Google Bookmarks

Why do I have to sign in and give a password to get my bookmarks from
web-search?

Denis Beauregard...

Because you may use a public or shared computer.

Dave Hinz...

Um, so they know whose bookmarks to send to your browser, maybe?

Robert M. Riches Jr....

If the bookmarks you are referring to are stored on web-search,
it would make sense that you need to identify yourself and
authenticate that you are who you say you are.

Is there any other way I can access them on my computer... are they
hidden away somewhere in a file?

Denis Beauregard...

They are on the web-search server.

If you always work from home, just don't use that feature...

Paul Blair...

Hey, that's a new one on me. I have never been asked to store anything
anywhere other than on this computer. And a search of all settings
reveals nothing like that, either! Tell me more...

Kerry Raymond...

If you use web-search Bookmarks (as distinct from the Bookmarks in IE or
Firefox), then they have to be stored on web-search's site as the whole point is
to make them accessible to you no matter which computer you are using. A lot
of people prefer this as they then have the same set of bookmarks
everywhere, home, work, visiting family/friends, etc. Very popular with
people travelling or students using many different computers in the labs or
people who use public library computers. web-search Bookmarks allows you to
instantly upload the ones stored in your browser (which is a very convenient
way to set it up).

But of course with so many users, web-search can't work out whose bookmarks are
whose unless the user signs in. Of course, for most web-search use, nobody has
to create an account with web-search and nobody has to sign in, but if you do,
then some extra benefits (like web-search Bookmarks and some other
personalisation) become available.

If you really want to make your bookmarks available, use del.icio.us where
you can store your bookmarks and share them with others. If many delicious
users have bookmarked a page, then it's a very reliable sign that it has
useful and relevant information. I have both web-search bookmarks and delicious
on my toolbar.

Having said that, being predominantly someone who shuttles between my home
and work laptops, I mostly use the browser's favourites locally (as my work
browsing interests are rather different from my home interests) and I
occasionally upload the browser bookmarks to web-search Bookmarks for the
occasional access-from-elsewhere situations.

Of course, if your favourites include some eyebrow-raising sites, say,
hot-genealogy-chicks, then maybe you should keep your bookmarks locally! :-)
But I think web-search bookmarks is perfectly fine for publishing "my favourite
shipping lists" or "great cemetery sites I have found".

Hugh Watkins...

for my own vital links
eg
admin log ons
web mail
own web sites
web editors

I make a quick webpage in mozilla composer and set it up on my
current computer as the home page of all my browsers

I call it aaa_start_page to make it easy to spot

emailing acopy of it to myself in gmail as an atttachment means that I
have it available on library and other computers world wide

Charani...

They sound much better ways of having bookmarks to hand when you need
them.

I can remember the ones I use most often though.

Hugh Watkins...

I use auto fill on my own machines

eg
freebm . .

and a down arrow

Hugh W

I keep my start page it in the shared folder between the MAC OS and the
virtual PC running WInXP Sp2 on Parallels (just upgraded today and
parallel tools reinstalled) on macOS 10.4.8 om dual core intel

so it is also in MS IE 7 so I can check the web pages on that browser
too for example

This idea goes back to netscape 3 or 4 favourites which were saved as
an html page on my machine and could also be set up as a home page
for netscape

Hugh W

Dave Hinz...

No, they're on web-search's servers. If you want local bookmarks, use your
browser's bookmarks or favorites function.

Robert M. Riches Jr....

You will likely get better help if you'd state what
operating system and browser you are using. If you're using
Firefox on GNU/Linux, the bookmarks file would probably be

$HOME/.mozilla/firefox/your-profile-name/bookmarks.html

with your actual profile name in the obvious place.

Lorne

Paul Blair...

Do a search for bookmarks.html

Probably in Documents and Settings/Your Name/Application
Data/Mozilla/Firefox etc