Long ago if you surfed the web and found something you like you save it as a bookmark so you can return to it.
But then Facebook, Twitter, You Tube and many others ways to get back to a website came along.
These days if I need to refer to a video or website I haven’t seen in a while I usually find it by going to my Facebook or email messages that contain the link that I remember sharing with someone, or I often just Google it.
How often do I go through 10 years of well organized bookmarks to find something?
Almost never…
There are too many other ways to navigate back to information and a bookmark-oriented effort seems more time consuming and dull than the next great search term… As in novel discoveries or improved information the way Google does…
So this weekend I decided to change all that. Here’s what I did to reclaim the value of my Bookmarks.
1) Organized bookmarks into even more folders so it’s easier to find them.
2) Installed Bookmark Sentry plugin in Chrome to help me find and delete dead links.
3) Installed Xmarks Bookmark Sync plugin on all browsers and all computers so whatever device I use I have access to my bookmarks.
4) Installed Random Bookmark plugin in Chrome. This is the plugin that makes bookmarks fun again. Now throughout the day I can click on this button and it offers a random bookmark that I’ve saved over the past decade.
That final step is fascinating me because I find memories of what I’ve learned in the past, as well as reminders of what I was once interested in. Even better, it helps me further refine the bookmarks I have into a more sensible order/integration of 2012’s workflow. Kinda like StumbleUpon but with my own personal Web memories.
Also it’s giving me some curious-oriented content to Tweet about… Even if it is a bit dated.
Hope this helps you and your bookmarks… If it does please let me know in the comments below.
