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Ask HN: Why are bookmarks second class citizens in browsers?

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Re: Ask HN: Why are bookmarks second class citizens in browsers?

#221

Post by JohnFen »

lozenge wrote: post #61
adaml_623 wrote: post #23

I thought it was a commonly held thought that Google didn't want Chrome users using bookmarks because it directly competed with their search (and advertising).

Vertical screen space was very precious when Chrome came out. I remember their first feature over Firefox was moving tabs into the title bar and removing the menu bar, bookmark bar and bottom status bar, so saving about four bars of space for page contents. Since launch, they've reduced the vertical space of the tab bar/title bar, even as screens gained more pixels. Original design- https://www.google.com/googlebooks…

> moving tabs into the title bar

Of all of the terrible UI elements that have become fashionable, this is probably the one I hate the most.

Re: Ask HN: Why are bookmarks second class citizens in browsers?

#222

Post by tgflynn »

alexashka wrote: post #217
tgflynn wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's not alone. I also have a lot of bookmarks and would like to be able to use them more easily.

> He's not alone No one claimed that he's alone, except someone in your imagination.

> You're largely alone.

I mean that's literally what you said, my imagination had nothing to do with it.

Re: Ask HN: Why are bookmarks second class citizens in browsers?

#223

Post by narag »

littlecranky67 wrote: post #179
narag wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you, but that's not what I meant. I don't want to open all bookmarks. I want to list them in HTML, like the front page of this very site. Actually that was how Firefox used to export bookmarks, as one HTML page with clickable links. Edit: I've just checked and Firefox still can export the whole bookmarks collection. What I would love is the option to export just a folder, not the entire database. Edit2: Now, if…

I don't see a big difference with having them in a HTML page, vs. the side bar. You get a full list of your bookmarks with icons in a vertical-sorted way, including search. What difference does it make?

It makes a big difference to me. I use what you say sparingly for organizing, but once it's sorted, there are several shortcomings: limited horizontal space, the fixed presentation (it would be nice to add notes or images, change sizes, etc.) and in general the fact that it's an internal format that I can't manipulate.

To summarize: I don't want just a way to launch the bookmarked pages, but to create a page based on a list of bookmarks that can contain more than the bookmarks themselves.

A related feature (related for me anyway) is backing up pages. I use the extension SingleFile, but I would love to have a system integrating bookmarking, authoring and local backup.

I guess you'd understand me better knowing my workflow when I'm collecting information for some new topic: searches, visiting a dozen of pages, following links, selecting what's useful... the bits of information are spread across pages. I need to keep the links for reference (better with both the bookmark and a local backup), but often it's much more convenient to make a page with text snippets, maybe including images.

Anything that makes this easier is useful to me.

Re: Ask HN: Why are bookmarks second class citizens in browsers?

#224

Post by PetitPrince »

permo-w wrote: post #196
dotancohen wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've tried that, but you haven't lived until you've tried Tree Style Tabs in Firefox.

I like tree-style tabs, and I use it when working on projects, but I find that it is a long, long way from what it could be, which is probably a direct result of the lack of competition the settings UI is absolutely awful; depending on which appearance you choose, it either looks ugly or blurs together; it frequently has visual glitches; could certainly be more customisable appearance and shortcut-wise; doesn’t allow…

Sideberry is a worthy competitor : https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/sidebery/

Re: Ask HN: Why are bookmarks second class citizens in browsers?

#225

Post by abetusk »

clintonb wrote: post #210
abetusk wrote: post #172

I got burned many times when losing hard drives or computers, upgrading computers, switching between computers or just using different browsers, that bookmarks tied to the browser are ephemeral and shouldn't be trusted. I effectively solve this by creating custom websites to service those needs. RSS was invented for some of those purposes and still exists today. "SaaS productivity" is out of scope for a bookmark and…

Bookmark syncing has been around for at least a decade. I haven’t worried about syncing bookmarks in Chrome since then.

It looks like this is a Chrome only service, so when my chromium installation gets janked and I have to switch to Firefox, then my bookmarks are lost again.

It also looks like this is a Google service which means if Google sunsets this service, which is not unlikely considering their history, then my bookmarks are lost.

It looks like it's also tied to my Gmail account which means if I don't have a Google account, have multiple Google accounts that I want to keep separated or lose access to my account Google account, my bookmarks are lost.

All the above scenarios, with some degree of generality, have happened to me before in one form or another.

Re: Ask HN: Why are bookmarks second class citizens in browsers?

#226

Post by cma »

redhedgehog12 wrote: post #203
corobo wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apparently it is how it works if you go by Basecamp's words https://twitter.com/jasonfried/status/1168986962704982016 I'm making an assumption we're all talking about the ads above the results, as afaik you can't pay to shuffle the real results

You can't pay to shuffle the organic results. As for how much you pay for a click on any specific keyword, it isn't fixed and depends on two main things. I am simplifying here. 1. How related (google thinks) your page and ad copy is to the intent behind the keyword. More related = (generally) lower cpc 2. The reserve price that google sets for that keyword. It used to be a second price auction in that you'd only ever…

$0.02 per click is not cheap for your own name, and this protection is more like protection in the mafia sense of the term.

Re: Ask HN: Why are bookmarks second class citizens in browsers?

#227

Post by Saris »

abetusk wrote: post #225
clintonb wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bookmark syncing has been around for at least a decade. I haven’t worried about syncing bookmarks in Chrome since then.

It looks like this is a Chrome only service, so when my chromium installation gets janked and I have to switch to Firefox, then my bookmarks are lost again. It also looks like this is a Google service which means if Google sunsets this service, which is not unlikely considering their history, then my bookmarks are lost. It looks like it's also tied to my Gmail account which means if I don't have a Google account, hav…

Firefox sync works well and isn't tied to any other account, you can also backup the bookmarks file in your profile folder for extra safety.

Re: Ask HN: Why are bookmarks second class citizens in browsers?

#228

Post by dotancohen »

PetitPrince wrote: post #224
permo-w wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like tree-style tabs, and I use it when working on projects, but I find that it is a long, long way from what it could be, which is probably a direct result of the lack of competition the settings UI is absolutely awful; depending on which appearance you choose, it either looks ugly or blurs together; it frequently has visual glitches; could certainly be more customisable appearance and shortcut-wise; doesn’t allow…

Sideberry is a worthy competitor : https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/sidebery/

I might try it next week, but if you'd mention Sideberry's advantages over TST that would be great.

Re: Ask HN: Why are bookmarks second class citizens in browsers?

#229

Post by kal247 »

mg wrote: post #28

I don't know about Chrome, but in Firefox: Chrome now hides the bookmark bar by default Not sure if it is the default, but my Firefox bookmark bar is always visible load common favorite news sites & blogs or load a window with all my productivity SaaS sites. Shift+Click on a bookmark folder does that pick up where i left off on a research rabbit hole Right-Click on one of the open tabs, click "select all tabs", right…

> What I do miss is a way to back them up from the command line.

I've written a Perl script that print bookmarks from Safari/Firefox/Chrome/Edge as , but maybe it's too raw.

https://github.com/kal247/App-bookmarks

I might add other formatting options (HTML or Template Toolkit) if there's enough interest.

Re: Ask HN: Why are bookmarks second class citizens in browsers?

#230

Post by ithrow »

Barrin92 wrote: post #38
adaml_623 wrote: post #23

I thought it was a commonly held thought that Google didn't want Chrome users using bookmarks because it directly competed with their search (and advertising).

I think that's venturing into tinfoil hat territory. More likely telemetry told them that some percentage > 50 always toggle the bookmark bar off and they decided to make it the default. It's still there on new tabs after all. Companies like Google are long term greedy, they don't make unpopular UX decisions for scraps.

Companies like Google are long term greedy, they don't make unpopular UX decisions for scraps.

Like not letting you add tags? not tagging definitely makes you use google search more.

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