14 DAY TRIAL // As insignificant as they may seem, bookmarks play an important role in our browsing activities. They are actually marks we make in the vast Internet. They are pages we would like to keep track of. Bookmarks allow us to go to a certain page without typing in all the information in the address bar of our browser.
Every web browser is equipped with the feature of storing bookmarks and creating backups for them for later importation. However, the sad truth is that the bookmark management in any web browser does not give you too many possibilities. But how about a bookmark manager? A real one, not what is given for free as a bookmark management solution on the Internet. The price is definitely to be considered in this case and a good one ranges between $15 and $25 according to my knowledge.
With Vista on the launch, you may also want to consider compatibility issues. Resort Labs came up with a $25.95 Vista compatible solution for managing the bookmarks in all the popular web browsers. The links however can be opened in any browsing tool you have installed on your computer. And if you have more than one, there is no problem as you get to choose in which browser it should be opened.
The best part of the software is that it already comes equipped with a default collection of bookmarks which I am sure you will find useful. The fields covered include software downloading websites, hardware news from the major developers of the world (Apple, HP, Intel, Microsoft, Logitech, NVIDIA, Dell, Creative, etc.), News (Reuters, New York Times, CNN, ABC, BBC, MSN).
If you still do not find the information you are looking for on one of the available links, you should try the Search Engines section as it'll offer you easy access to some prestigious Internet search tools: Google, Alta Vista, Ask Jeeves, MSN, Yahoo, Metacrawler etc. Don't let yourself fooled by their order as it does not reflect anything. They are simply alphabetically arranged, so it could be found faster. Of course a top five would have been a better idea of sorting. However, you can differentiate them by assigning different priority levels (assign colors corresponding to a certain priority).
Among other "talents" of Portable Bookmarks we can find the Find Duplicates function which will clean your collection of all the doubles you have added, no matter the folder in which they are placed. Also, the included search tool will let you find very fast what you are looking for. The user will have to choose one of the three criteria available (text, data and verification), and check where the word, phrase and expression should be looked for (names, descriptions, addresses, keywords or short names).
An interesting feature I have not met by now is Security. This option will allow the user to lock certain folders of the collection under a password. This way, privacy is preserved and nobody but you can view the items included in the directory. The countersign can be applied to each directory or to the entire collection.
Verification of the links is included in the list of options, so that the user can check on the availability of every link before accessing it. The verification will leave a mark that lets you know that the link is not broken and if accessed it will work just fine. If the links work, then they will have a green dot right in front of the favicon (favorite icon - website's icon). Some users may find seeing all the marks quite frustrating, so the developer included an option that will hide them.
As the application works with collections, they need to be stored somewhere on the hard drive after their creation. This way, you can perform a manual backup any time. Portable Bookmark is also able to create bookmarks of your collections and the appropriate function can be found in File menu.
From all the links you have added to your collection there must be some of them that stand out from the crowd and a simple priority assigning will just not do. The solution in this case is adding it to the favorites list. Favorites are regular links that can be named as the user sees fit (just like any other link in the collection). The difference is that they are not displayed in the link tree on the left; instead, they are placed right under the toolbar. Thus, you will have a much faster access to them and a single click will suffice to open it in the default browser.
The Good
The application offers a very good management of your bookmarks. Not to mention the search tool, duplicate bookmark finder and the security option available.
The interface is very intuitive and it almost makes the Help file useless. Portable Bookmarks offers you the possibility of opening a link in any of the web browsers installed on your computer.
Both the Drop Trap and the icon in system tray offer you almost all the possibilities as the program itself when activated.
The Bad
More sorting options in what concerns the order of the links in folders would be a plus for the application.
When you first launch Portable Bookmark you are warned that you cannot add more than 100 links in each collection. I thought that this was the only limitation available, but searching for duplicates proved to be impossible as it is also among the restrictions. However, as it is stipulated in the Limitations of the trial version chapter of the Help file, only after 30 days should this feature become unusable, together with "save" and "export".
My trial period has not expired, yet exporting and searching for duplicates do not work. "Save" function, on the other hand, works just fine.
The Truth
Very good application, but unfortunately some issues still have to be solved regarding the trial version. The user will not be able to fully test the application for the 30 days trial as it is stated by the developer. Other than this, everything is absolutely magnificent.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
