Sorted – a new web extension to organize bookmarks for Firefox
addons.mozilla.orgI have given up on bookmarks. The feature works for simple usage. Like tabs, it scales to a certain point and then it transforms into a different problem.
Bookmarks might be best used as a sort of "saved tab state." Or maybe saved sessions. But I don't use bookmarks for these cases because there are extensions which provide an interface I prefer over bookmarks.
Another useful feature of bookmarks is sharing across devices.
Beyond that, you probably need to treat your saved URL's as you would with any sort of saved content. They transform from bookmarks to notes (or whatever you want to call saved resources.) That's not to say that bookmarks aren't still useful, but you have to be disciplined in keeping your bookmark structure consistent with your notes structure. You'll likely need this same discipline to extend your notes structure across other apps anyways. For example, you might have "projects" which you "shard" (?) across a note taking app, todo app, file sharing, etc. In this case you would create folders or the closest equivalent in each of these apps. The consistency will reduce the overhead of discovery. NOTE: This idea comes from Tiago Forte's "PARA" method for note management.
I do like the idea of possibly returning to bookmarks (away from extensions) for simplicity and less reliance on 3rd party tools which may die at any time.
How about an offline app that stores snapshot of the bookmarks periodically as well? I've been needing a bookmark organizer, but I agree, by itself it's too limited of a feature.
Please give this a try. It's a very minimal extension that I created it for myself and have been working on it for over an year.
I've never managed to keep my bookmarks all organized. Never. And I really tried, but always give up after a while for one reason or another.
And link rot is also real. I sometimes wonder, why browsers make it so damn hard to store web pages locally. Is it because of lost ad impressions?
There was an old (xul?) extension once called Scrapbook which was super awesome, but unfortunately it stopped working and all alternatives seem to be subpar.
You could try...
https://github.com/burtonator/polar-bookshelf https://github.com/pirate/ArchiveBox
Both allow you to save web pages locally. Polar is easier to use and it's an Electron based desktop app. ArchiveBox uses a CLI and requires Python I believe.
> And link rot is also real
True. I have a script that sends my bookmarks to Internet Archive's Save Page Now service: https://pastebin.com/uUVE22RD . Since I still have URLs in my bookmark manager (Pinboard[0]), finding the pages in IA is simple.
I'm also sometimes scraping documentations with HTTrack (webhttrack), when they aren't available as docsets (Zeal[1], Dash[2]), for times when I work offline or with spotty connection.
Zotero, the reference manager, is actually a good way to store website snapshots. It has one-click-to-save browser extensions, and it generally saves a snapshot of the web page along with any other saving method (e.g. downloading the PDF if you're on a page associated with a scientific article). It also saves the source URL as well. Now that I think about it, it might actually make a decent bookmark manager.
I have started to use Zotero for managing bookmarks. It works quite well - maybe even very well. Also, I can back up to .csv (among other formats) and always have my links. Only downside is to remember to have Zotero up and running - it's similar to needing a local server in that respect.
What about its successor https://github.com/danny0838/webscrapbook ?
Due to limitations in Firefox's add-on API you have to set up web server to actually browse your saved pages, which is a big step backwards in functionality. Although I haven't tried it recently; maybe it's gotten easier to set up.
nice! i'm working on a visual bookmarks manager because it seems easier to find the site i want by thumbnail rather than having to sift through lists. its still in development but you can check out its sibling extension (same idea), yet another speed dial, here (open source of course! feedback welcome):
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-CA/firefox/addon/yet-another-s...
Use this if you find yourself manually creating bookmark folders. Just enter the tags in this extension and it will automatically create folders and move your bookmarks.
But there already are tags for the bookmarks, which do not need to be created beforehand...
no, it doesn't work with bookmark tags, it creates bookmarks folders for the keywords you enter and moves all bookmarks with a title containing the keyword into the folder I guess using the word "tags" is causing a lot of confusion here... a lesson learnt!
What if a bookmark title contains multiple words? How do you choose where to put it?
first match gets it
Interesting. I've been using Bookmark OS but will give this a look
Sure, tell me what you think!
So this assumes you’ve tagged your bookmarks, right?
no, it doesn't work with bookmark tags, it creates bookmarks folders based on bookmark titles