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Chrome 4 brings bookmark sync

Posted on 18 Aug 2009 at 09:08

The Chrome developer build has hit version 4, bringing support for bookmark syncing.

"Once you set up sync from the Tools menu, Chrome will then upload and store your bookmarks in your Google Account. Anytime you add or change a bookmark, your changes will be sent to the cloud and immediately broadcast to all other computers for which you've activated bookmark sync," notes programmer Tim Steele in a blog post.

This handy feature is already available in Firefox through the Xmarks add-on (formerly Foxmarks), and is accessible to Safari owners who subscribe to MobileMe. However, unlike Firefox and Safari, Google's service will be built-in and free, though you'll need a Google account.

Anytime you add or change a bookmark, your changes will be sent to the cloud and immediately broadcast to all other computers

As with the majority of untried features made available in the developer's build, users will need to enable it by adding --enable-sync to the command line. Syncing options can then be accessed through the tools menu.

The developer builds are released nightly, often with untried new features or bug fixes that Google doesn't believe are ready to be inflicted on those using the stable release.

Initially, this was a steady trickle of features but has more recently become a flood, with an extension framework, theme support, Windows 7 jumplists and now bookmark syncing all taking their place in the browser.

To find out more about the Google Chrome developer build, and why we're infatuated with it, visit the blogs.

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User comments

Opera

Of course we should also mention Opera, which syncs bookmarks out of the box for some time now, even between the desktop and mobile versions of it's browser, and along with several other personal settings.

By Woudenberg on 18 Aug 2009

Privacy

So Google has added a feature whereby you upload a list of all of your bookmarks to Google? Colour me surprised. Any information from Google on what they plan (if anything) to use this new-found goldmine of information for?

Incidentally, although not mentioned in the article, the reason Foxmarks changed it's name to Xmarks is because they started supporting other browsers. So I can now keep my bookmarks synched between home and work, IE and Firefox.

By Bassey1976 on 18 Aug 2009

IE also has it through the Live toolbar called favourites syncing I think.

By TimoGunt on 18 Aug 2009

The advantage of Xmarks

Xmarks syncs between Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari (although unfortunately only Safari for Apple and not Safari for iPhone and Windows). I would much rather have Xmarks for Chrome than use Google's option - I'm guessing it won't sync with IE or Firefox. Bear in mind that workplaces generally use IE but at home I use Firefox.

By SpiroExDeus on 18 Aug 2009

@Bassey1976 This is nothing new - Google has had an online bookmark facility for a long time that was available through the Google Toolbar for IE (and presumably firefox as well). About time it finally made it to Chrome.

By simbr on 20 Aug 2009

I've got it working on mine, although I only have the one machine running Chrome so can't really test the synching. Oddly it actually stores the bookmarks in Google Docs rather than Google Bookmarks, and doesn't seem to work with sub-folders.

By simbr on 21 Aug 2009

Actually, I had a chance to try synching on a new machine and after a few problems logging in all my bookmarks appeared, including the ones I had trouble seeing in google docs.

By simbr on 27 Aug 2009

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