Today’s New York Times (free, registration required) has an interesting piece entitled Now Where Was I? New Ways to Revisit Web Sites.
The story quotes University of Washington professor William Jones, who says that bookmark lists have become “information closets” that hold a jumble of sites people never return to. The Times concludes: “Only hyperorganized users sort sites into folders, clean out dead links or click on inscrutable addresses to figure out why they were bookmarked in the first place.”
That tracks what Robert Scoble wrote last week:
“I stopped using Favorites about five years ago. Hint, what happened about five years ago? Google. My favorites file back then was about 5000 items. It just got so big, and so out of date, that I stopped using it.”
Well, I rarely use IE’s Favorites pane either. In fact, the whole concept of having 5000 Favorites is kind of silly, don’t you think? I mean, isn’t that like having 5000 “best friends”?
Unfortunately, Google isn’t enough on its own. How many times have you searched and searched and finally found the page that contains exactly the information you need to answer a question you deal with all the time? Do you really want to count on a Google search to find that exact page again?
To make sure I don’t lose track of these high-value sites, I use a way-cool utility called PowerMarks, which lets me add the page I’m currently viewing to my list of saved sites with s single click. It includes the keywords assigned by the site’s author, and I’ve configured it so I can optionally add my own description at the time I add it. A simple search box lets me type in a word or phrase and instantly see a filtered list showing only the saved links that contain that text. I don’t have to worry about moving shortcuts among folders or creating a hierarchy. This simple, flat database works great.
Highly recommended.
Ed Bott 