Big News: Foxmarks for IE and Safari


We’re proud to announce that today Foxmarks brings bookmark synchronization to the three most popular Web browsers in the world: Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari!

Foxmarks Multi-Browser Support: Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari

I want to share with you our motivations for extending our sync service beyond Firefox. First, we’ve received an enormous number of customer requests to support other browsers and we always try to act on feedback from our users (like we did with password sync). Secondly, we’re seeing an industry-wide phenomenon of consumers using more than one computer. With the ‘netbook’ era upon us, more and more people have a need to stay in sync as they access the Web across multiple devices.

At Foxmarks, our belief is that the best sync solution is one that spans all major browsers and operating systems (and yes we plan to support Google Chrome in the near future). It gives you, the user, the maximum choice and flexibility now and in the future.

Supporting these new platforms has not been easy. It has required us to solve unique engineering challenges with the respective browsers and operating systems. With so much complexity, there is no way that we could have released a high quality product without the help of thousands of beta testers. We send you our warmest thanks for your continued help and support.

In preparation for this big launch I made a trip to Washington DC to present our new set of products to Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal, one of the most influential technology journalists in the world. In the days that followed, I can’t tell you what a challenging and rewarding experience it was having our product tested by Walt. He found several issues (that have now been fixed) as he worked to thoroughly explore all the features of Foxmarks while synchronizing across 7 computers and 12 different browsers! Walt’s conclusion:

“Foxmarks is a clever, well-done product that can help
users of multiple computers and multiple browsers
to keep their Web lives in order.”

Read the complete review on Walt’s All Things Digital blog.

I hope you like our new products that bring Foxmarks to all major Web browsers. For all you IE and Safari users out there wondering why it’s still called “Foxmarks” I’ll let you in on a secret – we’ll be changing our company and product name soon! Please stay tuned…

Regards,
James Joaquin
CEO, Foxmarks Inc.

Comments


I love FoxMarks and your company has been great, but please DON’T change the name AGAIN. FoxMarks is a cool name and represents your roots in the open source community with the Firfox web browser. Perhaps you could just call your safari and IE variants something different? Think about it.


FoxMarks is a nice name. Nothing wrong in showing it’s origin. Keep the name.


Do you have any plans for Safari on Windows?


I love foxmarks application and its name also. Safari on Windows, this is what I’m waiting for too.


I have two requests: 1. Please consider supporting Opera (working with the link-service) as already asked. 2. Please don’t change your name, Foxmarks is what you really represent imho. :)


Check out the free publicity on the Wallstreet Journal

http://online.wsj.com/video/mossberg-on-seamless-surfing-for-the-net/BF4991E5-646D-4716-AEB1-1E98959EEE90.html

Thanks, for a great product!

Floris, Amsterdam, Netherlands


You guys read my mind. I just came to your site to see if you were going to support IE and Opera…and I find this announcement! Thank you for a great product!


Love it. I just read Walt Mossberg and downloaded the latest version. I now have sync’d all my book marks between three home computers with two browsers on each.

Thanks for a great product.


You forgot Safari in the tags. ;p

Good job! Going read the review now. ^.^


If someone has an account on allthingsd.com, if you could respond to Frank Faust’s comment on the story, that would be nice. I would, but I don’t want to create an account just to reply to one comment.

Q.) “How well does Foxmarks work when on the road and working out of a hotel business center? I understand the security risks to avoid going into very sensitive financial accounts but for general news, etc. it would be helpful. Especially if I could be assured that passwords, etc. could be erased after the session.
Many thanks, Lee”

A.) The connection at https://my.foxmarks.com/ is encrypted, so if you go there directly, none of your bookmarks should be visible to anyone eavesdropping on your connection. If you’re really worried, you can put Firefox with the Foxmarks extension on an encrypted compact storage device. But if you do, I would be careful not to lose it or store any critically important data on it; It would be a good idea to use a separate profile on the device with only bookmarks that are safe for mobile use on it. ;)


Will it work on Google Chrome ?


I also like the name. I like the upcoming support for safari on windows and Opera. The only one missing for the moment is Chrome, but since it’s the new kid on the block, I guess it can wait a while until it’s matured (if it lives long enough to get this far atleast). Is it possible to also include sync of all extentions(xpi files). I have mine saved to HD for the moment, but it would be nice if these are sync as well.


Great Products and great idea to expand in other browser.
Did you really need to change the name? Foxmark already suitable if you ask me.

However, Not just chrome but please dont forget opera also.

Thanks for a great product.


I was a big Foxmark fan when I was a Firefox user, but I mostly use Safari now so this is a welcome release. So far it works great; although, perhaps by design, it seems to sync an awful lot. I’ve only changed my bookmarks once and it’s synced probably 20 or 30 times today already.


I hope that IE8 is to be supported soon. IE7 is dated.


I used Foxmarks for Safari since it bacame beta. This tools works fine but since the last update (V1.0.0) the sync is broken :-(

here is the log:
2009-02-06 11:46:25 +0100: Info: POST http://sync.foxmarks.com/sync/bookmarks/getchanges
2009-02-06 11:46:25 +0100: Debug: Body is: {”baserev”:302,”log”:{”mid”:”e127ccf4″},”view”:0}
2009-02-06 11:46:25 +0100: Error: sendRequest failed on: http://sync.foxmarks.com/sync/bookmarks/getchanges: HTTPError 404

Has anyone other this problem? How can i fix it?


In Firefox I can set Foxmarks to use my own server. I can’t seem to do this in the Safari version. How do I do it?


Your timing is awesome, I just started looking for a cross-platform (Mac, XP, Vista) bookmark sync today, looks like you released some of the products 2 days ago! One sync is still missing that I am looking foward to: Safari on Windows XP.


I’m confused…. does this allow me to sync bookmarks from Firefox on one machine to Safari on another? Or, just Safari on one machine to Safari on another?

I would love to be able to sync bookmarks between Firefox and Safari on the same machine (and/or different machines). It’s unclear if this functionality is there with this announcement.


@AndyM: From Safari or Firefox or IE on one, to Firefox or Safari or IE on the same or another machine.

@James: Maybe you should explain to Frank Faust that if he uses the extension, that he will have to either remove the bookmarks from the browser, or use a browser in a compact storage device so that they never touch the computer.

From his questions, it is unclear whether he is talking about the extension or not. As you have stated, you may not access passwords by using the web interface, which would mean that he would have to use the extension to access his passwords or otherwise input them himself. He has not said which method he is using, so I would ask for clarification before any further response.


Really impressive. You guys are doing the good by helping us keep things in a perfect sync. Keep adding more features and I am sure yours is de facto bookmarks sync tool for many more. Here is a suggestion. Why dont you have a community page where everyone can share their BookMarks, provided those are not private and xxx.


no coment …


Hi,

Foxmarks is AWESOME!

I’ve got Safari on a Mac at home and Firefox on WinXP at work, and it works perfectly. I love the profiles thing, having a home profile and work profile is sweet. I was wandering how I was going to stop certain bookmarks from syncing and thought you guys might not have thought about it…

Good work!! Just wish I thought of developing it :)


@nobu: Thanks for the clerification.

Great job guys! This is such a great tool.


Call it anything you want, I call it indispensable.

I can’t wait for the Chrome version, as I am addicted to speed as well.


foxmarks is great, i love it


Can’t wait to have Foxmarks works with Opera :)


THANK YOU!

I’ve been looking for a good bookmarks sync solution ever since getting a netbook. The only thing worse than syncing between two browsers or two computers is syncing between two computers when one of them has FOUR operating systems running, all of which need syncing. This is absolutely PERFECT.

A little bit of feedback on the Mac/Safari version:
1) I can’t figure out what the application is for – it doesn’t seem to have a dock icon, GUI, or anything else. If it’s just for the sync dialogs or even the menu item, please put it inside the prefpane and out of the user’s way.
2) Also, check the permissions on the application – it’s requesting my admin credentials every time I move it, which says to me something in there has root or otherwise elevated permissions.
3) I second the request to use my own server as the sync location. It’s what I was already working on bit by bit, and while I like the idea of syncing to “the cloud”, I like some control over the cloud. :)

Again, THANK YOU!

PS – Keep the name, even if the “Fox” seems out of place in Safari and IE. It’s distinctive and well-known, two attributes that are hard to come by.


Foxmarks for Safari is something i dearly want. Unfortunately its no good for me until I can use my own server, so this is another vote for that feature. Otherwise I think foxmarks is the best firefox extension available.


One other request – improved AppleScript support. The application only has the basic suite (and much of that is non-applicable), but I’d love it if I could use a script to start a sync with a specific profile, upload and replace, download and replace, etc. I’d use the included menu, except I try to limit the number of single-purpose menu extras and use scripts from a single central menu instead.


Good first release. Needs to be able to sync to my own server however to be useful to me.

Also, two things I would really love to see even on the firefox extension.

1) Allow you to choose which server to update to. In other words, have a separate tab for your own server (if enabled) so I can sync to foxmarks and my own server without having to change the user and password settings.

2) A firefox button that we can add via right click “customize” for both “upload bookmarks” and “download bookmarks”, so we don’t have to open up the sync menu. Its a small request – and not a major deal breaker, but nice to have.

The first one however, would really be nice to have! Right now I primarily upload to my own server and once in a while to your server. Since its so much of a pain, I rarely do it to the foxmarks server.


Google announced that Chrome will start to support extensions in May 2009. It would be nice to have Chrome version of Foxmarks then. http://mashable.com/2009/02/05/google-chrome-extensions-launch-date/
I still have a serious problem with Foxmarks for IE: because IE doesn’t like special symbols like dot “.”, vertical pipe “|”, etc. in its favorites, Foxmarks for IE stripped these symbols when creating IE favorites from Firefox bookmarks. Then, if automatic synchronization is enabled, Foxmarks wrongly copies those stripped down IE favorites back to Firefox bookmarks, creating duplicates. A previous beta version of IE Foxmarks didn’t do it, but the latest (as of Feb. 9, 2009) wrecked havoc in my Firefox bookmarks, creating hundreds of duplicate bookmarks. Support didn’t answer on my bug request yet.


YOU GUYS ARE TOTALLY AWESOME!

This solved the whole syncing between Safari and FF locally issue – finally having the right bookmarks on my mobile too!

You just made the world a better place!


I think the name should be kept as is. The sync is fast for up and downloading. Let IE come up with there own jem.


I hv been using for abt 6 mths – Foxmarks is the best internet tool. Thx guys, and keep it UP.


Safari for Windows and Direct to Mobile Me would be great


I agree on James post, Foxmarks for Safari for Windows would be very nice, I use Safari on both my Mac and my PC’s, being able to synch them together would be wonderful.
Mac-only Foxmarks for Safari is completely useless for me at least :/
Also would be nice if being able to use own server, but that is not a priority, as long as I can use Foxmarks with Safari on both Mac and PC I’d be happy ^^


Thank you, this is such a great plugin for IE and Firefox. Personally, I don’t mind what you change the name to just as long as it works. :)


Opera on Windows support would be great. It would be a step closer to synchronizing Opera running on my Windows Mobile phone with my Firefox bookmarks. Would an Opera Mobile Widget for Foxmarks sync be out of the question?


Someone above asked for a Chrome version, and that would be nice. And Safari/Windows.

What I’d -really- like to see is one for Opera.


I love you guys! Thank you for making this amazing app!!! My PC at work and my Mac at home now have more options. But the most outstanding part of this news is that my iPhone is now supported!


Love it! So glad you support Safari now- I use Firefox as my daily browser, but now that I can sync to Safari, it means I can sync to my iPhone too.

One issue- In Firefox I delete the names of my Bookmarks toolbar bookmarks, so just their favicons show up. But in Safari and on iPhone, I want their names to show up. Don’t really know if there’s a solution for this.


konqueror support please :)

I love it for firefox, but I’m not a big fan of firefox.


Love this software and have used it for a long time. Now use Firefox users can finally sync to our iPhone via Foxmarks to Safari.

Sadly, my install fails. The applications crashes when it attempts to either merge data or start fresh. Any ideas? I’m using OS X 10.5.5 on a Mac Pro 3.0 GHZ x4 w/7 GB RAM. Latest rev of Safari.


where can I leave bug reports. I have some for the new Foxmarks for Safari on Mac 10.5.6


@Robb: http://getsatisfaction.com/foxmarks/products/foxmarks_foxmarks_for_safari


But will it blend?


I love you. Seriously.


@Kevin: I’m sure it would, if you put it on a usb-stick. ;p

I’m not sure if I’d want to waste 5-20 dollars blending a usb-stick, though.


your extension alphabetized all my bookmark folders and bookmarks. what have you done? have you tested your software? i had hesitations installing it. i never wanted to be a beta tester…


@pnam: I realize having your bookmarks alphabetized must have been a very traumatizing experience, but I’m sure that they test their extension before releasing any version, not to mention it has been in use by many people for quite a few years.

I have not experienced this myself, but I know it would be (very) possible to accidentally do it yourself, since the button to synchronize bookmarks is right above the ‘Name’ column in the bookmark Library window.

Even if you didn’t do it accidentally yourself, I don’t think it is very courteous of you to to accuse them of providing ‘untested beta’ software to their users. Considering they took the time to make, test, and support this, and you took the risk of installing it, you should be a little more gracious in your request for support.

I’ve learned it’s always a good idea to suspect myself of messing up before suspecting others. Even if I’m wrong, at least I don’t hurt anyone else needlessly, and at best I may find a solution to my problem.

I hope you figure out what went wrong. I hope you don’t have too much trouble reorganizing your bookmarks the way you like also.

Have a nice day. ^.^


I LOVED Foxmarks on Firefox (FF). I’ve used it since the beginning and I switched from Safari to FF just for Foxmarks.

Now I have a chance to go back to Safari but it seems I can’t use my personal server with Foxmarks for Safari. :-(

I guess beggars can’t be choosers as Foxmarks is free after all, but it’s a shame there’s no way to do this…


@nobu: My bookmarks got sorted alphabetically after linking IE into the sync game. It looks like IE8 insists at alphabetically sorted favourites. Sadly that is Microsoft issue rather than FM, unless you can cleverly avoid this IE demeanour.

Chrome support will be just fabulous! Can’t wait! Thank you.


Name: Foxmarks is good. Has brand recognition. Reasonable IE and Safari users won’t care as it works; and heaven knows they could use more of stuff that works, eh. ;-)

Odd Character translation problems: perhaps a different method rather than stripping them out. Does IE recognize standard Unicode sequences? For example, “&#007c” for vertical bar or “©” for the copyright symbol. If IE wants to display the code out in text form that is up to M$. But at least the two-way translation process will work properly. Then the translation machine will know exactly what to do with each character IE isn’t fond of; and how to get it back to normalcy on the return trip. Just a thought.

Sorting: that would be a problem if it was automatic since most of my bookmarks (>100K worth) are stored just the way I want them (which isn’t always alphabetically). We’ll have to investigate that further.

Otherwise, this sounds like a great product and I am looking forward to trying it out.


@themadczech: I think I’ve heard of this before, but he didn’t say he was using Foxmarks for IE. That, and he said he “never wanted to be a beta tester”. If he was using Foxmarks for IE, he was willfully participating in a beta test (the IE version of Foxmarks is listed as beta[0][1]). Though, I think maybe the user should be informed somewhere about the risks of using beta software; currently I can’t find a definition or description of what the user is in for if they choose to use it, but there is a warning if you hover over the beta image.

[0]http://download.foxmarks.com/download
[1]http://download.foxmarks.com/download/all (if you are using a different browser and it doesn’t show the IE version)


I have a query. Does Foxmarks keep separate synchronisation regimes for Firefox and IE.

What i am trying to discover is that i have moved onto firefox as my primary browser, if i installed the extension for IE and use my “obsolete favourites” does foxmark overwrite the more current firefox bookmarks with the earlier IE favourites. Or does the program keep them all separate.

If I use profiles will this allow me to keep them separate ?

Excellent work otherwise.
Phill.


Why change your name? FoxMarks is appropropriate regardless of the browser. A fox is cleaver and quick, like FoxMarks. The “fox” reference needn’t be seen as promoting one browser over another. On the other hand, your origins, your “roots,” if you will, were with Firefox. So, there’s not harm in that subtle reference.

Keep the name! It’s has a rich and noble heritage.

mp


So if I backup my passwords and bookmarks on Firefox, can I import them into IE? That would be awesome. :)


I Love the Foxmarks program, I’ve been using it since it’s beggining, and I’ve watched it grow for a simple but perfect addon to sync my bookmarks into what is even more perfect today, but please don’t change the name, it’s a great name!

Great great work on multiple browsers. It’s THE selling point for other people.


Hello.
I have been installed the Foxmarks ie-clinet too, and it’s working perfectly under win7+ie8 beta too.

the foxmarks is great aid for working in multiple os :)

Keep up the good work :)
(However i like the original fox and foxmarks the best :) )


I love it you were right it loads quicker Thanks


Can we expect support for Safari on XP/Vista any time soon?
There seem to be a lot of bugs in Firefox on XP at present, and I was looking to switch to Safari – but lack of Foxmarks support is holding me back.
..And I really don’t want to have to use IE, even if it were compatible with my Macs.


I like how you tied the bookmarks toolbar folder in FF to the links folder in IE. I usually use both of these very little. Since these are folders installed by default with both browsers. It is nice to not have two of them and makes it more useful to link them together like you did. I have already uninstalled my PlainOldFavorites plugin in FF as I can finally keep both IE and FF synchronized now.


Hi,

How does Foxmarks handle the different name for the bookmarks bar in the various browsers? For e.g. Safari calls it “Bookmarks Bar”, not sure IE even has one, and Firefox calls it “Bookmarks Toolbar Folder”. Is there anyway to sync all the correctly, In my case, it seems to have duplicated the bookmarks altogether.

Thanks for your help.
Sunny


I have to agree with many other comments here – a great product, and a great name.

Please don’t change the name. I’m new to it, and to FireFox, but alread find Foxmarks is catchy and very easy to use and remember.

Besides, what better irony than having IE browsers use a “Fox” named product :-)


Love Foxmarks, cannot wait for you guys to support Chrome, and from the sound of it, you are! :D

As for the name…I dunno, maybe keeping it the same would be best? That is…unless you can come up with an even catchier one…


this is great news.

Foxmarks for Safari on Windows is what I need though.


I’m very pleased to see this release for the Safari Browser. Bravo. One thing that is missing (and need IMHO) is the addition of the Favicon images. I keep a lot of regularly visited sites in the toolbar, too many to have text for each (34 to be exact). I identify them by favicon, and delete the name for each bookmark. While this release is a huge win all the way around, until the favicons are displayed, I’m left to guess at little grey circles.

Thanks for considering.


I currently use Foxmarks to keep my bookmarks and passwords synced across machines. I even have it synced with my thumb drive. This addon is simple yet robust in the fact that it also backs up your bookmarks. A secondary feature. Keep up the good work.


Please don’t change the name


Don’t change your name!!! Foxmarks is who you are, where you’re from, why you became famous! don’t kill it.


@Steve: Favicons aren’t up to FoxMarks. Safari just doesn’t show them – ask Apple to change that.

After using it more, the application installed in /Applications makes absolutely NO sense whatsoever. All it is providing is the background faceless syncing. Furthermore, launching it has no feedback for the user, moving it breaks “launch on login” functionality, it has elevated privileges. This application should NOT be exposed to the user, and should be placed inside the prefpane itself. Furthermore, when you do that, make sure you launch it using the prefpane’s installed location, so we can continue placing it in either /Library for all users or in ~/Library for a single user.

Thanks again!


Hi, I just wanted to:

a) say thank you for a great piece of software that actually works, and;
b) add my vote for Safari for Windows :-)

Thanks again — it’s a godsend for people who have to juggle with multiple work computers.


Is Foxmarks compatible with the new Safari 4?


No, Foxmarks is NOT compatible with Safari 4 beta. The new version of Safari has changed the bookmarks file format. Your bookmarks are now stored in a .plist file, rather than a standard HTML file – I suspect this is why it no longer works.


@Jim:

Not exactly. Please see our latest post about Foxmarks’ compatibility with Safari 4 Beta.


por fin, tenemos la version para IE7.
ver más en http://www.x0101.com


my feedback :

I love foxmarks/xmarks, and i’ll be happy to use this extension in outher browser (ie (i tried the ie8 xmarks), opera and chrome) …but i need the “use my own server” feature.

Not interested in new features, only bookmarks sync.

S.


Chrome Support Soon Please!!! :-)


Chrome Chrome Chrome please !!!

Pretty Please !!!!