As a writer that blogs for a number of sites, I have to keep a number of bookmarks on hand to navigate my way to dashboards, news sources, HTML help, etc.
As is the case with most of us out there, we tend to work across multiple computers — home, work, laptops, mobile devices, etc.
One of the tools that kept my head on straight was Xmarks — the tool that allowed you to sync your bookmarks across whatever browser you used — Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Chrome. I've been using Xmarks since it was called Foxmarks and it was exclusively an Firefox extension.
Having that sense of familiarity was awesome. It was like a nice warm blanket on a cold winter night. Xmarks was always there to keep me warm.
Today, however, I received the obituary email I was dreading:
Dear Xmarks User,
We've always said we won't email you unless it's important; this is one of those occasions:
Xmarks will be shutting down our free browser synchronization services on January 10, 2011. For details on how to transition to recommended alternatives, consult this page.
For the full story behind the Xmarks shutdown, please read our blog post.
Thank you for being a part of the Xmarks community; we apologize for any inconvenience this step may cause you. We believe we have the best users in the world, and we hope your bookmarks find a new and happy home soon.
Asynchronously,
— The Xmarks Team
I will be sad to see you go Xmarks. Now I am forced to use either a Firefox or Google-type sync service, which is just fine (if you are willing to pay $10 a year, you might still be able to use it, according to the official blog post on the news).
The point here is that it's sad to see a good service get tossed aside because it has become obsolete by the efforts of tech giants.
Thanks for the memories.
Article first published as RIP Xmarks on Technorati.