14 DAY TRIAL // Managing your browser's bookmarks cannot be considered an easy task, especially when you have more than 100 of them. What should you do when you have to reinstall your operating system? Writing them down is not a suitable solution, it is not very comfortable and it can take days to complete.
There are some websites we visit on a daily basis, but by using a browser like Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox or Opera there is no need to type an address very often. You don't have to look through an entire website to find the page you need. Taking advantage of the Bookmarks feature you can save the desired link and access it later very easily. When you have too many bookmarks, they can be organized in folders for a better management.
Built for the Windows platform, AM-Dead-Link can display a list containing all the bookmarks you have saved. It can detect any dead links or possible duplicates. It should be able to download FavIcons for your saved pages, but unfortunately this feature did not pass the tests and proved to be faulty, becoming unavailable in some cases.
Instead of writing down bookmarks one by one situated in different folders, the software can export a file to your medium support. Unfortunately, the file does not have a specific format and the data within is separated by commas or tabs, which makes it a bit uncomfortable while reading it.
Installation is a smooth process as it runs without any difficulties, and you can choose from the beginning the type of medium support the program is going to be installed, as memory sticks are accepted as well. On the other hand, uninstalling the program might come with some problems, mainly because it leaves some files and folders on your hard drive and not all its settings are removed completely.
What you need to do next is choose the browser you are working with from the drop-down menu. Updating or adding new bookmarks in your Internet navigator is not a wise idea, as you have to restart AM-Dead-Link if you want to see the changes.
From Option menu, you can change the settings of this application. You can enable sounds, show gridlines or enter the path for the default backup folder. When using a proxy for HTTP or FTP, there is nothing to worry about, as you can define your address and port, type in the username and password for your connection. When unsure of the above, just use the proxy settings from your Internet Explorer.
Because the bookmark files are not usually stored in one specific place for Firefox and Opera browsers, you will have to define the path where this file will actually be saved. FavIcons directory needs to be set up (for IE and Opera, but what about Mozilla...) as this is the folder where all downloaded FavIcons will be stored.
Looking at the list of current bookmarks from the program's window, you will certainly be aware that, from now on, using this software is going to be a piece of cake. Its 6 columns are useful in case of sorting by name, URL or folder. So far, this has been the best news. You don't have to look through 1 billion directories to manage your bookmarks, as all them can be listed alphabetically. If there are so many that you can't handle them even by name, the program has a search option to get you out of trouble.
Let the program run a complete scan of your bookmarks and, if it encounters any broken links, you will see an error message under the Status column. There is no need to delete the link immediately (you can set status to OK), as there may be websites updating their pages. But if you spot an error, it may be corrected manually by editing the URL and saving it afterwards. The browser must be closed for the operation to have the desired affect, so you won't have to make any changes in the navigator as well.
In Bookmarks menu, you can check a single link for validity or select and check in batch. Sorting can be done by two criteria: showing the error producing links on top of the list or displaying the bookmarks with FavIcons first. You can modify a bookmark's name and its URL (Properties option) or delete it from your browser. Also, here you can find duplicate links or see the HEAD of the Web page. If you are interested about what GET method returns for a Web page when called, just press the GET button from within the Show Logfile feature.
Moving forward to FavIcons menu, I have to say that I felt a bit disappointed. This feature doesn't work at all. All that returned was a red apple (could be a tomato) instead of the expected tiny pics.
If you feel the need to save your bookmarks into a compressed ZIP file, you may do so for each browser individually. Help file is not so well developed and does not have all the features explained for everyone to understand. On the other hand, multilanguage support is impressive. The forum may be of help, if you have any questions that need answering.
I wasn't impressed too much by this software although I had expected to be, considering the features it says it has. A feature of this software that works great is its ability of making a list with all the bookmarks from a specific browser and check for broken links. Besides this I'm afraid it doesn't do anything extra or it does it faulty. It would be much appreciated by the entire community of users if its glitches would be solved and some major improvements about architecture and functionality would be made.
The Good
AM-DeadLink can make a complete bookmarks list of your installed browsers. You can search through this list and sort it by name, folder, URL, etc. It detects your broken links which can be manually edited. Finding duplicates is useful for a better management. It shows the HEAD of an URL and it calls the GET method for the selected one. It has its own built-in browser and it can back up successfully the Favorite links from Internet Explorer within a ZIP file. The multilanguage support is greatly appreciated.
The Bad
The application does not alert you in case you are trying to open a second instance. If "Internal preview" is enabled, "Open with browser" toolbar button does not perform the required operation (open in the default browser installed on your system). Although the FavIcon feature brings a warm touch to the software, in my tests I found it to be faulty. Refreshing the list of bookmarks is done by restarting the program, and you will be asked to make sure your browser is closed. You can export all the current bookmarks but in no particular format, which is difficult to understand. Import bookmark file feature is available but enclosed in the "browser choosing" menu. Assistance menu is poorly developed. Backup for Mozilla Firefox saved a ZIP tutorial file on my HDD.
The Truth
AM-DeadLink is a useful application for Internet users with lots of bookmarks saved on their browsers. Unfortunately, it has some major glitches within its features which, if repaired, can become should-have software for everyone using a computer. The mystery between choosing a Firefox bookmarks file or a Mozilla bookmarks file unfortunately remained unsolved.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
