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Bookmark Synchronizer Xmarks Hangs Up Their Hats
krulgar writes "On January 10, 2011, Xmarks will be closing their doors. A free service being replaced by free software. It would still be nice to have a single way to keep my bookmarks from my work machine in sync with my home machines and my mobile devices without exerting much effort. Xmarks seemed to be the only ones with that clear vision, maybe the replacement tools can grow into this space, but it's still a little sad to see a useful tool wave goodbye."
What did Xmarks do that delicious does not?
I've been using Xmarks since they were Foxmarks and it's the only tool out there that syncs multiple browsers. It's really handy when you have a folder full of client URL's and you need to check them on multiple browsers and operating systems. I'd gladly have paid for the service - but they never asked or proposed it. Sure some people would have balked and left, but those that stayed could have supported your business. I refuse to give my bookmark data to Google and I really just don't trust anyone else that is associated with a search engine or browser developer.
I remember when they changed from "Foxmarks" to "Xmarks" and introduced password sync. They actually asked for input on whether users would actually use the password sync feature. I responded, essentially by telling they they're out of their fscking minds to offer such a sketchy feature, and no, I would not be using it.
It's sad that they've reached the point of having to shut down, but i've got to say that at least they've handled the situation with a lot of class. They're giving their users several months warning rather than just shutting down the servers overnight, and when they did market research that indicated there wouldn't be enough demand for a subscription version to sustain them they just decided not to offer one and shut down gracefully. As opposed to what seems to be the more common tactic of convincing their biggest supporters to hand over money for a little while and then having to shut down anyways, and then figure out how to do refunds or just tell everyone to go suck it.
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Why didn't the developers ask to be paid for their service? I love their toolbar and bookmark synching and would gladly pay a yearly fee for it.. $10/$15 year seems fair. :)
So write one. SyncPlaces uses standard protocols for communication and standard file/data formats for storage. It should be easy enough to handle the chrome bookmarks in the same way. And you can use your own server, so your bookmarks are yours alone and private, and won't go away just because somebody shut down their free service.