Feature Request: (seriously) Improved Bookmarks Managment

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Grizzly

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May 28, 2012, 4:27:43 AM5/28/12
to Chromium-discuss
Hi folks, I've been thinking lately how great it would be for my
productivity it there was a 'better' way for me to store, sort,
organise and manage my bookmarks.

Key Features: (for those who don't like to read lots)
==========
1) Keyword Based Bookmark Filing ( e.g. with tags and categories )
- folders to group associated tags together (folders = 'groups')
- 'groups' can inter-connect based on individual bookmark's
specific tags etc.
- i.e. a group can have many tags (naturally) but a tag can
also belong to many groups
- groups can have sub-groups

2) More Bookmark Information
- Add a 'description' field for bookmarks
- Bookmarks could store the link's html meta data ( i.e. title and
description fields )
- Ability to set a custom description to better explain the link
reference and/or purpose

3) Bookmark Screenshot / Thumbnails
- To provide an instant visual reference to help people to
remember the page, reason/purpose for the link
- Browser is already capable ( new tab launch window ) so should
be easy to implement (i hope)
- Might take up a lot of extra storage space so features/
functionality to choose whether to store a thumbnail or not on a per
link basis, plus easy options to 'clean up' or purge all, least used
or selectively un-wanted thumbnails.
- Bookmark descriptions / meta data can be displayed on hover or
click pop-up, maybe even click to pop-up a larger thumbnail with meta
data or a full page 'preview'?


Long Description / Reasoning:
======================
I'm a web developer (and a bit of an information junkie) so I'm always
looking for and finding loads of handy references, resources, tools
and guides on-line that I like to bookmark for later use. This may be
something that I end up referring to regularly, occasionally, or often
just as a one-off. Sometimes I bookmark things just-in-case they may
be useful to me in the future, to save me from having to search for it
again. This way I don't have to remember what it is (to search for)
because I've bookmarked it!

-- How many times have you found something a on-line and thought "Hey
that's great, I'd love to learn more about this. Oh but I don't have
time now, never mind I'll just remember it for later." and then you
never do. You forget what it was because either it wasn't something
you'd normally think of / search for, or you stumbled across it by
accident whilst searching for something else or through general
browsing and you can't remember the steps you took to find it?
Frustrating isn't it! --

I think that the existing bookmark manager (whilst pleasantly easy and
simple to use) could be greatly improved with the addition of these
few 'simple' features.

I would like to be able to 'tag' my bookmarks with key-words rather
than have to save them in any specific folder so that they can be
easily referenced and cross-linked, and (perhaps more importantly)
easily searchable. I also find that the classic folder structure has
become to rigid and strict to be an effective means of organising my
bookmarks, considering the amount of links and range of topics /
subject areas that I typically need to manage.

I realise that folders are still a natural way to organise things but
I feel that they could work better as general 'groups' that can cover
a range of specific 'tags' or sub-groups and can be inter-connected to
any other group by an individual links specific tag / group
associations.

Think of it a bit like WordPress's blog tags and categories, with
maybe a tag cloud.


Example:
=======
An example of where this could be useful....

Take the 'minify' project on Google Code ( http://code.google.com/p/minify/
) which can minify both CSS and JavaScript, now I could bookmark it in
my 'CSS' folder, but I could also bookmark it in my 'JavaScript'
folder, or both (doubling up), or I could put it in my 'tools' or 'on-
line services' folders, but this is a bit vague and imprecise.


Finally:
======
Having keyword tags with category/group folders tying relevant tags
together would be a great help to me (and hopefully others).

I'd also like to see the ability to store more information about each
link, such as maybe the page's meta description tag, or a custom
description. It would also be really great to have screen-shots /
thumbnails for bookmarks too, not just the links on the new tab /
launch page.

FYI - If I was a familiar the necessary programming languages (maybe
Java or C# right?) I would have a crack at building this as a browser
plugin / extension myself but unfortunately I don't so I thought I'd
post my ideas here and see what the community thinks? Maybe there are
some people out there who can build this?

I'd love to hear your thought / feedback.


Kind regards,

Chris


P.S. Apologies for the long post.

Stephen

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May 28, 2012, 7:06:40 AM5/28/12
to jabo...@googlemail.com, Chromium-discuss
Extensions already exist for most of your idea(s)  <ie>  Pocket, Readability etc. I use both. 


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View archives, change email options, or unsubscribe:
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--
Best Regards,
Stephen Allen
333.gif

Grizzly

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May 28, 2012, 1:32:27 PM5/28/12
to Chromium-discuss
Thanks Stephen.

Hmm, I've looked at both of the extensions you recommend.
Sorry but I don't really see how they offer the features I'm after!

All I want is a few enhancements over what the browser already does in
the 'launch / new tab' window.
Namely:
- thumbnails for bookmarks
- tags for bookmarks
- groups for tags
- extended meta data / bookmark descriptions

I don't want an app to store web pages off-line for later reading,
and I don't want an app that makes web pages 'more readable'.

Plus if the features I suggested were native in the browser then:
a) Everyone could benefit...
b) ...without having to install additional apps (which may or may not
snoop and/or pose some security risk)

Thanks for your suggestions, but it's just not what I had in mind.

Kind regards,

Chris


On May 28, 12:06 pm, Stephen <stephen.d.al...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Extensions already exist for most of your idea(s)  <ie>  Pocket,
> Readability etc. I use both. [?]
> > Chromium Discussion mailing list: chromium-disc...@chromium.org
> > View archives, change email options, or unsubscribe:
> >    http://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/group/chromium-discuss
>
> --
> Best Regards,
> Stephen Allen
>
>  333.gif
> < 1KViewDownload

Evans Turner (Work)

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May 29, 2012, 11:06:27 AM5/29/12
to Chromium-discuss
This idea seems to be in-line with the way Google does things. It's
very similar to the way Gmail works.

Instead of folders, Gmail works with "labels." Labels can provide the
same functionality as folders, with additional benefits. Gmail groups
messages together as "conversations," to which you can apply mutiple
labels simultaneously (and those labels are applied to each message
within the conversation). If you access Gmail with email client
software via IMAP (inferior to the web interface), labels appear as
folders and a message can exist in multiple "folders" simultaneously.

Gmail labels work great for me because I can apply labels
automatically using filters. Then I can manage them with the search
box at the top:
label:work-alerts -label:stupid subject:("something") -subject:("this"
OR "that") -from:(nor...@emailaddress.com OR ale...@asdf.org)

Managing contacts in Gmail is similar because each contact can be a
member of multiple "Contact Groups."
Google+ is similar because each contact can be a member of multiple
"Circles."

So it sounds like you're basically looking for a bookmark manager that
uses a "label" system.

Check this out! I just searched on Google for "google bookmarks" and
found an official "bookmarklet" (a bookmark that contains javascript
code instead of a simple web URL). I pressed Ctrl+Shift+B in Chrome to
make the Bookmarks Bar appear, then dragged the bookmarklet button
onto the toolbar. I tested adding a few bookmarks with the label
"search" and a few more with the label "work."

Yes. Bookmarks can simultaneously have multiple labels. Now I can
simply create another shortcut in Chrome that takes me to the Google
Bookmarks web site. With Chrome Sync, this will automatically be
available from my other systems. Have you tried this already?

-Evans

Pavel Ivanov

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May 29, 2012, 11:32:34 AM5/29/12
to jevanstu...@gmail.com, Chromium-discuss
> Gmail labels work great for me because I can apply labels
> automatically using filters.

This is offtopic but: unfortunately labels in Gmail don't work so
great when you want to create a filter like "if new message belongs to
conversation that (doesn't) have label X do action Y with it".

> Now I can
> simply create another shortcut in Chrome that takes me to the Google
> Bookmarks web site.

Or you can use it via extensions:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/jdnejaepfmacfdmhkplckpfdcjgbeode?hl=en-US
or https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/jmepkeboidbjfocdlmfpokleckfbmidc?hl=en-US.


Pavel
> Chromium Discussion mailing list: chromium...@chromium.org

Evans Turner (Work)

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May 29, 2012, 2:28:04 PM5/29/12
to chromium...@chromium.org, jevanstu...@gmail.com
Strange. I replied to you, but my reply hasn't appeared in the group yet.

You're right about one thing (off-topic), but wrong about another! ;)

You actually can create a filter like that in Gmail...

-(same conditions as filter that applies label X)
...perform action Y.

Notice the minus sign, before the parentheses, meaning: "if none of the following conditions are true..."

You could even do something more complex...

-((same conditions as filter that applies label X) OR (same conditions as filter that applies label Y))
...perform action Z.

-Evans

Pavel Ivanov

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May 29, 2012, 3:04:35 PM5/29/12
to jevanstu...@gmail.com, chromium...@chromium.org
> You actually can create a filter like that in Gmail...
>
> -(same conditions as filter that applies label X)
> ...perform action Y.
>
> Notice the minus sign, before the parentheses, meaning: "if none of the
> following conditions are true..."

Sure, except that what I meant is more general and your solution
doesn't work if I apply label X manually, without filter and with a
logic that cannot be described in filter terms.

As an example: I subscribed to some mailing lists. I want all messages
to these lists skip my inbox and be marked with some label. Then I
read those messages and mark those that are not interesting to me with
some equivalent of "muted" (you cannot mute conversations that are not
in the Inbox). And now I want any new messages in "muted" conversation
to not be marked with my mailing list label. I didn't find how to do
this with filters.


Pavel

Evans Turner (Work)

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May 29, 2012, 3:39:34 PM5/29/12
to chromium...@chromium.org, jevanstu...@gmail.com
I'll send some advice to your email so I don't derail the topic any more than I already have :) -Evans

Slarti

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Oct 11, 2013, 8:26:13 AM10/11/13
to chromium...@chromium.org, jabo...@googlemail.com
I'm currently working on a project to do exactly this. It's called Bookmarks Done Right and will be in beta at www.bodori.com in the next couple of weeks.
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