Xmarks May Not Be Dead After All

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.

Comments

uhuh...

[YoshiDan]

This is probably what they planned all along. I mean really... If they were in such trouble and couldn't afford to keep running they would have just started charging. At least this way by saying "we're closing down because we can't afford to run" they got people to offer to pay without pissing too many people off by suddenly becoming a paid service.

Publicity Stunt?

[HenryKoren]

But not a bad one at that... Why simply implement a premium pricing plan when you can get a bunch of free press and encourage a public outpouring their love for your product.

I signed the pledge.

Re:Publicity Stunt?

[Tisha_AH]

I do not believe that this is a publicity stunt through up by some marketing department. The amount of money they are asking for is very modest and can probably pay for the electricity, network connectivity, server space and a developer or two.

I have used Xmarks for several years and it has been a painless experience to sync across machines and platforms. In fact it is so easy to use that I forget that there is a real application running somewhere that takes care of the synchronization and storage.

If they renew their pledge for data privacy and keep it spam/ adware free I will pay a modest annual fee to keep the service up and running.

For those who want to gripe about paying $10 - $20 for this service, either you have never used it or you are whining on the grounds that "all software should be free and someone else should donate the hardware, administrative expenses and electricity".

Be real folks, this would cost as much as one pizza, once a year.

Stuck in a moment they can't get out of.

[LostCluster]

These "We're shutting down... oh no we're not!" stories remind me of a electronics/appliances store around here called Bernie's. See, they were losing money and decided to go out of business. They started a Going Out of Business sale and under state law, you can't advertise a Going Out of Business sale without going out of business immediately afterwards. But, a funny thing happens when you start discounting things like TVs and Monster Cables below their minimum advertised price and offering your customers good value for what they pay and cutting down on returns with an All Sales Final policy. You become... gasp... PROFITABLE!

It's legal to bring in new inventory even during a Going Out of Business sale, so they're restocking with versions of products that didn't exist when the "Going Out of Business Sale" and they've been stuck going out of business for years. It's a business model that works for them.