bobology newsletter: What Are Bookmarks? and Synchronizing Bookmarks (for advanced users)
Why Use Bookmarks?
Have you ever been reading a book and put in a bookmark to save your place because otherwise you would not remember where you were or what you wanted to come back to? In the technology world a bookmark does the same thing. The internet is an easy place to get lost. You might search for something and end up going through numerous different websites before you find what you are really looking for. If you are on a site that you want to be able to find again easily, you just place your bookmark so that you can come back to it later.
How Do I Add a Bookmark?
It is very easy to place a bookmark (which Microsoft calls a "favorite") for a Web address to which you'll want to return. All you have to do is click on "add bookmark" in the bookmark menu. For Microsoft users it's the same, only look for the 'add favorite" option in the favorite menu.
Bookmarks on the internet can really make using the internet easier. If you are doing work, writing a paper or just want to remember something later on, you can simply bookmark the page. Then all you have to do to retrieve the page is scroll down your bookmarked list. This is way easier than trying to remember a bunch of different web pages.
Synchronizing Bookmarks - For Advanced Users
If you're using more than one computer, tablet, or smartphone for browsing the Internet, you may end up with different bookmarks on different devices. This can be inconvenient when you use your mobile device to bookmark a Web site, then use your PC and want to find that bookmarked Web site on your PC. For all of your bookmarks appear the same on all of your computing devices, you'll need to "synchronize" your bookmarks. Synchronizing makes sure that all of your bookmarks are matched, or "in synch," across all of your browsers and computing devices. There are a few ways to do this.
One way is to use the same Web browser on all of your devices, but this isn't always possible, because some browsers will not work on some devices. For example, Firefox doesn't work on Apple mobile devices, but Google has a Chrome app that does. Apple's Safari, Mozilla's Firefox, Google's Chrome, and Microsoft's Internet Explorer are the four most popular Web browsers, and each offers a way to synchronize bookmarks across computers and devices when using their browser on each device. You 'll need to use an account with their respective cloud services to do this.
For Apple mobile users, Safari on iOS uses the Apple ID for iCloud to synchronize bookmarks with Safari on the desktop for a PC or Mac, and with Internet Explorer on a PC. If you use an Android device, Google's Chrome is your mobile browser, and your Google account will synchronize bookmarks on Chrome across all of your devices when you login with your Google account. Mozilla's Firefox has a similar synchronization feature with a free account, and Firefox will work on Android, but not on iOS. Internet Explorer uses Microsoft's Live Mesh, a free service available with SkyDrive, and can synchronize bookmarks in Internet Explorer. Safari, Chrome, and Firefox are all simpler to setup and use than Internet Explorer currently. However, Windows 8 will make the synchronization simple across multiple Windows 8 devices.If you use different browsers on one computer, or on multiple devices, a pretty good third party solution for desktop browsers is X Marks. Using X Marks on an Apple or Android device requires their app, however, and the Apple iOS app hasn't had the best reviews. So what to do?
Synchronization Solutions
If you use different browsers on one computer, or on multiple devices, a pretty good third party solution for desktop browsers is X Marks. Using X Marks on an Apple or Android device requires their app, however, and the Apple iOS app hasn't had the best reviews. So what to do?
If you use an Android mobile device, consider switching to Chrome on your desktop, or if you are already a Firefox user, download Firefox for Android. If you're an Apple mobile user you can use iCloud to sync to Internet Explorer if you use a PC, or to Safari on a Mac or PC. Then, if you need to, use X Marks to sync any other desktop browser you use on your desktop.
If you feel caught between different browsers, that's because Apple, Google, and Microsoft are all trying to keep you using their computers and software. Firefox, which is developed by non-profit Mozilla, tries to be impartial, but decided to drop their iOS app several months ago and invest elsewhere.