Marcus Hamaker is The Sleepy Geek

Normally during an XMarks installation when I get the website info tab in Firefox I just close it without a look. One of the reasons I use it is because I re-install my OS so often that having a cloud bookmark repository just makes sense.

The last install I did I saw a glimpse of this cool new feature: Open Tabs Sync.

What a great idea! Sync a list of all the tabs I have open to their servers and if I want to grab ‘em from another computer I can. This doesn’t force the change to all computers I use however. What’s nice is when I was looking at something work and I forget to note it I can simply go grab the tab or the group from xmarks.

These guys really have it together. I suppose the only critism I can find is that they haven’t mastered all their features accross all the browsers. You can get a Safari version or an IE version of Xmarks but the only things that will sync are the bookmarks, not the passwords or the tabs. This says more about the API’s I think than XMarks so even though the feature is missing I bet you we can blame Apple and Microsoft!

This is an invaluble tool – I have said it before and I will say it again, this is the reason that I still use Firefox today and not Chrome or Safari. Take this tool away and the other browsers are much better in my books. It feels like I need to tell people everytime they ask me what browser I use – “I use Xmarks on Firefox”!

Geek on!

I have written about Foxmarks in the past because it’s a great tool for auto-syncing your bookmarks across multiple computers. It is really one of the only reasons that I still use Firefox and not Safari or Google Chrome.

To the credit of the team at Foxmarks, they have been working on support for IE and Safari lately and have released versions of Foxmarks for Safari on OSX and Foxmarks for IE on Windows. Now comes a release of their new product called Xmarks. This is obviously designed as a move away from a Firefox only addin and allows them to market their product for other platforms. I am excited about this move because it allows them to move towards support for even more browsers. I think I might use Chrome if they would support it, and I already use Safari sometimes when on OSX. The best thing they can do is support more browsers because most people use a specific browser for a reason. Many of us our stuck with IE at work and to have that support is already a huge leap.

But let’s get it straight, they didn’t only change the name :) This is a complete rebranding with a completely new site. I suggest you take a look as you will notice a totally refreshed look. In an email they sent to me as I was already using Foxmarks, they listed these as their primary updates:

1. Smarter Search
Xmarks will highlight the three sites in your Google results that have been bookmarked by the most people; this is a quick and easy way to tell which sites are most valued by real people like you.

2. Site Info
Xmarks adds a small blue information icon in your browser location bar. Click it to learn more about the site you are on and see recommendations for the top five similar sites. This is a great way to uncover the best of the web.

3. Xmarks.com
Visit Xmarks.com from any browser to write your own site reviews and to see even more similar site recommendations.

They were smart to have included us in an early step of their rebranding and it is great for their planning. They have taken the time to create a simple survey for existing users to guide them to prioritzing their updates. If you are a user you will receive an email with your link to the survey, if not I would head over to their forums to voice your opinion!

It is being reported that Firefox 3.1 Beta 3 will be outday – Paula Rooney @ ZDNet. It looks like the most recnt Beta is complete and they have scheduled Beta 4 for release in mid April.

It is said that Beta 3 testing and fixes included new features introduced in Beta 2 some of which are Private Browsing Mode, Worker Threads, Speculative Parsing and TraceMonkey.

Those of you who want to be on the cusp of Firefox releases should be able to get this from the Beta sight that is slated to be ready later tonight.

Happy Browsing!

Seems that everything is getting reworked out there a little and then being called a “social” something. Web 2.0 was a good buzz word for some time, now we seem to be moving towards “social”.

A new browser around (well to main stream market I suppose as it was founded in 2005) called Flock seems to be making a bit of an imprint. Now we’re not talking about the IE/Firefox or even the Safari market but there are a lot of us out there who could benefit from the tools that Flock is incorporating into their browser. Whereas IE has nothing (really, I don’t see crap from them) and Firefox let’s the community make tools or addons, Flock is incorporating things right in the browser. It freaked me out a bit when I first loaded my email and it automatically found the RSS feed from GMail and incorporated that into it’s sidebar. That’s always the first page I load in a new browser and this is the first time I ever had that happen :)

So if you start to dig around their site you see that they a vision:

Flock was founded on the vision that the web browser can and should enable the richest user experience possible across information-gathering, sharing, communication, self-expression and interaction.

Every individual has their own unique preference for favorite sites, utilities, media and friends. Flock’s philosophy is to deliver a more personal experience of the web, where its users are in control and more connected to what they value. Flock is committed to working with our vibrant community and best of breed partners to allow users to be everywhere they care about, from one single place.

Loading up the browser it looks similar to Firefox with a skin but once you start going to websites it starts to incorporate them into its My World feature. I went to twitter and now on the My World page my twits and friend’s twits appear.

I suggest that you give it a try. I personally have too many addons to Firefox that I can’t live without that aren’t working on Flock yet but I think if they did I might really give Flock a go. If you aren’t Firefox addon heavy then this might be a viable choice for you.

Not to leave this out either… it seems pretty quick.

I was told about this add on from a colleague and have been hooked for good. I use the Gmail domain services for my email and have loved it since I was accepted into the beta program. I like the way that Gmail “just works”. It is simple in design and every feature always seems to just do what I need it to.

Until now I never thought about changing the interface. I like to play around with options if they are there but simply because they weren’t, I didn’t give it much thought until now. Bettergmail2 is a Firefox add on that allows you to customize the look and feel of the interface. If you play with it a little you can get your Gmail to look quite similar to a stand alone email client. Something that some of us are used to and liked from the past. In the end there are 3 skins plus other options to change the feel of Gmail.

It also has many other features including the forcing of HTTPS (secure HTTP) when accessing your account, force mailto links to use Gmail to send and automated showing of the CC and BBC fields.

So… go get it! You won’t be disappointed. Remember that you need Firefox and you also need to have a Gmail account to use this add on. If you have your own domain email with Google, click on the advance button on the tool and put in your domain as indicated. It works great!

Once in a while I am still amazed by something new for web browsing. Today it was a application sent to me from my buddy Jay. He is heavy into photography and digital editing so I can only imagine he found it through one of those avenues while searching around (feel free to correct me in a comment).

Piclens is an application that can be run with IE6 or 7, Firefox and on Windows XP, Vista or Mac OSX. They have made it an addon for Firefox and seeing as this is my browser of choice, that’s how I am using it under OSX. This is a very nice application. They have kept it simple in what it does but made sure that the features they created work very well. Their tag line is simply “Your favorite sites. Full-screen. 3D.”. When you load the application you get a full screen experience unlike anything we are used to. It organizes everything into thumbnails that are browsable by scrolling through side to side. When you want to view something you can double-click it. If it is a picture then it will blow it up full screen for best viewing and if video it will blow it up and start playing the content. The best way to get a real feel for how it integrates with your browser and then displays content is to go watch the demo here.

I was instantly hooked. After I installed the application I was drawn in by a feature called discover which allows you to browse content that they have organized into categories. For example, I wanted to look at some news items. Click on the button on the left for news and I was looking at thumbnails.

Would I recommend it? Yes, it’s good to entertain yourself. Google is still the place for me to go when I need to know something in particular but this will be good when I want to browse around.