The Fast, Easy, Free Way To Open Your Bookmarks

My Mac’s desktop is like my real desktop. Messy. I go through the same stages on my Mac—stack files on the desktop, organize files, purge files, rinse, repeat.

My Mac’s bookmarks get organized in similar fashion, except for one thing—multiple bookmark lists. Different bookmarks for Safari than for Firefox (yes, I use both, don’t you?).

That means I have some bookmarks that only apply to Safari and some that only apply to Firefox. Don’t blame my organizational skills. Blame web standards, my local bank’s online service, and other issues which make it a requirement to use two browsers.

Organizing bookmarks these days is still no different than organizing the top of my desk, or my Mac’s desktop. I collect bookmarks from sites I visit, store them, later organize them, purge a few, rinse, repeat.

It’s the circle of Mac life, a constant ebb and flow of activity which starts with good intentions, and a desire to hoard or collect, moves swiftly to clutter, then chaos, then spring cleaning and a feeling of accomplishment.

Along the way I’ve developed a few habits, good and bad, which perpetuate this process. I sync my Mac’s bookmarks—Safari to Firefox and so on, by using the elegant Bookit. That works very well.

I also have login ID’s and passwords for a bunch of different web sites that I keep locked securely in Apple’s Keychain utility. However, I use the fabulous 1Password to manage those site URL’s for automatic login.

Wouldn’t it be cool if there was a quick and easy way to use the bookmarks for Safari and Firefox and the direct URLs for auto login from 1Password?

Wouldn’t it be cool if such a utility simply resided in my Mac’s Menu Bar, always available to open the right bookmark for the right browser? I make it a point to pray for things that useful.

And, one more thing, God, could you make the solution free?

Some of the best things in life are free. Blue sky, sunsets, mountains, the stars, hope, and now All Bookmarks 3.

Quick and free access from the Menu Bar for all your Safari, Firefox, Flock bookmarks. But that’s not all. You also get quick access to your 1Password bookmarks, too (those are the kind that automatically log you in to a web site).

In other words, a single selection gets you what you want—a browser, a web page, even an auto login. Oh, another thing. How about a very precise, quick, instant way to search for bookmarks from the same Menu Bar menu?

All Bookmarks delivers all that and more—for less. I know what you’re thinking,“ Wait a minute, Alex, Safari and Firefox are nice, but I use Camino (or Flock, or OmniWeb).”

No problemo for All Bookmarks. No Opera. Yet. But that’s OK. Nobody uses Opera, right?

The idea here is that you can save and organize your web browser bookmarks however you like—these days I prefer Bookit, but Bookdog is good, too—but get to them with All Bookmarks.

What All Bookmarks doesn’t do is organize your bookmarks for you. It just makes them easier to get to no matter which browser you’re using at the time. Except for Opera, which seldom gets used anyway, right?