When it comes to managing bookmarks, we are spoiled. Besides Firefox’s reasonably flexible bookmaking features, there are myriads of syncing utilities and web-based services that can take care of your bookmarks. del.icio.us (http:// del. icio. us/), Ma.gnolia (http:// ma. gnolia. com/), Markaboo (http:// www. markaboo. com/), Google Browser Sync (http:// www. google. com/ tools/ firefox/ browsersync/), Foxmarks (http:// www. foxmarks. com/), and many others – all offer useful features to help you keep tabs on your bookmarks.

They are all good at what they do, but this doesn’t mean they suit everyone’s needs perfectly. For example, with a web-based service, there is no guarantee that if the service goes down, it won’t take all your stuff with it. A syncing tool is great for keeping bookmarks in sync on your own computers, but it’s not much use on a public machine. Even if you’ve managed to work around these shortcomings, there are still other annoyances that can make you consider alternatives – like creating your own bookmarking solution based on Mozilla Thunderbird and a couple of nifty tools (let’s call it T-Bookmarks). While it doesn’t offer all the bells and whistles of a fancy social bookmark service (notably, you can use it to share your bookmarks with others), it does provide an alternative way of managing bookmarks, which you can customize and adjust to your needs. More importantly, it shows you how to put the proven technology to some new and unconventional uses.

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