Xmarks May Not Be Dead After All

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Xmarks May Not Be Dead After All

Posted by kdawson on Thursday September 30, 2010 @03:49PM from the call-from-the-governor dept.

gatorfan sends word that Xmarks, which announced its upcoming closure a few days back, may not be so dead after all. The outcry from people willing to pay for the service was so loud that the company has now posted a pledge that users can sign if they are willing to pay for the service, and they say that they have fielded inquiries from several organizations who might be willing to buy the company's assets and keep the service going.

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google says.... by metalmaster · 2010-09-30 15:53 · Score: 2, Informative

Its a bookmark and sync app. Idk why theres such a big outcry if there are many alternatives
1. Re:google says.... by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-30 16:03 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Your comment leads me to believe that you've never used it. For a substantial period of time it was the only sync app (which you would know if you read the original XMarks article), and it became quite popular. It's true that there are alternatives now, but the researching I did when I was looking to change led me to believe that they don't support as much as XMarks does. If you take into account that XMarks can sync bookmarks, history, open tabs, and passwords across several browsers across all the browser's supported OS's you can see why people would be a little upset.
  Regardless, people despise change. How would you feel if your favorite pub closed? There are probably plenty of pubs that are just about the same nearby, but I know I would be sad.
2. Re:google says.... by Wayne247 · 2010-09-30 16:18 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  None of the alternatives work across several browsers on multiple platforms. I have xmarks on chrome, firefox, safari on 2 windows pc and one mac, plus the iphone. All through xmarks.
  There are no alternatives at the moment.
3. Re:google says.... by usasma · 2010-09-30 21:49 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  It's cross-browser and it's very good at what it does. I've used it and loved it for a long, long time. But they announced a closure, so I switched by sync apps around. I'm not going to go back to them "just in case" they decide to stay in business.
4. Re:google says.... by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-30 22:17 · Score: 1, Informative
  
  Except when you want to synch your Firefox/Chrome and Safari extentions from your personal systems to the crappy IE only desktop you have to use at work. I work at many different sites, and often get placed on a computer there, with brand new profile. I love the fact that one synch with XMarks and I have all of my useful links right at my fingertips.
5. Re:google says.... by helix2301 · 2010-09-30 23:33 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Well the integration is so smooth its really idiot proof and it just works great. Plus anywhere you go and no matter if your computer crashes you always have your bookmarks. Fantastic service hope it lives on.
  
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6. Re:google says.... by tangelogee · 2010-10-01 01:13 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  Its a bookmark and sync app. Idk why theres such a big outcry if there are many alternatives
  Because it's really the only one that does so across browsers...
Warning: Pay for ZoneEdit or you'll lose free DNS. by LostCluster · 2010-09-30 16:10 · Score: 3, Informative

Also in the business-model-change department that users of this site will care about, ZoneEdit is transitioning accounts to a new business model soon. People who enjoyed five free domains worth of DNS service will see their free service cut to two domains (potentially leaving some forgotten-about sites unreachable) unless they've paid for credits for their premium services at some point in the past. They're also multiplying stored credits by 12 because they're going monthly instead of annual credit usage.
Re:Nothing I'd pay for. by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-30 17:09 · Score: 1, Informative

You aren't very bright are you ? This is the *ONLY* utility that allows you to automatically sync bookmarks across browsers and computers. I have 10s of thousands of bookmarks across 3 machines.
Do you have any idea how quickly those would get out of sync if I was forced to do manually ?!
Re:Publicity Stunt? by Anonymous Coward · 2010-10-01 01:26 · Score: 2, Informative

But Xmarks did tell you. They gave you alternatives. They even were going to keep Xmarks active until January so you'd have time to research and find a viable alternative.
They had no reason to believe that enough people would pay to support their server costs, especially since they had been asking for donations and receiving nowhere near enough. Then, after they announced they were closing, the massive response convinced them to reevaluate their options, believing that maybe they could earn enough to keep Xmarks alive after all.
I can't see anything wrong with their approach to this issue.
Re:whatmarks? by Rary · 2010-10-01 01:55 · Score: 3, Informative

Ya know, you don't even have to click on any of the links in the summary, but rather just hover over the first link to learn that XMarks is a bookmark synchronizer.
More specifically, it's a centralized service plus a plugin for all major browsers so that you can have the same bookmarks in every browser on every machine you use. Further, it lets you create profiles for your bookmarks, so that you can have slightly different bookmarks on different machines based on what you use that machine for (ie. your "home" bookmarks don't show up on your "work" machine). And for those who don't trust the centralized bookmark repository, you can even set up your own XMarks server (albeit slightly limited in functionality) and not have to trust them.
In short: it's pretty damn cool.

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"You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war." -- Albert Einstein