New Google Joy: Bookmarks!
I have only recently discovered Google Bookmarks, but it has quickly become a source of internet joy. And joyness. It’s power and functionality is only harnessed when coupled with this Google Bookmarks firefox extension.
The actual “bookmark” function is pretty straightforward: You can enter websites that you visit frequently for quick access or for less clicking if a page lies buried several “clicks” into a site. Google changes the game by making the list shared and using tags instead of the standard “folder” approach to bookmark organization.
Shared
Once a site is bookmarked, it resides in the internet rather than on a local computer. This allows for a single set of bookmarks no matter what computer you are on. This is great news for me – I use my desktop at home, my laptop at school, and a completely different computer at work. Bonus: I recently received a new computer at work. Time taken to update my bookmarks: none. Sweet.
Tags
Once a site is bookmarked, you can associate tags with it, creating a sense of organization in the jungle of links. The traditional problem with this is that bookmarks on a local computer can only live in a single folder, barring link duplication (and opening the vortex for questionable data integrity!!) but Google Bookmarks allows links to have multiple tags, which sorts them into “virtual folders,” if you will.
If I have a tag named “School” that I put on links to important pages on the school website, then the one or two links that I frequently visit will become harder to find in that list. I could additional tag the important ones with “Frequently Visited” or even “Important” to distinguish the pages I visit often from the pages that are simply for future reference. If I am visiting a technology site and find a really great article that I don’t have time to read, I can bookmark and tag it both “technology” as well as “To Be Read” (or “Someday” for the GTD geeks out there).
Firefox Extension
The single greatest strength of Google Bookmarks is that all the links live in shared location on the internet. This is also its greatest weakness. Whereas traditional links live as close by as 1 click right on your browser toolbar, now they live several clicks (and possible typing-a-URL) away, putting you farther away from the information that you want right at hand. Enter a firefox extension for Google Bookmarks. After installing it, you will need to drag-and-drop it onto your bookmarks toolbar via View -> Toolbars -> Customize. Sign in to Google, wait about three seconds, now all your bookmarks are once again in your browser, right where they belong. You can also edit your bookmarks and add new Google Bookmarks with this extension by clicking on the star. I am a fan.