Managing your Firefox Bookmarks

Last week I implemented a major change in how I handle bookmarks and have been so happy with it that I decided I should share. Let me start by attributing the main concept used here to Virtually Shocking's recent post about the Firefox Bookmark Bar as well as a Cranking Widget's post titled "How to Use Firefox Live Bookmarks for RSS Feed Probation."

The basic process here uses ideas set forth in the previously mentioned posts as well as my own truncated GTD process. While you can certainly accomplish this without the use of any Firefox add-ons, I'll start by recommending two specific ones. For all of you Google fans I recommend starting with the Google Sync plugin. All the steps we make in this process will be mirrored across all FireFox browsers that you have Google Sync installed on.

The second add-on that I recommend is del.icio.us. In the same way you'll need a Google account to use Google Sync you'll also want to grab a de.icio.us account. [The del.icio.us add-on will be marked by italics while the service will be in plain text.] There are SEVERAL del.icio.us add-ons floating around the Firefox Add-on Library, the one I'm recommending is super simple and doesn't add any toolbars or sidebars. Some of the ones that do add toolbars can interfere with Google Sync so you want to avoid them if you're planning on trying this out.

Setting up Your Firefox Bookmarks Toolbar

The basic concept here is that your Bookmarks Toolbar is going to act as both your inbox and a series of @Computer contexts. In the screenshot above I've created several folders which cover some of my regular daily stops. In some cases these are contexts (like Bill2me.com and Shopping), in other cases Shortcut collections (like Accounts and Affiliates) and in others their kind of a Ram Dump (like the inbox folder.)

The folders here are basically used like your traditional bookmarks. Essentially I've stripped them down to the absolute bare bones things that I need to access quickly everyday. The exception to this rule is the inbox (and the other bookmarks that follow it.)

While the first few folders are pretty static, the Inbox changes regularly. Every time I visit a website that I want to check out later I drop it into my Inbox. If one or two items are more urgent (or interesting) they get added to the Bookmarks Toolbar directly so it's easier to see.

What about the Traditional Bookmarks?

This is where things start to get a bit more fun. Items that make it through my Inbox get moved to one of two places. If I think I really need access to something I store it in the main Bookmarks section in the traditional fashion. Right now it's broken into about 10 folders each with a general context ranging from Web Design to Recipes.

I also add items that need to be checked with less frequency. I've got a "weekly" and "monthly" folder which to some degree act like a tickler file. Every Sunday I check both folders to see if there's anything I should check and then progress from there.

Where does del.icio.us come in?

I use the del.icio.us add-on as an archive for anything that I don't tend to look at on a regular basis. The bonus here lies in de.icio.us' use of tags. Rather than locking a bookmark into a folder where I may not be able to locate it a month or two down the line, the del.icio.us add-on allows me to bookmark it and tag it online. There are two major benefits for me here. First off I can find links quickly by checking the tags where it would most likely have been filed. Second? It significantly cuts down the number of items stored in my Firefox Bookmarks and, in turn, clutter.

I've been using this method of maintaining my Bookmarks (minus the use of the Toolbar) for awhile now and am quite happy with it. When I realized that you could put folders into the Bookmark Toolbar everything else kind of fell into place.

If you're using Firefox and have some bookmark tips to share I'd be interested to hear them.