• PC World
• »Software

Online Bookmarks

Browser bookmarks are another painful loss in the case of hard-drive failure. If you're like me, you've sunk hours and hours of effort into discovering the best online information sources, both personal and professional. Losing them all would not make for a good day.

Here again, though, free online offerings can come to the rescue. Several Firefox extensions not only automatically back up your bookmarks to an online server but also synchronize them between browsers on multiple PCs. Foxmarks, my favorite, has some great setup options: If your machines get out of sync, you can replace all of your bookmarks with those that you've stored online, or replace what you've stored with your local favorites.

After installation, the add-on invisibly syncs your bookmarks with no additional effort on your part. You're not only able to bookmark something at work and have it ready at home (without having to e-mail yourself the URL), but if your computer goes south, you merely need to reinstall Firefox and Foxmarks and then log in to restore all of your bookmarks.

Google offers a Browser Sync plug-in for Firefox that syncs your bookmarks, as well as your cookies, passwords, history, and even open tabs. The truly security conscious will want to avoid syncing passwords to someone else's server. I use Browser Sync strictly for passwords and browsing history--I got frustrated with the plug-in's frequent screw-ups in syncing bookmarks (possibly because I tend to keep my browsers running on my work and home computers simultaneously).

If you give either Foxmarks or Google Browser Sync a try, here's a tip for keeping your work and personal favorites distinct: Preface your bookmark folders with a designation such as Home- or Work-, and then group those folders together.