What is the best alternative to Chipmarks that has a regular maintainer? I looked at xmarks, but that syncs the bookmarks from the browser instead of just pulliing off of the server (which is simular to ones I've tried before chipmark, which if for some reason your browsers bookmarks get deleted, then all of your bookmarks get deleted over all of your computers.... very very bad) Does Delicious do this?
Perhaps we need to start an alternative project with the Chipmark code, one that will actually be usable because it will be maintained...
summery: some kind of global "terminal" .RDF .JSON .XBEL .HTML ... for both, Web Browsers (Safari, Midori, Epiphany, Oppera, Firefox, Seamonkey, Chrome etc.) and Online Services bookmarks --- a global bookmarks storing format converter (the bookmarks don't have to be stored on the server for more than a few moments...)
and maybe an independant bookmark managment application for GTK+2 QT4 (VLC 0.9.x - 1.0.0 is build on that) an application that can be carried on a USB flash drive with you (e.g. PeaZip) + an EXTRA option to sync with Chipmark.com --- that would be pretty easy for GNU/Linux, Windows & MAC (e.g. Transmission Bittorrent client).
But, AT THE BITTER END, the choise IS NOT ours - it's belong to "The Chipmark Team" and NOT to the users.
the chipmark project is really awesome - although I'm NOT using it for more than a year and my freakinw JSON file is already 16MB :'(
look, all I mean is that THE SYSTEM is already exist! we just need a good and efficient GUI ("Frontend") & a WebUI (Transmission, also, has a funny MacOSX style WebUI, on GNU/Linux, lol) in order to use it much easier!
What I was trying to say is that Chipmark does NOT have the problem of getting all of your bookmarks deleted whereas the systems that sync bookmarks do have that problem... Syncing is just too problematic... it works better for it to be stored on the server.
The idea of taking over the development and support is the best solution for Chipmark to survive. Not providing a Firefox 3.5 add-in is deadly. Actually I am afraid the Minnesota people knew about the issue of continuity for quite a while but ignored it.
The Chipmark ideas are great, the workout is terrible not worth to be a product of a university: an E-grade for the team!
Nevertheless I hope the team will turn the project into an open source project soon allowing the community to support the product. Inthe meantime I also will look for a different solution, waiting two months for anew version is way and way too long.
check this out: that's what I'm talking about >>> a bookmark manager QT, GTK etc. (just pick!) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Midori and GIMP are GTK and work on Windows and GNU/Linux as well.
Chips: earlier you said, "The Choice is not ours...", I would say that it is, ChipMark is under the GPL2, and the source code is available. So if somebody wanted to fork it and provide a more reliable service, they can as long as they adhere to the GPL2.
That said, I have no problem staying with ChipMark, it has been the best solution that I have been able to find, and the only one where I have not lost any bookmarks due to errors. What I think should happen is that ChipMark should come up with a maintenance team that does not change, and will maintain the code (i.e. make sure it works with new browser versions) and the forum when there is no development team in place or if the development team is pre-occupied and can't come up with a fix in a reasonable amount of time (i.e. within one day of the release of a new browser that breaks the code. -- however, I would point out that the problem with Firefox 3.5 should not have happened, Firefox 3.5 was available in Beta for months before it was released, and the problem should have been fixed way before Firefox 3.5 was released.)
As for new features, Chipmark handles all the basic functionality right now, new features would be nice, but are not critical, I would see it being more important to develop support for more browsers, i.e Google Chrome (which has extension support in the dev versions, and will be getting extension support in the release versions soon), Opera and Safari.
Personally I use multiple browsers, Firefox is my main browser, Chrome is my secondary browser, which I use almost as much as Firefox, then it would be Opera, and then last, Internet Explorer (which I only use if I don't have a choice). While having my bookmarks available on every machine I use in Firefox is great, it would be even better if they were available on every browser I use on each machine that I use.
Here are some of the larger features we've added this year:
Revamp of the IE plugin The IE plugin has had a complete rework, including bug fixes and major visual upgrades.
Sorting Folders can be sorted alphabetically by the right click menu or by setting it in your preferences!
Searching Searching your chipmarks has never been simplier. In FireFox type "cm " followed by your search string into the address bar and get your results! In IE use the "Search" menu item to access a search popup!
Status Bar The Status Bar, an indicator that the currently displayed website is chipmarked, has returned!
Favicons The plugins now support favicons! They are the icons next to your chipmarks.
Hotkeys The plugins now have hotkeys! The current hotkeys: Add Chipmark – Crtl Shift c Random chipmark – Crtl Shift y Manage Chipmarks – Crtl Shift m Search Dialog – Crtl Shift s