#firefox

The best browser bookmarking system is already built-in

(Thanks for getting this on front page of HackerNews!)

Along the years I have tested various browser bookmarking systems.

And for 10 years, I've realised that the best bookmarking system is already built-in to most browsers (Firefox, Chrome), and that is:

files!

See the video, the drag-and-drop creates a .url shortcut file:

Just that. You drag and drop the URL to the Desktop or any folder.

No browser extension needed.

• Want to delete/copy/move/rename a bookmark? Just delete/copy/move/rename the file.

• Want to organize your bookmarks? Use directories in your filesystem, as usual.

• Want to join the bookmark to a work-in-progress in its dedicated directory? Just copy the file there, you'll have the bookmarks grouped with your other files:

  

• Want to backup all your bookmarks? They are just .url files in folders, so you can do a backup with all your other documents.

• Want to sync them with other devices? Use the same sync system as your other documents (Syncthing is great).

• Want to use your bookmarks in multiple browsers? No problem, you just drag and drop the bookmark file into the browser, and it opens automatically.

• Want to change your main browser? No need to do anything, you just keep the bookmark files (no need to "export" anything, no need to install a browser extension to save the bookmarks and/or convert them to another format...).

• Want to search among your thousands of bookmarks? Just use your OS's search among all .url files.

• Want to add tags to your bookmarks? Just rename the file Super bookmarking system.url into Super bookmarking system #productivity.url and later you can search your bookmarks with tags, example query in your favorite OS's file search tool: "bookmarking #productivity".

• Want to do some data mining on your thousands of bookmarks? You can do it with any programming language, since a .url file is just that:

  [InternetShortcut]
  URL=https://www.afewthingz.com/browserbookmark

That's it! Probably the best bookmark manager ever.

This has worked for decades with Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer, and probably others, at least on Windows.

Remarks:

• sadly, it doesn't work out of the box on Ubuntu + Firefox. Mozilla, please fix this :)

• There has been a regression about this in recent versions of Firefox on Windows, you now have to modify your default Firefox shortcut to firefox.exe -no-deelevate. Please Mozilla, don't let this awesome feature die, this should work out of the box. It works on Chrome.

About me: I am Joseph Basquin, maths PhD. I create products such as SamplerBox, YellowNoiseAudio, Jeux d'orgues, this blogging engine, etc. I do freelancing (remote ok): Python expert / R&D / Automation / Embedded / Audio / Data / UX / MVP. Send me an email.