How Google Bookmarks (with Its New Lists Feature!) Might Just Become Your Only Bookmarking Tool

You’ve been there. Indeed, we have all been there. You know that on your home computer you have a specific site bookmarked. However, you’re not at your home computer and your brain can’t quite come up with the site’s URL.

To answer this problem, Google gives us Google Bookmarks. I’ve been using Google Bookmarks for quite some time, but if you’re not familiar with the service, here’s the quick and dirty version:

Google Bookmarks

The concept is simple – you bookmark a site, that mark is saved via your Google account and it is available to you anywhere. How you go about bookmarking the site is a bit different than you’re used to, however.

For instance, doing a search for The Next Web, we see these results –

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Clicking on the star to the right of the result will add the site to your Google Bookmarks. Users of Chrome and the Google Toolbar should be very familiar with this star method, and it is an easy adaptation for others as well. There is also a Bookmarklet available, for those who want a button to press while you’re on a site. As an aside, I recommend using the Google Toolbar, as it adds many more features and has increased accessibility.

Bookmark Lists

So now that you have your list of bookmarks going, let’s do the fun stuff. Keep using Google Bookmarks just as you have been using your regular bookmarks since you first used the Internet. But what we’ll do next puts the social spin onto an otherwise mundane collection.

Google’s newest feature for Bookmarks are Lists. Lists are exactly what you’d think – collections of bookmarks that relate to a subject. For me, I have a collection of bookmarks related to Drum & Bass music. I wanted to make this list available to anyone interested in the music so I made the list public. If you go into your Google Bookmarks, and search for drum & bass, you will likely find my list. I can also share this list with people by going to the Public button and then inviting them via email.

The feature that I’ve grown to love is the user interface of the Bookmarks page. The “+Add Stuff” button lets you begin typing in a URL or search, and Google will provide relevant results that you can add in whole or one by one.

So How Are Lists Going To Rock Your world?

Google suggests that Bookmark Lists would be valuable for researching purchases, organizing events or even planning trips. Lists will generally lift the most important content of a site to the forefront (maps to a local store, reviews of a product, etc). so once you’ve made your list, all of your information is not only in one place, it’s likely already showing you what you want to see.

Writing for The Next Web, I tend to follow quite a few different stories on any given day. Another way that I have found to use lists is to collect the sites that I use on any given day, and create a list of them. Once I have those lists, I can use search terms on them for reference at a later date. I can also add a list to another, making a master list for a specific subject.

How Do You Lists?

Google Bookmarks, and Lists. Use them, love them, then tell us how you’re using and loving them. Have an idea that you think would make Bookmarks or Lists better? Google wants to hear from you. Make sure you use the Send Feedback link at the top of your Bookmarks page.