'm looking for a self-managing bookmarking service

4 points by Meai ↗ HN
Hi, I'm currently using Google Chrome bookmarks which sync themselves over multiple machines. They are not ideal because they are too much work to maintain and search through properly.

I would like a browser integrated way of managing bookmarks, without having to worry about creating folders or meaningful names but still finding stuff with fuzzy search terms. I continue to "lose" a lot of interesting bookmarks, and I have to delete a lot of the lesser ones because they would clutter my folders even more.

Example: Switching from a big game development project to a web project. My bookmark folder is now riddled with stuff that pertains only to game development. Managing this mess, tidying up folder and sorting them is very inefficient and also error prone in search.

I do not want my bookmarks to be publicly shared, which seems to be the default for all the web based services out there. Adding a bookmark has to be as simple as clicking a button in Chrome, just like I do now. The bookmarks have to be cached locally, I absolutely do not want to wait a few seconds each time I open my bookmarks browser like I'd have to with Google Bookmarks. (: not the same as Google Chrome bookmarks!)

Why am I asking? Just now, I was again looking for a css framework (something with "super simple fluid grid layout" or similar in the name). I know I saved it somewhere, but I can't find it anymore. It has classes like .threecol .fullpage

7 comments

[ 2.5 ms ] story [ 29.3 ms ] thread
jtardie
try pinboard.in, it's great.

Maybe a little different than what you were asking for but I think you'll like it.

sixtofour
What's great about it? I tried it and found that it didn't give me much in the way of organizing.
sixtofour
I like Firefox's bookmark organizing, it's the only thing keeping me from switching to Chrome.

1. You can set up the browsers on all your machines to sync via Mozilla's servers. You bookmarks are local in your browser, but they're copy/synced across machines.

2. Firefox has unlimited tags per bookmark. It doesn't matter which bookmark folder you place a bookmark in, or move a bookmark to, the tags persist. I usually tag with one or two tags, sometimes three.

And then one addon makes it especially nice (for me), Add Bookmark Here(2) : https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/add-bookmark-...

I like my bookmarks to default to the Unsorted folder, and FF doesn't seem to have a way to set that default. The ABH addon defaults to "the last folder that you saved a bookmark to," which is usually Unsorted in my case.

Meai
1. Chrome has that too. 2. Tags would just increase the amount of work I need to do in order to save a bookmark. In addition it's unlikely that I'll think of the same exact tag I specified originally. And if I do think of it, the tag was probably too generic and I could just aswell use overcrowded folders.

Chrome also has that Firefox addon functionality natively.

sixtofour
Yes, so Chrome has everything I want except good tags. Some like tags, some don't. I do.
sek
Have absolutely the same demand, i did several times in the past remove all of my bookmarks. I have Chrome too and now again over 500 of them without any organization, i am forced to use the search function and "recent" to find anything. The whole concept of bookmarks never fitted me, but i want to save the good stuff somewhere.