Pleaaaase bump the Chrome version…

Thanks! But the feature “web discovery” only works with google.com
(e.g. it doesn’t work with google.co.uk).

So, umm… what does it do?

I have one reaction to this: Feature creep!
I got into Foxmarks years ago for the bookmarks sync, skipped password sync, and will skip “xmarks”. Thanks.

I like the new Site Info feature, really handy. Do you have any plans on integrated the search thing into Yahoo as well?

I hope old clean foxmarks still leaves…no frills edition. Else i am heading to something else.

Merry X-mass! Xd

I guess Xmarks isn’t /that/ bad a name, considering what it does. I don’t much care for statistical information–at least, not from a browser syncing extension. It looks like a good idea, but I would keep it separate from Foxmarks unless there’s a way to turn it off. It could add what some would call clutter to their search results, and may slow down the browser considerably (depending on the power of the machine running it).

I’ll probably pass on using this extension, but I’m sure there are others who will use and appreciate it. Thanks, and keep up the good work. ^.^

So, you are going to share out users bookmarks to other users as search results?

Thanks for all your comments. A few quick responses:

1) Our Smarter Search feature currently works with the top three US search engines: google.com, yahoo.com and live.com. We definitely plan to broaden that to other search providers and non-US URLs like google.co.uk.

2) Don’t worry – we’re still hyper-focused on sync and will continue to add features and support for additional browsers there.

3) All of our Site Info and Similar Sites results are based on analysis of aggregate bookmark data. We never publish specific user data unless the user explicitly requests that with our RSS share feature.

Regards,
James
Xmarks CEO

Also, James did not answer this so I will, ;)

You can turn off all of these new features if you do not want them.

Is it just me or is the Xmarks icon in the address bar a little too dark blue colour?
My eye keeps on being drawn to it when it should really be blending into the interface subtlety (I’m using Visa with aero).

I’d like it a little lighter – Looking at the Xmarks logo at the top of this page then maybe more the colour of the top of the logo than the bottom.

“Access Denied (content_filter_denied)

Your request was denied because of its content categorization: “Pornography”

For assistance, contact your network support team.”

The new name (as much as I like it) seems to have a “special” history. Me and probably a lot of others (since the content filter list is very common) won’t have access to it from their office internet. Hope the other domain will be available for syncing, too.

The site info/discovery is not feature creep. The co-founder of Foxmarks years ago said that these features were always the ultimate goal with Foxmarks (indeed, the main plan). Here’s an article from 2006 with mention of the social aspect of it.

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/mitch_kapors_ne.php

Perhaps the team creating and evolving Foxmarks doesn’t see the new search aggregate as a “feature creep” problem, since it has been in the works since the inception of Foxmarks. However, many people who use Foxmarks like it the way it is. My hope is that the “turn it off” part of what you have promised on searches is EASILY FOUND. If not, I request that it be made so; perhaps as easy to find the “delete passwords” under Sync feature. Many people have good computers, just not Alien computers with endless (or seemingly endless) CPU and RAM available. I have 3 gigs of RAM and the problem is not Foxmarks, specifically. However, with all the other CPU and RAM hogs out there, one must make sacrifices. I doubt many will sacrifice security for an endlessly growing pile of saved searches. I, myself, start on a plain Google page. Almost everything I do starts there. I don’t want the load on my machine of having to keep up with searches I don’t choose to save. I see this as an “extra” many will want to do without as most browsers allow the saving of a “search/brainstorming” session to be bookmarked already. Seems redundant to me. Foxmarks will save my saved search sessions already. Why have it automatically built in? Is it because no one saves their history anymore? Thanks.

About “Smarter Search”:
Foxmarks/Xmarks is not the first to come up with a balloon that shows a preview of the “next page” or the page the link goes to. I found it in Interclue (addon for Firefox) singularly useless. First of all, what shows up in the balloon is missing important information such as content and photos. All it seems to show is a brief description and all the links on the page that are secondary to the links most users use. Second of all, why bother with all that when clicking on the link and opening in a second tab is part of why Tabbing inside browsers has become nearly universal? It seems redundant to me.

Be Smarter than Google with “Smarter Search”.

“Smarter Search” is not smarter going by popularity! Google already does this. So does every other popular site on the web! From Yahoo to Windows Live (ech!) to MySpace, and the now defunct Yahoo Web 2.0 (perhaps a lesson can be learned there). My most frustrating search sessions are when I’m trying to find stuff other people search for, but not in droves, or perhaps something other people are searching for and not finding.

A suggestion: if you are going ahead with this (and you have already promised we can turn this feature off if we want to) may I suggest there be a way to get AWAY from the most popular searches? Google already serves up the most popular searches at the top of the page. Many people don’t go BEYOND the first page in a google search, which often leaves them with less information (or not the specific stuff they were looking for). Seems like a smarter use of “Smarter Search” would be to give a SIMPLE headline-only listing of the other search strings including the words you have already.

MY biggest frustration is being stuck with the most popular searches on the first page of a Google search and by the second page, I am getting completely unrelated results. (e.g. I searched for “cowboy” and on the second page I’m getting hits for dolphins!) Often, me and a friend of mine brainstorm for some time before figuring out how to “fool” google (yahoo and windows live searches aren’t even worth the effort, imho) into giving us what we actually want, by either creating a long search string or making sure we can figure out how to find what we want by putting the most important word first (this is almost always guess work) then adding the next most important, ad infinitum. There is a limit to what Google can do. Perhaps an idea would be not to look for the most “popular” (which google already serves up in the first three hits, so it’s redundant to add to Smart Search) but an alphabetized list of what OTHERS went on to add to their search string in a frustration of trying to find what we want. If I had a list of other search strings, WOW what a gold mine that would be!

If a part of this is going to include the community “popularity”, why not make it a list of the communities most popular more extensive search strings instead?

Popular, I learned in high school, is NOT highest quality. It is usually the opposite, and in searches, is quite shallow. I want more than a one-word search. I need, for instance, not just codeine addiction, but codeine withdrawal as well as how to tell the DIFFERENCE between codeine discontinuance withdrawal vs. addiction. While that is a fairly simple search on Google: “codeine” +”withdrawal vs. addiction”, it doesn’t give me what I really want which is to know what signs to look for when the doc gives me codeine in a medication as to when I still need it and when does it turn subtly into addiction? Or is it subtle? Is it as simple as you don’t have pain anymore but you keep taking it? Digging through a Google search to find that can be daunting. But that’s a pretty simple “for instance”. Try finding “current George Bush location” as an example. Not when, just where? Is he out of the country or still in it? That’s all I need to know and that was a fairly difficult search to get results for. And even in that, what I initially wanted to know was how come everything got so quiet in the media after he left office? There are numerous outstanding issues regarding his actions in office that need to be addressed. Is anyone talking about that? Give me a search string that will find that information. Well, guaranteed, SOMEONE out there has finally found that information. A Smarter Search would give me the option of following that person’s link.

Apologies for 3 comments in a row, but they are all regarding different issues. I wanted to ferret my ideas out in different posts so each could be dealt with separately with ease, rather than put them all in one comment. Thank you for allowing feedback, reading it, and having patience with my many posts.

@nobodyzsukey: I’ll try to address your comments as best as I can (as I’m not an actual Foxmarks employee, I can only do so much) in one comment. I’ll separate the issues where it seems appropriate with dashes.

First: It is quite simple to find the option to turn off these new features: Go into Foxmarks’ (now Xmarks’) options (either Tools -> Xmarks -> Xmarks Settings… or right-click Xmarks’ Icon -> Xmarks Settings…), then click on ‘Discovery’ to see all the options dealing with these new features. The memory concerns have been addressed at http://getsatisifaction.com/foxmarks , though I don’t know if they have been addressed to your satisfaction. I can’t exactly wrap my head around what your saying near the end of your first comment, so I’ll wait for clarification.

I have linked a screenshot displaying the menu at the end of this comment[0].

——

“Smarter Search”, as you have called it, is not simply a preview of the page. It does display a preview, as well as two scales, one for rating and one for number of bookmarks(I assume), a link to a page containing information about the site, a link to any reviews of the page, and links for searches using tags which were used to describe that site (according to anonymous user data). It is, of course, provided as a service that you may turn off; you may use the middle click function to visit any of the pages linked on the balloon that comes up (except the button; don’t ask me why). I’m sure they are aware of the other similar services; most are catered to a specific audience (security, for example). Theirs is to help people find sites they may not otherwise find, and to help them get an idea of what the page is like before visiting it (I, possibly like you, prefer to visit the site first hand. There are those who do prefer to learn about the site first, though).

I have linked a screenshot of the bubble at the end of this comment[1].

——

As for popular searching is not smarter: It is, IF what the person is searching for is something that would be considered popular. If not, than that’s fine, the person should tailor their search to find more obscure results (it’s what I do, regardless of what search engine I use). If what you’re looking for has a specific phrase, then put that phrase in quotes(e.g. “Roses are Red”). If you’re looking for the person who said that phrase, then add that also (e.g. “Roses are Red” Author). If you’re getting all kinds of results for “Sandwich” instead of what you’re looking for, then remove them from your results (e.g. “Roses are Red” Author -sandwich); you can even put an unwanted phrase in quotes after the [minus] sign if necessary (e.g. -”bean sandwiches”). I am well aware that there are times when the search engine does something stupid, and no matter how you phrase your search you just can’t get the results you want. If that ever happens, it would probably be a good idea to find another search engine that is designed to search for obscure terms, or a specific subject. Here, the engine is at fault (more or less), not the extension. And you don’t even have to use their search; you may not even know it exists (it’s at xmarks.com). It is simply there for your benefit, use it or not.

——

I hope that helped a little with your trouble. If you still feel that your ideas are good ones (I’m sure they are), you can go to http://getsatisfaction.com/foxmarks and post your suggestions/questions/concerns there.

[0]http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f179/benjo316/screen-shots/XmarksDiscovery.jpg
[1]http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f179/benjo316/screen-shots/XmarksSite-Info.jpg

Sorry, in the first link to getsatisfaction I accidentally misspelled satisfaction. The second link is correct.

Also, any replies from Xmarks employees to my and nobodyzsukey’s comments would be appreciated.

I’m assuming that installing Xmarks in Firefox does not affect the sync for Foxmarks installed on IE and Safari. Correct?

Just want to be sure that bookmarks maintained by Xmarks are synched to IE and Safari. I understand that Xmark discovery-type functions will not be available for IE and Safari at this time.

Hi Foxmarks Team,

My original purpose of visiting the blog was to look for a place to leave feedback. I’ll do that first. Foxmarks is brilliant product. I use a computer at work, plus a laptop, Mac, PC and Linux box at my side business (DD Poker) on a regular basis. It was always frustrating to have disparate bookmarks all over the place. Foxmarks not only took a great idea and made it real, but they did so in a seamless way. I love that I add a bookmark at home and find it already in my bookmarks list at work.

With regard to the new “xmarks” – I have to say I do not like the name. Foxmarks is a great name and only loosely tied to “Firefox”. I’m not a profressional brand manager, but from a layman’s perspective, “Foxmarks” has more cache – is more fun than “xmarks”. Other than the “X marks the spot” play on words, ‘xmarks’ seems sterile (like something Microsoft would offer .. ala Xbox’).

Go back now. Before it’s too late.

-Doug

stumbleupon is already doing those things you are wanting to do. do something compelling as opposed to just copying. you’re not adding anything new to the market. i won’t be using any of the new features and will see it as bloat.

hi,I think the domain name foxmarks.com is better than xmarks.com,and foxmarks.com is easier to remember,why you chang it….

There’s a real privacy issue here. How do I opt out of having my bookmarks used to drive “smarter search”?

Re. feature creep, I completely agree. Chrome and stable Safari support is *way* more important to me than a re-hashing of stumbleupon…

Dog Snouts. I say again: Dog Snouts

People hate change, that’s just a fact of life, but I say ignore them, eventually they’ll come around (look at what happens every time Facebook change something). The name change was clearly necessary to stop the product appearing as a Firefox-only thing.

Installed first time onto Firefox 3.1 beta 3, what more could I ask. Well done guys.