Something to think on
Posted by: Cas on: December 4, 2007
Have a think on the following for me will you whilst I try and get brightmeadow.co.uk back up and running (there is a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel, but knowing my luck its an express train!)
What do you do with old bookmarks?
The scenario:
I spend a long time doing research into archaeological computing, Web 2.0, democratisation of information, promoting community and all that jazz. Consequently I have a lot of bookmarks lurking in Safari. I also have a chunk on del.icio.us, but I’m less concerned with them.
My dilemma:
I am remarkably geeky when it comes to computer files, bookmarks and the like – I save everything, and everything I save goes into an organised folder hierarchy. Yes, I know it’s pathetic, but it’s how I have to work or I’ll never find anything.
This data packrat mentality means I have oodles upon oodles of bookmarks that I no longer look at. I haven’t looked at most of them for a good year or so. However, I put time, effort and mental energy into finding the links in the first place. Plus, it’s valid information (ish) or I wouldn’t have bookmarked it.
What do I do with them all?
I hate to throw anything away but at the same time I hate to be surrounded by clutter. There are so many bookmarks and sub-folders of folders of folders that it is making it hard to find the relevant bookmarks.
So I repeat, what do I do with them all? Do I export them (but then I have the worry of where to put the export file)? Do I delete them (though you can guarantee that I’ll need them as soon as I’ve done that)? Do I keep them on the off chance I might need them again (but then we’re back to the whole cluttered problem)?
Suggestions? What do you do with your old bookmarks?
12 Responses to "Something to think on"
December 4, 2007 at 7:22 pm
I use del.icio.us in order to avoid archive problems. I think in tags so del.icio.us is perfect for me. If you like the service I would suggest export them all and import them into your del.icio.us account.
December 4, 2007 at 8:07 pm
e*star and Anne – I’ve just never got into del.icio.us for some reason. I used it a lot when I was going between lab computers and my home computer but something about the experience hasn’t carried across for me. If I am thinking about it properly, it might be the whole tagging thing. Hear me out… Tagging is great. I love how you can add descriptions and tags and things to a bookmark in del.icio.us but it takes time. Hitting cmd+d, picking a folder (and it’s usually the default folder these days), and then return is just so much quicker. Plus, after the recent broo-ha-ha with my server, I’m starting to appreciate offline backups!
December 4, 2007 at 8:23 pm
Hm, sorry, but del.icio.us it is.
For one, I trust Yahoo! not to fall into the sea, sooner than my hard drive going poof in the night at some point.
Secondly, the tagging isn’t *that* hard. Del.icio.us auto-suggests a lot based on the content of the site and on your own description (which you don’t have to type – just select a bit of relevant text before you press the js button).
Three, I’ve often run into old bookmarks doing a del.icio.us search, something that never happened when I too had oodles and oodles of nonsensical folders.
And then… four. Folders. Folders!? How can you ever remember anything that way? Where does anything go if you can only put it in one folder at a time?
Anyway, glad to see you back, though. Hope the meadow will soon be satisfyingly, um, what do you do with meadows? Anyway, I tweeted about this place and hope to see you back at the old one in no time.
December 4, 2007 at 10:17 pm
If they’re getting in your way in Safari then take them out. But don’t delete them completely. Can I be terribly un-geeky and suggest you copy and paste them into Word or Excel, or a suitable Mac friendly equivalent? One file with them all listed as hyperlinks, in categories if that’s what you like. Save in multiple places for back-up, even (dare I say it) print a hard copy if you don’t trust your hard drive. It’s what us non-web literate people would do. 
December 4, 2007 at 10:56 pm
Nils:
1) you’ve got a point about the longevity of Yahoo! I will give you that.
2) no, it’s not hard, but… I haven’t worked out the workflow yet. Something is missing from the whole experience to make me go over to del.icio.us full time. I will admit when I say this I am thinking more of my current browsing which is mainly aimed at the Sunday Roasts. In those cases the workflow is:
* be intrigued by something in Vienna so hit enter to open it in the browser
* read further and think “this is good for the roast”
* hit cmd+d so bookmark window pops up
* press return without even looking because the default folder is my ‘Roast’ folder
* press cmd+w to close the tab and move onto the next item
* on a Sunday morning, go to the ‘Roast’ folder in Safari, go “open all in tabs”
* sit down, browse through the collection, write the Roast, delete all the links from the folder so I can start afresh for the next week
The main thing del.icio.us wouldn’t let me do is the whole “open this batch in tabs…” part of writing the roast. Yes, I suppose I could roast as I went, but… I like the whole “sit down on a Sunday and have a second read” part of the process
Then of course how do I get all the old things uploaded easily to del.icio.us? I won’t deny it could be useful from here on in, but it’s the archive I’m really bothered about here.
3) the search is handy, but then Safari has search too…
4) yes, some of us still use folders. I remember things that way because that is how my brain works – or at least, that is how my computing brain has trained to be organised over years of Windows! I will agree that it is a limitation that things can only be in one folder at a time, however I do find that the vast majority of things do fit into discreet ‘folders’. Talking about bookmarks for example, I have my ‘movies’ folder with assorted cinema sites, trailer sites etc. There is the ‘house’ folder with all the links to the various utility companies and things pertaining to the house. There is the ‘blog’ folder wherein lie the links to things related to the mechanics of the blog…
I feel like I should be apologising for using folders, but it is how my brain works! Tagging is all well and good but you still have to make the decision which tags to assign to a given article. I just take things further and force myself to only assign one ‘tag’ (or make multiple copies of a link into different folders, which I have done on occasion).
I’m not turning my back on del.icio.us just… Something is missing as I said from the whole thing. Damn it! Now I’m going to be up all night trying to work out what it is!
Moose – you’re actually talking sense! *wombles off to investigate Safari’s export option…*
December 4, 2007 at 11:47 pm
Well, I hate to gang up on you about del.icio.us, but it is so easy to use these days – especially with the fantastic Firefox extension for it. It did used to be a bit of a pain years ago, but that extension is one of the most useful things I’ve found in years.
It replaces the bookmark system in Firefox (if you want it to) so you may as well be bookmarking like you’ve always done – except they’re in your del.icio.us account. When you install the extension it even offers to synchronise both sets to get you up to speed.
As for tags and folders, if I want to see my duck related bookmarks I know they’re in publicenergy/ducks – that looks like a folder to me.
You have nothing to fear but fear itself! 
December 5, 2007 at 7:59 am
“Moose – you’re actually talking sense! *wombles off to investigate Safari’s export option…*”
Don’t sound so surprised! 
December 5, 2007 at 10:13 am
hmmmmmmmmm
Surely if safari has an export option one of them will be xml, which will import to delicious? I’m not very web savvy (for someone who works in computing research!) and I managed it just fine…
I use windows but with firefox and the extension is great… maybe there is one for safari as well? or maybe you could come back to firefox…….
December 5, 2007 at 12:32 pm
I’m firmly in the del.icio.us camp (did I teach you on the MSc?), and I use Safari (now that it’s v.3).
I have a bookmark called “+” which adds the current page to delicious, and next to it “…” which takes me to my delicious bookmarks. See the delicious bookmarklets info.
delicious2safari imports my bookmarks directly into Safari: http://tuxtina.de/software/
I use the bookmarks bar to show regularly used bookmarks though – there’s little point in having Google Reader, Gmail. etc in del.icio.us IMHO.
Or, export your Safari bookmarks (it exports at HTML) and stick it somewhere online. I bet there’s an Automator script that can do this for you automatically every so often. Use Safari’s funky search to find the bookmark you want on the (probably long) exported page.
You also say:
However, I put time, effort and mental energy into finding the links in the first place. Plus, it’s valid information (ish) or I wouldn’t have bookmarked it.
If you used delicious, you could explain to yourself why you bookmarked them in the first place
Good luck!
December 5, 2007 at 12:50 pm
Moose – I’m sorry for the surprised. I should know by now not to be surprised by anything you do.
Neko – Firefox on the PocketCalculator is a power hungry beast that keeps crashing out on me. Safari is faster and more stable.
Tom – You (fortunately?) missed the delights of teaching me on the MSc. That delicious2safari link looks quite useful, thank you.
And ok everyone. I’m starting to feel that I’ve awoken a slumbering beast here by daring to say that del.icio.us doesn’t float my boat! There’s enough of you berating me now to make me think I need to take a new look at things. I’ll give it another go *roll eyes*
However, a quick question to you mac gurus out there – can I trigger a bookmarklet with a keyboard command? (I hate my mouse and avoid it at all costs)
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Welcome to Bright Meadow 2.
My usual blog is over at brightmeadow.co.uk - I resort to this one on the rare occasions that my server has hiccups for more than a couple of days.
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December 4, 2007 at 6:31 pm
Cas, I completely understand if you don’t jive with this (I’m the most disorganized person I know!) but I actually put all my web bookmarks on del.icio.us still. I’ll manage the tags and stuff from time to time so they’re not too redundant but then again…I don’t really have any computer files that are bookmarked so I don’t have any on that end to worry about.
Hope you find a viable solution for your linkety packrat self!