17 April 2018

Online Tool Xmarks Closing down May 1st


I received a VERY sad email on March 30th explaining that one of my favorite tech tools was closing down. I have been a fan of and user of Xmarks for MANY years and it was due to my love of Xmarks that I purchased a subscription to LastPass as they were being bundled.

If you go to Xmarks.com now you'll see a very sad message at the top of the screen letting you know "LogMeIn is retiring Xmarks from its line of products as of May 1, 2018. After this date, you will no longer have access to Xmarks." Not gonna lie, I will probably cry a little for Xmarks on April 30th.

I found Xmarks back in my 2nd year of teaching when I was getting discouraged that my bookmarks wouldn't sync across different browsers. I was using a PC at school in my classroom but was one of those people who used Firefox, Safari for PC, Google Chrome, and Internet Explorer (only when absolutely necessary) but hated that if I bookmarked something in one browser I had to then remember to bookmark it in the other three browsers if I wanted to have feature parity between all four tools. That's when I found Xmarks, formerly called FoxMarks, a great tool that allowed me to sync my bookmarks across all of my browsers. I thought I had died and gone to nerd heaven, but my happiness was short-lived as Xmarks was worried about money and had announced it would be shutting down services in January 2011. Many users went into panic mode and decided it was time to try and pay money to keep the service alive, pledging between $10-30 each year to use a Premium version of the tool, but basically just pay to keep it alive. I was so worried because I had grown to depend on this tool to keep me in sync across my different web browsers.

It was looking rather dim for keeping Xmarks alive until December 2, 2010, when LastPass, an online tool to keep your passwords safe and secure, announced it would be acquiring Xmarks and keeping it alive and running. Many nerds, myself included, cheered because our beloved Xmarks would be saved. Then on October 9, 2015, LastPass was acquired by LogMeIn who then stated they would keep Xmarks alive and support the tool. That was until March 30, 2018, when I received the sad email telling me Xmarks would be shuttered on May 1, 2018.

Not what I wanted to hear at all. Now I have to start all over again and see if there is a tool that will allow me to keep all of my bookmarks in sync across different web browsers. I know I can do it across the same web browser, but I prefer to use different web browsers for different purposes. If you happen to know of a tool that will allow me to fulfill this need, PLEASE share it with me.

Thank you, Xmarks for helping me keep my sanity as a classroom teacher who used a PC at work but all Macs an iOS devices at home! I was able to work more effectively and efficiently because I knew I could sync my bookmarks across browsers and even access all of my bookmarks via the web in case I was checking it from a different machine. You will be dearly missed by this nerd!


Note: Thanks to the authors of the Xmarks Wikipedia page for help remembering the exact dates of the different acquisitions!

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